Autistic and Living the Dream

Category: Mental Health

  • The New Normal audiobook review

    The New Normal audiobook review

    I have had the pleasure to listen to Emergent Divergence audiobook The New Normal: Autistic musings on the threat of a broken society. It is perhaps more poignant and powerful when listened to than simply read. The narrator Christopher Harper-Cox brings something to the reading with his deep resonance. The audio version brings to life…

  • My thoughts on BBC’s Inside Our Autistic Minds

    My thoughts on BBC’s Inside Our Autistic Minds

    Despite my initial worry, the first episode – and I’m hoping the ones that follow – show Autistic experiences, namely that of Chris Packham himself, Murray (a non-speaking Autistic man) and Flo, an Autistic woman who has been long term masking with everyone in her life…

  • Prosopagnosia – face blindness

    Prosopagnosia – face blindness

    Prosopagnosia  (face blindness) is the inability to recognise people’s faces. Some people with this neurodivergence cannot recognise family members, or even themselves in mirrors or photographs. Others can struggle with people with certain characteristics…

  • Trans and Autistic: Gate-keeping kills

    Trans and Autistic: Gate-keeping kills

    CW: transphobia, gate-keeping, ableism, mental health crisis, police brutality, murder. Lack of support and validation for trans Autistic children and adults can culminate in fatalities, such as the case of Kayden Clarke, an Autistic trans man who was murdered by police when they responded to his suicide call. Clarke had experienced gate-keeping throughout his transition,…

  • My reflections on our cancer service accessibility research

    My reflections on our cancer service accessibility research

    Earlier this week I did my  first session with a disability group for our cancer services access study (find out more about that here). Although I cannot share any of the people’s really powerful insights here I would like to share how I felt about the session. The start of the session was very ADHD…

  • Stories from across the “double rainbow”: trans and non-binary Autistic narratives [plain language summary]

    Stories from across the “double rainbow”: trans and non-binary Autistic narratives [plain language summary]

    In my research I spoke to 13 trans and / or non-binary Autistic people (people said to live under the double rainbow of neurodivergence and queerness). I wanted to know about their lives, what they thought about representation and their recommendations for double rainbow research. It was important for me to do this work as…

  • The truth about OCD

    The truth about OCD

    OCD and anxiety go hand-in-hand, so making our environments more accommodating definitely helps calm OCD. My behaviours and intrusive thoughts are much calmer and less active now I live in my own home and work part time (I understand the huge amount of privilege I have with both of these). I feel less burntout and…

  • My on and off relationship with writing

    My on and off relationship with writing

    Writing has always been a part of my life in one way or another, I used to write poetry and short stories when I was younger and then lost the joy for writing during college and when I went into full time work. I had no energy and the creativity was crushed from me anyways.…

  • I won’t apologise for my neurotype

    I won’t apologise for my neurotype

    I will apologise for things I’ve done wrong and I’ll do my best to grow and change with whatever new information I’ve been graced with. I don’t know everything, I’m not perfect and life is bloody hard. So I try not to be so hard on myself. There is one thing I absolutely will not…

  • Making “good choices”

    Making “good choices”

    In schools and educational settings across the UK, Neurodivergent children, including those with mental health conditions, are praised for “good choices” and punished for “bad choices.” This may seem effective on the surface but this idea puts the onus of ‘appropriate’ behaviours, reactionary and otherwise, on the child in question. This is harmful for several…