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What Neurodiversity Means to This Late-Identified Autistic Adult
I lived the first 40 years of my life as an autistic individual who didn’t know it yet. In a sense, lost because I lacked a complete picture of who I was. Confused because I faced too many questions as to why I was contending with challenges that were foreign to just about all of my peers, which...
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Just Because We Can Mask Doesn’t Mean We Don’t Need Support as Autistic Adults
We spend a lot of time in the Autism community focused on children and how to support their needs. I admit this is the focus of my career, but we sometimes forget that autistic children become autistic adults. And while progress is often made as autistic people age and mature, there will often...
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Are Therapy and Accommodations Sufficient for Autism Empowerment?
Please note: The terms Aspie, ASD/Neurodivergent, and Autistics will be used to refer to people with Autism. A quick Google search for “supporting” or “empowering” Autistic people brings up pages recounting our impairments and suggested accommodations in education and employment. In the...
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Mask of Your Own Face – Experiences with Masking as an Autistic Adult
Imagine for a moment that you are a kid. As far as you’re aware, you’re like every other kid, but as you go throughout your childhood and adolescence, people start pointing out parts of you that seem a bit…off. Maybe your interests are strange or inappropriate; maybe the way you talk and move...
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Advocating for the Overlooked Needs of Autistic Individuals in the US Criminal Justice System
Over the past 7-15 years, many forensic/clinical professionals working in the US criminal justice system recognize the need for significant change within the US criminal justice system for autistic individuals to be treated humanely and with dignity. “Recently, a diverse team of autistics, family...
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How to Get Unstuck After Receiving an Adult Autism Diagnosis
When I was diagnosed ASD level 1 at age 42 and realized what the staggering number of undiagnosed autistic women my age* must be, my first thought was of all the untapped talent that was out there in the world like misplaced dynamite. There was world-changing potential just waiting to be...
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Why Didn’t My Pre-Diagnosis Clinicians Bring Up the Possibility of Autism?
So much was lost as a result of not knowing for so long. Lost happiness, because of having to contend with unanswered questions as to why I faced such daunting challenges which none of my peers seemed to be facing. Lost time, during which I lived without a complete picture of who I truly am, during...
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Challenges in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Older Autistic Women
Autism has a unique neurological structure with a wide variety of expressions. This diversity of strengths, challenges, and experiences is why autism is considered a spectrum disorder. It’s also what makes it challenging to diagnose and treat because the myriad of symptoms manifested in any given...
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Late-Diagnosed Autism and Camouflaging in People Assigned Female at Birth
It is becoming increasingly understood that there are marked differences in autism between genders. This has led to people assigned female at birth (AFAB) to being diagnosed in adolescence or adulthood at a higher rate compared to people assigned male at birth (AMAB) (Wood-Downie et al., 2020). I...
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This is What Autistiphobia Looks Like: Why Autistic Advocacy Matters
The Researcher A lot of people do not like Autistic people. Which is a common topic in Autistic spaces. But many allistics who want to advocate with us, as allies, stop talking to me when I mention attitudinal barriers to accessibility. Or else they find creative ways to avoid the...
