Instead of the individualistic perspective, mental health can only be understood in a way that is meaningful for humans at the level of a biocultural organism at human scale. The interactions between us have a direct impact on our nervous systems, cardiovascular systems, and digestive systems.
The neurodiversity movement is a human rights movement. No one and no organisation can genuinely claim to be supportive of the neurodiversity paradigm without committing to the political goals of the neurodiversity movement. There are no short cuts.
The cult of busyness undermines attempts at creating a shared understanding at a very basic level. In a hyper-competitive world the unexpected non-compliant Autistic behaviour is often misunderstood.
The timeless universal architecture of cultural and psychological safety boils down to awareness of the limits of human scale, and to de-powering all our relationships. Humans excel to collaborative niche construction as long as we stay within the safe limits of human scale.
Do you want real change? Within human societies Autistic people tend to be the amongst the first who point out toxic competitive behaviours. We live in a world where the cultural immune system of human society, i.e. Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent people are being systematically weakened, marginalised, and disabled.
The Autistic / ND whānau concept and Autistic / ND communities are important and essential building blocks of a new emerging reality. The social model of disability applies. We need to actively encourage environmental engineering, and we need to push back against toxic social expectations, and equip future generations of Autistic people with the tools and Autistic peer support that allow them to co-create healthy ecologies of care around them.
Join Autistic people from all over the world, committed to the de-stigmatisation of Autistic ways of being and other forms of neurodivergence, in support of the development and delivery of education about Autistic culture, the neurodiversity paradigm, and the neurodiversity movement – for medical professionals, by Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent people.
Discrimination against Autistic people is comparable to the level of discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people 50 years ago. In this environment, obtaining a diagnosis can be an invitation for potential abuse and exploitation.
Thriving Autistic / ND communities, that act as local centres of Autistic / ND culture, can only come into existence if we can imagine new kinds of collaborations between Autistic / ND whānau and the rest of society, and if we allow designs to emerge organically from the collective intelligence that exists amongst intersectionally marginalised people at ground level.
The need to be resilient is something that Autistic people unlearn over time. We need to learn to be gentle with ourselves. With the concept of Autistic whānau we are exploring new terrain and new possibilities. It’s something that we can incrementally weave into the Autistic collaborations that are already established.
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