Autistic and Living the Dream

Category: Autistic Joy

  • What is Autistic shielding?

    What is Autistic shielding?

    Autistic shielding is leaning into your neurological differences and behaviours. It is embracing neuro-anarchy: being who you are, doing what you do and bollocks if others don’t like it. Shielding for me is being aggressively Autistic and Attention Hyperactive and doing my OCD rituals and behaviours with no shame. Shielding is liberation; protecting myself by…

  • Autistic Pride: joy, pain and activism

    Autistic Pride: joy, pain and activism

    As I explored in What Pride Means to Me, pride is a confusing emotion. It is love for yourself, self care and appreciation. Pride is self love in the face of oppressive systems which constantly try to break us down. So what am I proud of today? I am proud to be a non-binary, neuroqueering,…

  • Why youth work gives me Autistic joy

    Why youth work gives me Autistic joy

    As a Neurodivergent and Disabled youth worker I learn so much from the Disabled kids I work with. I realised I was Autistic after doing home visits and writing kids paperwork which could have come straight from my own childhood – the anxiety, the need for sensory input, the inability to be quiet or sit…