I’ve written a few posts about stimming so far (1, 2). I frequently get messages and emails from readers asking after my recommendations for stim toys. Thankfully, the autistic kids of the millennial diagnostic wave are growing up, as is the neurodiversity movement, and we’ve been seeing a huge surge in the mainstream production of…
More than half the letters I get from my readers ask me for help with stimming—be it redirecting unsafe stims, ideas for healthy stimming, or developing sensory coping skills. I’ve decided to create a series of masterposts to serve as a kind of FAQ for these common issues! I’ll be adding onto these continuously over time,…
New York City has been exposure therapy for me in every way. When I first moved here, I took my hometown mentality with me. I was embarrassed of my stims, convinced other people would notice, stare, and ~think things~ about me. As though that mattered. But the city is essentially one big sensory violation. Eventually, I…
I had an epiphany the other night about disability. I was walking to meet my partner, Tom, at a restaurant. I could feel the familiar unease building; I’m much more anxious meeting someone at a destination than arriving with them. As always, I sent him a text message asking where he was sitting. I wanted…
In my previous article, Stimming 101, I wrote about autistic stimming as a normal and healthy aspect of autistic identity. While this is most often the case, I want to follow up with a slightly different article, because not all stims are created equal. Sometimes stimming is unhealthy or even dangerous. Parents, caregivers, and autistic…
I apologize for the recent lack of updates. Lately I’ve been working more hours at my job than I used to, and I still haven’t learned how to balance multiple projects at a time. I promise that I will eventually finish writing up my series on neurologically mixed relationships. For now, this shorter post on…
After several weeks of juggling various projects and generally bumbling the whole executive functioning thing, I’m finally getting around to transforming my presentation on neurologically mixed relationships into a series of blog posts. And I say posts, plural, for a few reasons. For one thing, my presentation was just over an hour long. No one…
I have an announcement! I am going to be giving a presentation on autism and romantic relationships at the Autism Spectrum Education Network’s spring conference this March. Date: Sunday, March 29, 2015 Time: 8:00 AM – 4:15 PM Location: Hotel Woodbridge at Metropark, 120 Wood Ave. South, Iselin, NJ (08830) The title of my talk is: Neurologically…
“That woman is irritating,” Cara says. “What?” I say. “Why?” “She can’t separate herself from her own knowledge[.] […] She keeps saying things like they’re obvious when they are not, in fact, obvious.” (—Veronica Roth, Allegiant) The inspiration for today’s post comes from… a novel I’m reading, believe it or not. I’ve finally gotten around to…
(Full credit goes to Luna Lindsey for the inspiration behind this title.) Merry Christmas (eve) everyone! And happy last night of Hanukkah. It’s not quite Kwanzaa yet, but happy Kwanzaa too. After living in Massachusetts for so long, I’ve been spoiled by the expectation of snow for Christmas. This year, I’m living in New York City,…
This post is an edited version of an email I sent to an autism mom I know who also works in the AS community. After I hit ‘send,’ I realized that this is a topic I wanted to address publicly, but had always struggled to write about. I often find it easier to write when…
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 If you’re at all familiar with the autism community, you’ve probably heard autistics referred to as either “high functioning“ or “low functioning.” In fact, it…
