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“I’m a little OCD” and other nonsense
Content warning: Intrusive thoughts, mention of HIV / AIDS, Sexual assault, death. I have often heard people say “I’m a little OCD” as in they like to keep things tidy, and that it bothers them if items aren’t where they’re supposed to be. It’s one of those microaggressions people don’t realise is harmful. It seriously…
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It’s not ok to not be ok
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Mental health crisis: Reaching out and checking in
Content warning: mental health struggles, mention of incarceration, death and estrangement. It is consistently suggested that people who are in mental health crisis need to ‘reach out’ for support. This is problematic as the onus of support and help is put on the person who is struggling, this individual must be able to have the…
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Learning to regulate my emotions
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OCD in one word
I’ve been trying to write some poetry around the words you all gave myself and Autistic Realms about your experiences of OCD. My rewording couldn’t do justice to the powerful words you shared with us, so I created this instead. The other work in the Autistic Dream Realms project can be found here and here.…
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Autistic parenthood: Living with mum guilt
Content note: transphobia, death, grief, mentions of assault and murder, trauma. I’ve been struggling with a lot of things lately and it all centres around being a mum and not feeling good enough for the job. My feelings of mum guilt is massive. I feel I’m not doing enough for Little Man. I feel guilty…
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The truth about ‘challenging behaviour’
Cw: bullying, mention of abuse, mental health, substance use and death. Challenging behaviour refers to a range of intense and frequent behaviours that threaten the quality of life and / or the physical safety of the person and those around them, behaviours can include aggression, verbal abuse and bullying (Imray, 2017). Challenging behaviour is socially…
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Where my OCD and Autism overlaps
It can be difficult to tell Autistic and OCD experiences apart! Some may wonder why this matters, but to manage OCD intrusive thoughts and compulsions it’s of utmost importance to understand how these two neurodivergences clash but also how they overlap. I have summarised my main experiences of being an Autistic OCDer: Autistic experiences:HyperfocusSensory differencesSocial…
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Autistic and OCD: left adrift
I started working with Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent and disabled young people when I was about 23. When I started doing home visits with families I kept thinking “I do that. I completely and utterly understand what you mean when you say something utterly outrageous, or what other people might see as peculiar.” And the…
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Unusual Medicines by David Gray-Hammond: book review
When I first heard that David Gray-Hammond was releasing a new book: Unusual medicine: Essays on Autistic identity and drug addiction, I knew it was going to be an important and affirming read. David’s previous writing is powerful and meaningful to me and many other Autistic people who have experienced addiction and substance use. …