Emotional Landscape

For most of the last 20 years I have been medicated. Over time, as my diagnosis has evolved so too has the pharmacological treatment strategy. In my early twenties I was depressed do I used various antidepressants as long as I could tolerate them, which wasn’t very long because the side effects were horrendous. When …

Terminology

In this blog, there are lots of words and acronyms that come up quite frequently. Rather than explain them individually in each post, I will keep a running list of words and phrases here with their definitions. Please note this list will be published unfinished and I will continually add to it over time. If …

Masking, Burnout & Brain Fog

When talking to Autistic people the term masking comes up a lot. Masking essentially the process of adapting one’s affect to suit societal norms. The thing about masking is that everyone does it. However, for most people the extent of their masking is to smile at the boss they don’t like and don’t swear at …

Why Can’t I Speak Up For Myself?

There’s a particular scenario that has played out in my life hundreds of times and always gets me into trouble. I know it occurs and I know when it’s occurring but I still feel helpless to stop it. For a long time I always thought it was just me. But now after speaking with many …

Autism & Empathy

Neuropsychologists often remark that Autistic people are incapable of empathy. However many Autistic people find this deeply offensive and claim it to be untrue. I'll admit that for a long time I was one of those people although eventually once I started researching the topic I started to realise the truth in the statement.Part of …

The struggle of being high functioning

As an autistic person who is "High Functioning" I often feel like life would be simpler, easier if I was lower functioning. Speaking to other people on the spectrum I know I'm not alone in this sentiment. It's not to say I wish I was lower functioning, but there would definitely be some elements that …

A Sense of Chaos

Sometimes when I'm describing my sensory issues to NTs I feel like I'm trying to describe colour to a blind person. It's like there's something I'm sensing that they cannot. And without the common vocabulary to describe that sense, I can't communicate what I'm experiencing. At the same time whenever I talk to other autistic …

COVID19, Lockdown & Autism

So I'm writing this article living in Melbourne at the beginning of our stage 4 restrictions, which occurred as a result of our second wave blooming out of control. I'm not going to get into any political discussion here, although I do have strong political views on this. What I want to do here is …

Paranoia, Delusions and Selective Mutism

I have recently discovered that I have an autistic symptom that I never knew about. Selective Mutism. This is the inability to speak at certain times. These are often times of stress, or when the person is emotional. For me the experience is quite weird and presents in a strange way which is why it …

A Compass With Only One Bearing

Of all the factors that effect an autistic person's ability to function in the social sphere, one of most difficult to deal with is the lack of appropriate feedback through all social situations. While for children there may be some more feedback, for adults there's usually very little. There's no feedback when we do something …