Autistic and Living the Dream

Tag: Mental Health

  • What does the DSM say about autism?

    What does the DSM say about autism?

    CW: ableist terms and language, mention of mental health. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM) is published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and is used to classify cognitive differences. It covers many different neurotypes and mental health issues including schizophrenia, bi-polar, gender dysphoria, and autism. It is used across the USA…

  • Paranoia

    Paranoia

    Dark shadows follow me, leering, waiting for me to turn my back, Flashes across my eyes, there’s noone there, they’ve all gone. Only ghosts remain. They haunt me still, dead but never dying, in the corner of my eyes, in the corner of my bedroom, in my mind, they are everywhere. Seen and unseen. Invisibly…

  • Knocking over the gaslight

    Knocking over the gaslight

    Autistic people are constantly being gaslit by others, we are constantly being told what we think or feel is incorrect: “It’s not too loud” “It doesn’t hurt” “Don’t be so sensitive” Or we are made to feel like a burden when we no longer can eat our safe foods or same routines. From a young…

  • When living authentically isn’t safe: Autistic, trans and OCD

    When living authentically isn’t safe: Autistic, trans and OCD

    This is the transcript from my OCD Family Podcast: When living authentically isn’t safe. Listen to S1E30 Part IV here. Nicole: Whoa, welcome back to the OCD family podcast and I am just so excited to introduce our guest today Katie Munday, they are late diagnosed autistic person with OCD and ADHD. You can catch…

  • 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…

  • Fighting for the right to exist

    Fighting for the right to exist

    Advocating for yourself and others – in whatever way you do it – is one of the hardest jobs a person will ever do. We go about our everyday lives overly aware that we live within systems and societies which hate, fear and ignore us in equal measure. We fight against microaggressions and violence every…

  • Autistic Shielding: Being authentic is a privilege

    Autistic Shielding: Being authentic is a privilege

    Cw: racism, violence, murder, police brutality. Autistic Shielding is not a tool or headstate that we can all obtain in our current world. A lot of us fear being our authentic Autistic selves for many reasons. We can be vulnerable people due to our trusting nature and differences in reading social interactions. Add intersecting identities…

  • 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,…