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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…
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Autistic parenthood: screaming into the void
Nothing quite prepares you for parenthood, no matter how organised you are and how much the baby was planned. The late nights, the interrupted sleep, the constant feeding and nappy changing, and the emotions of it all! People have lots to say about how to look after a baby and how you’ll feel but its…
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Do all Autistic people have ‘special interests’?
We don’t all have special interests and that’s fine! Some Autists know everything about their favourite subject. Special / focused interests can be based around stats, dates, facts and figures. Special interests on history, people, places, animals can come with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the subject. My special interests are more complex because I’m…
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My relationship with OCD
Content warning: abuse, cPTSD, intrusive thoughts, self harm. I don’t talk about my OCD very often. Its a very difficult thing to talk about. It sounds both baffling, ridiculous and very scary, and that’s because it is. I have several intrusive thoughts, from one or two a day to near constant. I think about old…
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I wish I could dress like a boy
I have pretty intense sensory processing differences – I get mega tactile joy from soft, light materials and clothing which flows off me. And I hate stuffy, thick, clunky clothing. Tags in clothing make me want to scratch the skin off my body. I find it difficult to wear full length trousers as I don’t…
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Autistic inertia
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What’s spoons got to do with it?
Spoon theory is a metaphor used by people with chronic illness and / or neurodivergence. Spoon theory suggests that: * A person has roughly the same amount of energy each day – each unit of energy is represented by a spoon. This amount may be changed by previous activity or inactivity and can be changed…
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Why I struggle with demands
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“It’s only words” – yes, but words hold so much power!
Recently I engaged in a study about language around Autistic experience and it made me feel so emotional. When asked about words I really disliked, I replied: Impairment,Deficit,Disorder,Burden,Abnormal,Lack of,Challenges,Difficulty in, These words are disgusting! They make us Autistic people out to be problematic, weird and unsupportable. And these words are consistently seen in research and…
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Autistic listening: no eye contact please!
