Autistic Lived Experience: Re-Thinking the Reasons for Past Behaviors

• By: Sam Farmer Neurodiversity Advocate, Writer, Author, and Public Speaker
• July 9th, 2026
• autism research, autistic lived experience, internalized ableism, late autism identification, neurodiversity, rejection sensitivity, self-acceptance, sensory sensitivity, Summer 2026 Issue
• 873    0

A late autism identification has a tendency to change one's perspective on things. My own identification at age 40 is certainly a case in point. Many questions for which there were never satisfactory explanations, answered. A half-baked self-identity made whole. In essence, a newly discovered lens...

Autistic Personal Philosophy: Why Breaking Up the Autism Spectrum Would Be a Bad Idea

• By: Sam Farmer Neurodiversity Advocate, Writer, Author, and Public Speaker
• April 3rd, 2026
• care equity, identity, independence, masking, neurodiversity, social inclusion, Spring 2026 Issue, support needs
• 1876    4

Though the autism spectrum is as widely diversified as any group of people could possibly be, I view us as a single community. Any one segment of the population, however it may be defined, embodies both commonalities and differences, and ours is no exception. Every way in which diversity...

Autistic Lived Experience: My Government Is Waging War on Me and on My Community

• By: Sam Farmer Neurodiversity Advocate, Writer, Author, and Public Speaker
• July 9th, 2025
• ableism, actually autistic, advocacy, autistic lived experience, disability rights, discrimination, government, medical, neurodiversity, stigma, Summer 2025 Issue
• 3469    1

Not that there has ever been a good time to be autistic, considering how society has pathologized us for decades now because of our differences, though to be autistic and living today in the USA has been particularly punishing in light of the current administration's toxic rhetoric about us and...