Covid is a large-scale traumatic event. Neurodivergent individuals are perhaps feeling these effects even stronger. But we can adapt and grow from this trauma.
Russell anticipated and prepared for the pandemic weeks before everyone else. Things were going well until anxiety dissolved his routine. His healthy eating, meditation, creative outlets, and even his hygiene were lost as he spent days at a time in bed.
The same traits that non-autistic people have pathologized in autistics are the ones neurotypicals need to adopt in order to make it through this pandemic while their needs are not being met.
Self-advocacy in any marginalized community is the driving force for broader social change. In the autistic community, advocacy has unique challenges.
Beginning when he was young, and throughout is life, John was told that he needed to change. This forced him to resent and feel ashamed of being autistic. Here’s how he found the soil to grow in the light of acceptance.
The world right now is uncertain, but the truth is that the world has always been uncertain. Our ability to cope with whatever life brings is centered in our own ability to engage in measured and healthy ways.
People assume that autistics will do well in quarantine and isolation, but it’s causing distress and suffering for many. Here’s how to support autistic loved ones through this international pandemic of COVID 19, or corona virus.
“We live in a world where both neurodivergent behaviours and addiction are seen as a moral failing. This makes opening up next-to-impossible without significant risk of negative repercussions.”
One day, she saw a curly hair among what was otherwise straight. And she plucked it. That was the start of years of pulling out her own hair and before her autism diagnosis.
Many parents and partners worry about the autistic loved ones in their lives spending too much time playing games… but gaming can be beneficial for lots of reasons.
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