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From Stigma to Acceptance: Insights from a Concerned Autistic Self-Advocate
My imagination often transports me into the thick of relatively grandiose situations. These episodes provide needed opportunities for release. In my mind, I sometimes have it out with my opponent during a presidential debate and winning, giving my acceptance speech after having won some...
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The Role of Mental Health Support in Autism Care: Breaking Free of the Patterns of This World
As a mental health professional, I have had the incredible privilege of counseling individuals with Autism for over a decade. I have had the opportunity to witness and be a part of the beautiful journey that occurs when someone who received a diagnostic label of Autism Spectrum Disorder learns to...
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Autistic Lived Experience: Life Magazine Labeled Me “A Bright Child Who Can’t Learn”
In April 2023, it was my distinct privilege to be invited to The Center School in Somerset, NJ, the special needs school where it all began for me as a Kindergartener back in the mid '70s, to give an author talk about my book A Long Walk Down a Winding Road. I felt as though I had triumphantly come...
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Rights and Challenges for Autistic People with Communication Disabilities in the Legal System
Police should be the last resort.... I shouldn’t have to call the police if my son is having a meltdown. When I get up in the morning, I say, “Thank God he’s not dead,” and “Thank God I’m not dead.” - Kerima Çevik, activist and parent of a nonspeaking autistic son (Sokol,...
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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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I Was Finally Diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism, Now What?
I suspected I was on the Autism Spectrum for over 20 years before I finally received a diagnosis. Like many people with high-functioning autism, my autism went unnoticed because I was intelligent enough to succeed in school and my autistic traits were not seen as neurodivergent, but as learning...
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Autism and the Troubling Risk of Suicide
This article has information about suicide and suicide prevention. For help 24/7, please call or text the U.S. Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Few people used to think about the risk of suicide among people on the autism spectrum. Researchers rarely studied it. Primary care doctors did not...
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Intimate Relationship Failures From an Autistic Perspective
The standard narrative positions autism as the cause of relationship trouble when a non-autistic person dates or falls in love with an autistic person. The autistic partner is assumed to be the disruptive or difficult one. Self-help books offer non-autistic partners tips on how to cope with their...
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An Autistic’s Vision for Lasting and Successful Workplace Neurodiversity
Consider Dan Burger, a gifted and autistic computer science student at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. In spite of the challenges he faced along his journey through school and into the workforce, Burger's exceptional abilities at visual problem-solving and dealing with large amounts of data...
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Identity Language: In Service of a More Inclusive Workplace
As diversity and inclusion initiatives grow in popularity, it is important to consider how they contribute to shaping workplace attitudes. Programs that do not take current developments happening in the communities being serviced into account will come across as outdated at best, and harmful at...
