Newly Diagnosed ASD Shame: I’m Not Really Autistic, Right?
I am ashamed of my recent adult autism diagnosis. Either I am a fraud or autism is too inclusive. But I long for greater authenticity.
I am ashamed of my recent adult autism diagnosis. Either I am a fraud or autism is too inclusive. But I long for greater authenticity.
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.
The degree of my social awareness makes me feel “too good” to be autistic. I now recognize this as a prejudice against the neurodivergent, a prejudice that unconsciously imposes shame on myself, but which I am making an effort to change.
If you have an autistic partner, parent, child, or grandparent, you eventually start noticing autistic traits in others… and yourself. It is a genetic neurotype, after all.
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.
If neurodiversity is the natural variation of cognition, motivations, and patterns of behaviour within the human species, then what role do autistic traits in particular play within human cultures and what cultural evolutionary pressures have allowed autistic traits to persist over hundreds of thousands of years?
If you’re finding lockdown and quarantine are contributing to an increase in your use of drugs, alcohol, or other unhealthy coping mechanisms, these steps might help you to find some healthier ways to navigate difficult times.
It also means that the past year has made it clear to me that what our movement needs is space where everyone, regardless of opinion, is welcome, in which the decisions of the community at large are represented (not just the decisions of autistic people who have leadership positions).
The way society regards autistics is explored through a political analogy where accommodations for autistics are based on the conservative value of assimilation instead of the progressive value of a cultural mosaic.
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.
I am ashamed of my recent adult autism diagnosis. Either I am a fraud or autism is too inclusive. But I long for greater authenticity.
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.
The degree of my social awareness makes me feel “too good” to be autistic. I now recognize this as a prejudice against the neurodivergent, a prejudice that unconsciously imposes shame on myself, but which I am making an effort to change.
If you have an autistic partner, parent, child, or grandparent, you eventually start noticing autistic traits in others… and yourself. It is a genetic neurotype, after all.
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.
If neurodiversity is the natural variation of cognition, motivations, and patterns of behaviour within the human species, then what role do autistic traits in particular play within human cultures and what cultural evolutionary pressures have allowed autistic traits to persist over hundreds of thousands of years?
If you’re finding lockdown and quarantine are contributing to an increase in your use of drugs, alcohol, or other unhealthy coping mechanisms, these steps might help you to find some healthier ways to navigate difficult times.
It also means that the past year has made it clear to me that what our movement needs is space where everyone, regardless of opinion, is welcome, in which the decisions of the community at large are represented (not just the decisions of autistic people who have leadership positions).
The way society regards autistics is explored through a political analogy where accommodations for autistics are based on the conservative value of assimilation instead of the progressive value of a cultural mosaic.
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.
I am ashamed of my recent adult autism diagnosis. Either I am a fraud or autism is too inclusive. But I long for greater authenticity.
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.
The degree of my social awareness makes me feel “too good” to be autistic. I now recognize this as a prejudice against the neurodivergent, a prejudice that unconsciously imposes shame on myself, but which I am making an effort to change.
If you have an autistic partner, parent, child, or grandparent, you eventually start noticing autistic traits in others… and yourself. It is a genetic neurotype, after all.
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.
If neurodiversity is the natural variation of cognition, motivations, and patterns of behaviour within the human species, then what role do autistic traits in particular play within human cultures and what cultural evolutionary pressures have allowed autistic traits to persist over hundreds of thousands of years?
If you’re finding lockdown and quarantine are contributing to an increase in your use of drugs, alcohol, or other unhealthy coping mechanisms, these steps might help you to find some healthier ways to navigate difficult times.
It also means that the past year has made it clear to me that what our movement needs is space where everyone, regardless of opinion, is welcome, in which the decisions of the community at large are represented (not just the decisions of autistic people who have leadership positions).
The way society regards autistics is explored through a political analogy where accommodations for autistics are based on the conservative value of assimilation instead of the progressive value of a cultural mosaic.
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.
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