I've been thinking a fair amount about the meanings of words since last night's #AutBurnout chat. One of the questions was about whether we use the term "special interests" or a different one. My response was: I prefer "focused" to "special" = focused interest, current focus, or current topic(s) of interest are all terms I … Continue reading Words & What They Mean – Perseverate vs Rhapsodize
autism
Requesting Support – Dentist Edition
One of the other things that occupied me last month, which I completely forgot to even mention in my Updating post was figuring out how to ask for some extra support at the dentist. To sum up a bit before delving into the whole story: I ended up writing an email. I'm putting the entire email I sent to … Continue reading Requesting Support – Dentist Edition
Flashback Friday – Evaluation Result Day
The morning of my final appointment, the one at which I would get my evaluation results, was a Friday morning very similar to this one. Ten weeks ago. Beforehand I wrote this (some strong and self-deprecating language) in my paper journal: What the fuck was I thinking? Today is the day. I don't see how there … Continue reading Flashback Friday – Evaluation Result Day
Reasonable Accommodations?
Rhi at Autnot recently wrote a wonderful post about the need for accessibility of autism services. Along with the parts about being terrible at contacting people and balancing energy, these sentences in particular resonated with me and made me want to cry because I felt so understood and that's been such a rare feeling for me throughout … Continue reading Reasonable Accommodations?
Truth, Emotions, and Potential Evaluation Outcomes
To prepare for my evaluation I had spent nearly two months searching through my memories, talking to people from my past, and writing things down. Mostly I was looking through the lens of likely being Autistic, but I was aware that there could potentially be another explanation that I hadn't considered or didn't know about. … Continue reading Truth, Emotions, and Potential Evaluation Outcomes
Preparing for My Evaluation
I've been somewhat putting off writing about my evaluation and the process of getting diagnosed. This is partly because I wanted to give some background about myself to start with and I've now done that. Also, the evaluation process ended up being much more difficult for me than I had anticipated and I needed to recover … Continue reading Preparing for My Evaluation
Going to the Dentist
I had a dentist appointment last week at which I got a temporary crown and cleaning. My jaw felt like someone had punched me for the first 2-3 days afterwards. The visit started off poorly from the beginning, with me forgetting to bring money and having to go back home for it. So, instead of … Continue reading Going to the Dentist
Flashback Friday – Inflection
I remember reading out loud to my parents when I was a toddler and preschooler. I remember being taught how to change my intonation depending on the punctuation and meaning of the sentence. I was specifically told to do this because it was boring to listen to words that all sounded the same in monotone. … Continue reading Flashback Friday – Inflection
My Children’s Role
Content warning: pregnancy loss/miscarriage, no explicit details given Having children played an instrumental role in my awareness of autism. Many parents discover that they're Autistic after a child or children are diagnosed, but in my case, the reverse was true. It was brought to my attention and I suspected it of myself before my child was diagnosed. … Continue reading My Children’s Role
One Person’s Twaddle is Another Person’s Roadmap
I grew up primarily reading classic literature. As someone who was hyperlexic and reading books at the age of 2 years old, I had many years during which to indulge my love of reading and my parents made certain that I primarily had older, quality representations of literature available to me. Unfortunately, my obsessive rereading of … Continue reading One Person’s Twaddle is Another Person’s Roadmap
Mamautistic 