Happy discount chocolate day! These are my thoughts about my lovely autistic friends and how much I value their friendships. In some ways it's a love letter, but more than that it's full of gratitude and other deep feelings that I cannot quite label with emotion names right now. Maybe someday 🙂 Spending time with other … Continue reading My Autistic Friends
diagnosis
Autistic Disclosure
Telling people I'm autistic is something that I've definitely gotten better at doing since last August when I received my official diagnosis. I've been extremely open about being autistic in my local writing community and haven't hesitated to tell people who know me well in real life aside from a few family members whom I … Continue reading Autistic Disclosure
When the Unexpected Happens at the Dentist
CW: Dental work discussed in passing after the first paragraph. Medical professional belittling a patient mentioned briefly, as well. Sometimes the unexpected is enough to cause a complete melt down or shut down. Other times, it can be okay. It seems to primarily depend on how unknown the unexpected event is to me, how it's handled by … Continue reading When the Unexpected Happens at the Dentist
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
Briefly, Regarding Labels
There have been some excellent posts lately on the issue of labels in general and the label "Autistic" specifically. You can find my two current  favorites here and here, as well as my previous post where I discuss labels. Then, this morning I was reminded by this Tumblr post (I'm not sure how to embed it here, … Continue reading Briefly, Regarding Labels
I’m Not a Failure
This is the third, and shortest, excerpt from what I wrote the evening after finishing Aspergirls. Reading that book had given me a lot to think about regarding my past. It both validated my perspective/memories and gave me a great deal of hope for my future: I guess I thought that everyone else was like me but that I … Continue reading I’m Not a Failure
Mamautistic 