...a bright thread...
“I see people with Asperger’s syndrome as a bright thread in the rich tapestry of life.”
~ Tony Attwood
...differences in cognitive functioning...
“The concept of neurodiversity provides a paradigm shift in how we think about mental functioning. Instead of regarding large portions of the American public as suffering from deficit, disease, or dysfunction in their mental processing, neurodiversity suggests that we instead speak about differences in cognitive functioning."
~ Dr. Thomas Armstrong
...the imagined child...
“By separating the autism from the person, are we encouraging our patients’ family members to love an imagined nonautistic child that was never born, forgetting about the real person who exists in front of us."
~ Christina Nicolaidis, A Physician Speaks
...the first stone spears...
"Who do you think made the first stone spears? The Asperger guy. If you were to get rid of all the autism genetics, there would be no more Silicon Valley."
~ Temple Grandin
...you experience their autism mildly...
[So-called] Mild autism doesn’t mean one experiences autism mildly… It means YOU experience their autism mildy. You may not know how hard they’ve had to work to get to the level they are."
~ Adam Walton
Autism Acceptance Month: Executive Function - The Silent Burden
This week's post is a topic that hits very close to home for me, as it has only recently come to my attention: Executive Function. This is a very difficult subject for a lot of people on the spectrum, especially women, as it turns out, because issues with executive function are perhaps the least "glamorous" part of being autistic. For many of us, it is a source of shame, myself included, because these seem the simplest and most commonplace of human functions. So why do we have so much trouble with them?
What is Executive Function?
In brief, executive function is the administrative assistant part of your brain. It regulates organization, memory, and even emotions to some degree, with a little bit of drive to get things done. Executive function is the part that makes sure you get up on time, groom yourself, complete tasks in a timely fashion, don't have wild emotional swings, and all around stay motivated and productive.
What Does It Have To Do With Autism?
A lot, in point of fact. Diagnostic criteria lists impaired executive functions as one of the markers of someone on the spectrum. How this manifests in each individual may be vague, but the difficulty it causes for Autists (yet another moniker for someone on the spectrum) is no less real.
...the world was made up of words...
“Years before doctors informed me of my high-functioning autism and the disconnect it causes between person and language, I had to figure out the world as best I could. I was a misfit. The world was made up of words. But I thought and felt and sometimes dreamed in a private language of numbers."
~ Daniel Tammett
...the difference between high-functioning and low-functioning...
“The difference between high-functioning autism and low-functioning is that high-functioning means your deficits are ignored, and low-functioning means your assets are ignored."
~ Laura Tisoncik
...looking back and reframing life...
“To find out you are autistic is quite a realization to have in your teens, but in your 40s or 50s it means you have to look back at your whole life and reframe everything; every incident, every moment, with this new lens to look through. It's like getting glasses after spending your whole life near-sighted. Obviously, the longer you've gone without the diagnosis the more work you have to do in looking back. And in some cases, the more damage to your spirit, psyche, and relationships you have to undo.”
~ Rudy Simone, Aspergirls
...real but not obvious...
“This is the crux of AS--our challenges are very real but not always obvious to others. Therefore our behavior is not understood.”
~ Rudy Simone, Aspergirls
...a true authority on the subject...
“Counselors, psychologists, doctors, and educators are trying their level best to get their collective heads around Asperger's, and offer valuable therapies and tools we can use. They have a bit more catching up to do where female AS is concerned. If you are an Aspergirl, you are a true authority on the subject.”
~ Rudy Simone, Aspergirls
...self-taught...
“Most of the Aspergirls I interviewed were self-taught readers and many had similar experiences with maths, music, and design.”
~ Rudy Simone, Aspergirls
Autism Acceptance Month: 'Smile' - Autism & Feminism
I've been an autistic feminist since birth. Sounds a bit hyperbolic, doesn't it? After all, one can't make decisions about their philosophical ideologies as an infant, and you'd be right to be skeptical of anything said by anyone who really believed they had. No, what I mean is that I was part of a feminist household. My mother is a feminist, and she raised me with the ethics and philosophies of feminism. Long before I knew what philosophy was, or that feminism had a political presence, I believed that everyone is, and should be perceived as, equal, despite any differences, real or imagined. Today, I proudly state myself to be a feminist.
Likewise, while I didn't know growing up that I am autistic, I was already expressing myself as an autistic person. I tended to be tomboyish, not in a sports way, but in a climbing trees and collecting rocks kind of way. I generally disliked wearing skirts and dresses, preferring comfortable pants and overalls which had pockets to put random weird shit into that I found on the ground. I was fascinated by science, especially astronomy. I had numerous special interests. I had food sensitivities that sometimes resulted in dramatic scenes (I recall an incident with a macaroni and bean salad). I had a lisp, which I viciously corrected on my own. I became so stressed in middle school, that I got ulcers, and generally suffered from other stomach issues. I was rather solitary. I didn't have a lot of friends. And I had the distinct sense that I was different. The list goes on. But I had no idea that some of the things I experienced could turn out to be a link between autism and feminism.
...a subculture within a subculture...
“Women on the spectrum are a subculture within a subculture. We have many of the same quirks, challenges, habits, traits and outlooks as men, but with our own twist. It is not so much that Asperger syndrome (AS) presents differently in girls and women, but that it is perceived differently, and therefore is often not recognized.”
~ Rudy Simone, Aspergirls
...we are not puzzle pieces...
“…autistic people are people: they’re not puzzle pieces or baffling enigmas or medical mysteries to be solved or ‘normal’ people ‘trapped’ in the bodies of autistics or any of that crap that infects so many portrayals of autistic people in both the clinical literature and the popular media. At the same time, I think it’s equally important to celebrate the differences between autistic people and typical people, and to recognize the need for accommodating autism as a significant disability…”
~ Steve Silberman, an Interview with Steve Silberman author of Neurotribes.
...our duty is...
“Our duty in autism is not to cure but to relieve suffering and to maximize each person's potential.”
~ John Elder Robison
...how my brain works...
“I view ‘autistic’ as a word for a part of how my brain works, not for a narrow set of behaviors and certainly not for a set of boundaries of a stereotype that I have to stay inside.”
~ Amanda Baggs
...a difference to be worked with...
“Autism is really more of a difference to be worked with rather than a monolithic enemy that needs to be slain or destroyed.”
~ Stephen Shore, PhD
...what is abundant...
“Think of it: a disability is usually defined in terms of what is missing. … But autism … is as much about what is abundant as what is missing, an over-expression of the very traits that make our species unique.”
~ Paul Collins, Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism
...we aren't boys...
“When doctors, parents, teachers, therapists, even television describe typical spectrum kids, without meaning to, they’re describing typically male spectrum traits — patterns first noticed by observing boys. Only boys. And we aren’t boys. So they miss and mislabel us.”
~Jennifer O’Toole, Asperkids
...the ones that don't fit...
“The most interesting people you’ll find are ones that don’t fit into your average cardboard box. They’ll make what they need, they’ll make their own boxes.”
~Dr. Temple Grandin
Autism Acceptance Month: My Story: How Autism Is Making Me Brave
I've slowly been coming out of the autistic "closet" for some months now. This is a real thing, if you didn't know, and it highlights one of the major issues of being autistic, particularly, as it turns out, for women.
Talking about my diagnosis has been difficult, due to various amounts of backlash in my life. But I passed my 5-year anniversary last year, and, while I didn't think I'd put a time limit on getting loud and proud (if that's what you can call it) about my Autism, the timing just feels right.
Maybe that's part of the problem, you know? Because I've been able to "pass" for so long, to hide under a guise of quirky neurotypicality, and many of my fellow Autistics haven't. I get to choose when the world "knows" about me, at a time when Autistics are speaking out for themselves louder than ever. I get to ride on that tide of "we're not going to take this shit anymore" activism, without necessarily having put in the hardcore work they have. And I feel guilty about that.
I feel guilty about a lot of things. It's kinda my go-to. Guilt has become my holy war. But that's a post for another time.
...an awe-filled vision of the world...
“Autism offers a chance for us to glimpse an awe-filled vision of the world that might otherwise pass us by.”
~ Dr. Colin Zimbleman, Ph.D.
...individuality in autism...
“If you’ve met one individual with autism, you’ve met one individual with autism.”
~Stephen Shore
Autism Acceptance Month: 10 Autism Myths That Need to Be Retired
April is Autism Acceptance Month, a time used to educate people about autism in hopes of fostering greater understanding and advocacy. If you have heard of this observed "holiday" but know it by the title Autism "Awareness" Month, you are not alone. It has only been recently that this has changed. This has a lot to do with the myths that pervade autism and the lives of autistic people. But times they definitely are a-changing.
A Quick & Utterly Incomplete History
In the past, Autism education was, sadly, tantamount to spreading fear...fear of what autism is, where it comes from, how it was ruining our society, and how to eliminate it from the population. This shouldn't really come as a surprise. The majority of the population did not know that autism exists until well into the 1990s. I certainly didn't.
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