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Navigating Health as an Autistic Picky Eater
Like most, if not virtually all autistics, I lived with a variety of sensory sensitivities my entire life. As a child, I was extremely averse to certain visual stimuli (particularly camera flashes), specific kinds of sounds, and the motion of an elevator. Luckily, these subsided as I got older. Two...
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Embracing Disability as Key to Autistic Well-Being
Accepting ourselves as disabled people is key to autistic well-being. Far from defeatist, identifying as disabled is empowering. When we understand ourselves as disabled, anxiety goes down, and self-esteem goes up. For a long time, I compared myself to non-autistic people, and they seemed to...
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Preventing the Hidden Burnout Crisis in Autistic Women and Girls
One of the most heart-wrenching things I realized as a late-identified Autistic woman was just how disconnected I was from my true self. Decades of masking, of becoming a professional-level chameleon, left me feeling like I didn't even know who "me" was anymore. It was this constant, buzzing,...
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Why Don’t Autistic Women Get Diagnosed, and Why Is It So Important?
I’ve diagnosed unrecognized autistic women for ten years and worked with them in therapy. These women are often successfully employed and married or with partners. They might have children and be involved in working with schools on their children’s behalf. Some might have struggled in jobs or...
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Finding Independence and Advocacy: A Journey Through Autism and Self-Direction (2021-2025)
As a young, happy baby about to become a toddler, my family noticed I was not progressing as a normal toddler would, so they took me for a psychological evaluation at 20 months. At that evaluation, I was officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Ever since then, life has been an...
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The Role of Virtual Reality in Autism Therapy: Recent Advancements
Over the years, technology has improved to create a more immersive environment for users. One more popular trend in technology is the use of virtual reality (VR). Although typically used for gaming purposes, professionals have also found ways to utilize VR for therapeutic purposes. Initially, VR...
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Autistic Lived Experience: Compromised by Neuropsychological Malpractice
If the world were a rightly ordered place, then this story takes a very different turn than it did. Looking back on how it unfolded, the wrong that was committed against me, as hurtful as it was, is not surprising, considering all I have learned since then about the prevailing narrative around...
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The Gulf Coast Burnout Queen
Ten years ago, we began to sense that women on the spectrum had largely gone unnoticed and, therefore, undiagnosed to degrees that might actually be beyond our imagination. It was like waking up to find out that the nightmare was real. Thanks to the cultural realities of gender expectation,...
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Breaking My 33-Year Silence: Living with Autism and Finding Acceptance
As we celebrate World Autism Awareness/Acceptance Day, I feel compelled to share a story I have kept private for thirty-three years—not just to raise awareness but to advocate for a world that respects neurodiversity. For most of my life, I have witnessed others define autism from the outside...
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The Neurodiverse Connections of the Harry Potter World
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books and the film saga have received widespread acclaim from millions of fans around the world, as the magical world of Hogwarts not only captured the imagination of a generation of young readers but has also inspired many activists who found parallels between the...
