quackademicFinding a way to understand ourselves as different, not broken, changes Everything. There are so many of us.
One of the hardest things about raising a neurodivergent child is that the approved strategies for behaviour management Just Don’t Work.
When you, the parent, are undiagnosed, unsupported & still in denial & shame about your own lifelong neurodivergence the obvious conclusion is ‘it’s like this because I am bad & broken & inadequate & I may as well die’.
From the inside, the experience of being a child like this, or a parent like this, is living with constant, extreme terror. Self loathing & suicidal ideation become part of the daily air we breathe.
My kids are adults now but I still hold this terror in my body. Every day.
The way to understand these kids’ extreme behaviours is to LISTEN TO US. Please.
#neurodivergence #PDA #ProfoundDesireForAutonomy #AutisticElders #trauma
Pathological Demand Avoidance, a little-known profile of autism affecting kids and adults
A surge of professional and personal interest in Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), an autism subtype — which in children can affect everything from cleaning teeth to attending school — has led to Australia's first-ever PDA conference, to be held in Perth in November.
⁂ Panda | 서판다My colleague Marion Hersh joined Doug Blecher on his #Autism Stories podcast to recount the history of our #CalmSpaces project - by and for #AutisticElders -, the importance of the sensory environment and also her other project about recommender systems for #blind, partially sighted and #Autistic people.
#Podcast
https://www.autismpersonalcoach.com/autismstories/episode/2cf93776/autism-stories-marion-hersh
Calm Spaces website & forum
https://calmspaces.org
#ActuallyAutistic #neurodivergent #AutisticElder #AutisticOver50 @actuallyautistic
kazé@pathfinder @actuallyautistic
Remarkable. Thanks for writing it down so clearly.
Mary Starbuck@janisf not had chance to watch this yet. I've seen some people using #AutisticElders. It would be great if there was more understanding.
'Older Autistic People, Access and Experiences of Services, and the Factors That Affect This' has been published at https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/11/1535
It is our 1st published paper as part of a research for and by older #ActuallyAutistic We've created http://calmspaces.org to review how spaces & services in the UK cater to older Autists. We've also launched a forum exclusive to #AutisticElders.
If you are a 50+ year old Autist you're welcome to register on the website, visit the forum, post reviews...
Older Autistic People, Access and Experiences of Services, and the Factors That Affect This
This paper presents new empirical data obtained from interviews and focus groups on older (50 and over) autistic people’s experiences of accessing a variety of services. The involvement of older autistic people and giving voice to their experiences was central to all aspects of the research process. This work makes a significant contribution to the scarce literature on older autistic people. In particular, it discusses the factors that act as barriers and enablers to the access to and productive use of services, the strategies used by participants to manage and improve their experiences, and the success of these strategies. It shows older autistic people as autonomous adults and active protagonists in their own lives, taking action to overcome the barriers they experience to accessing services on the same terms as everyone else, but that lack of understanding and support from service providers and the general public can undermine their strategies. Finally, this work provides a series of recommendations for service providers to improve (older) autistic people’s service access and experiences.
Johnny Profane ÂûI'm 90% to being a Luddite too. Terribly misunderstood movement.
Not exactly anti-tech. Just believed technology should change at a comfortable human pace.
You know. There are #AutisticElders for a reason. Humans evolved to support life after child bearing years to support and spread generational knowledge.
Not to be past our Best By Date by age 30.
KellyannArticle on #autistic women and #menopause
https://www.inspirethemind.org/post/surviving-the-storm-autism-menopause-and-mental-health
Surviving the storm: Autism, menopause, and mental health
When perimenopause hit, it triggered a perfect storm, which led to me discovering I was Autistic, aged 58. After my autism diagnosis, I was cast adrift with some leaflets and a reading list. Over the next six years, I learned how to thrive Autistically. Getting involved in research has been an important part of this journey.I am finally stepping into who I fully am (look out for our paper which will be published in the International Journal of Disability and Social Justice soon). Bridging the
Stephen Gutknecht#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #AutisticElders
I think this is an important understanding for autistic people.
The impact of #SensoryOverload may not be immediate. I found I would go to concerts and such on weekend and be mostly OK until several days later. Or having a hostile argument with live-in girlfriend / spouse would impact me days later.
"Your Brain Changes Based on What You Did Two Weeks Ago | A workout or restless night from two weeks ago could still be affecting you—positively or negatively—today."
https://www.newsweek.com/brain-changes-neuroscience-exercise-sleep-health-two-weeks-1965107
#Autism #AutisticAdults #AutisticElders
Within the autism community, there is an avoidance of talking about differences between nations and cultures.
1939 Germany attitude towards what I call "firmware differences' in the human brain, learned and acquired ( #LearnedAndAquired ) spoken/written languages and family religions (which are learned and acquired just like languages at home).
Mob Mentality took over in Germany and the Holocaust was putting to death people who had different learned and acquired mental differences.
Those with genetic mind or body differences were also part of the Holocaust.
When street gangs start attacking and killing each other over which color clothes people wear that's the same sort of thing to me.
Autistic people aren't just targeted in casual normalized bullying and shunning... it can become mob mentality systemic and part of organized war efforts, entire social changes.
In autism, the psychology psychiatry profession ignores these big social changes and treats only individual people for their problems. A doctor is not trained to measure the difference of Germany 1939 and Germany 1959. They are only trained and held accountable to how they treat diagnose individual people.
