Autistic and Living the Dream

Tag: Neuroqueer

  • Attention hyperactivity: ditching the ‘disorder’ and ‘deficit’

    Attention hyperactivity: ditching the ‘disorder’ and ‘deficit’

    I only recently came to the conclusion that I am ADHD. There are so many reasons why this has only occurred to me at the blessed age of 31, and most of them are due to word usage. Attention deficit: I only experience a deficit of attention when something is particularly boring! I am noinattentive…

  • What Pride means to me

    What Pride means to me

    Queer pride is a difficult one for those of us who feel things differently. Do I know what pride feels like? Probably not, not in a way I could explain anyways. Feeling and showing pride as an alexithymic person is difficult (read Alexithymia and interoception: what the Hell is going on!?). Pride, and other feelings,…

  • I wish I could dress like a boy

    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…

  • Doing gender the Autistic way

    Doing gender the Autistic way

    Gender is tricky – it is reliant on the complex interweaving of cultural and social factors, including race, class and disability – for many Autistic people this means our gender is inextricable from our neurology (see Autigender: is autism and gender entwined?). Gender norms are influenced by culturally specific expectations, attitudes and norms, modelled to…