It’s not a euphemism for disorder. The term “neurodiversity” is everywhere lately, and it’s being used in ways that appear to be progressive, but underneath, are really just the same old pathology paradigm re-packaged. Criticisms of its improper usage mostly focus on grammar — a person cannot be neurodiverse, that…

There’s a much better word for it than this… — The ongoing debate about the legitimacy of self-diagnosis vs. professional diagnosis is no doubt one worth having. I don’t believe it should be used to deny the validity of a person’s self-diagnosis, after all, not everyone is able to get a professional one, and even if you can, that professional…

You deserve to have a say in your own story. — Warning: Content addresses substance abuse. “How do you not identify with the bipolar narrative?” a friend joked, responding to a meme I’d posted about my two moods. Of course, this was a false binary for comedic effect. I have more than two moods, I just tend to feel everything intensely…

I spent a lot of time in chatrooms as a kid. As soon as we got a computer in the mid-90’s, I was obsessed with it. There were whole entire worlds in that box, and I could sit at the screen for hours exploring them. …

Two years ago, I had a mental health crisis. I had been depressed for a year, I had no idea why, and no matter what I did, it was only getting worse. When I began to reckon with my deteriorating mental health, I realized that I needed to embrace my…

The first time I went to a nightclub in Miami, I was fascinated. Here was this entire underworld of debauchery set to heavy bass, the kind that gets up in your rib cage and rattles all your insides. The songs all flowed into each other, pulling along a room roiling…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk just came out as having Asperger’s syndrome. Here’s a primer on the issues with that now-defunct disorder label. — On Saturday Night Live this week, Telsa CEO and Grimes’ paramour Elon Musk came out as having Asperger’s syndrome. During his opening monologue, Musk joked that he was the first-ever SNL host to have the disorder — or at least the first to admit to having it openly.

A (somewhat) brief history of autism’s most controversial archetype The Autism Mom is an infamous villain in the autistic community. We love to make fun of her, to write angry think pieces about her, to fight her on Twitter. We are outraged that she wants to cure or fix her…

CW: discussion of suicide Sometimes it feels inevitable with a brain like mine, stuck on a loop of worry and terrified of everything. Standing in line at the grocery store and hearing it all at once. But I have always been a great problem solver. When I realized I could…

Research keeps finding more similarities. “How do you know if you’re ADHD or autistic?” I get questions like this in my DM’s a lot. They are also questions I am trying to not worry about so much anymore, because I think the premise of these questions is flawed. They are…

This is the list you’ve been waiting for. — I’m a neurodivergent writer and happen to know a bunch of other neurodivergent writers, too. Here are the books that every neurodivergent reader (and ally) needs to know, in no particular order:

Feeling weird and not watching a movie tonight — Hey, Amazon Prime, no hard feelings, and I hope you understand. I know you don’t owe me anything, but I sure would appreciate a little empathy. Can you give me a second to explain? I don’t watch a lot of movies. I’m autistic and movies are hard. Part of my autism is an extreme sensitivity to visual stimulation. On a bad day when…

Think coming out as LGBTQ is hard? — I was six years old when the nun walked me across a sunny courtyard to meet a “nice lady.” The nun terrified me even though she was my first-grade teacher and even though she was always perfectly kind. School terrified me. It was new and different and NOT my bedroom…

Autistic Advice #1: A New Column by a Neurodiverse Psychologist — Welcome to Autistic Advice, a new, semi-regular column where I respond to questions about neurodiversity, Autism acceptance, and disability rights from Autistic people and their allies. For the past month or so, I’ve had a Curious Cat question box open, and have accepted questions from educators, parents, and Autistic people…

Autism advice from a neurodiverse psychologist — Welcome to Autistic Advice #2, a semi-regular column where I respond to questions about neurodiversity, Autism acceptance, and disability rights from Autistic people and their allies. You can anonymously send me questions via my Curious Cat askbox. Before we dive in, a bit about me: I am a 32-year-old Autistic…

Neurodiversity exists on a spectrum — so where do we draw the line? — Welcome to the third entry in Autistic Advice, a semi-regular column where I respond to questions about neurodiversity, Autism acceptance, and disability rights from Autistic people and their allies. You can anonymously send me questions via my Curious Cat askbox. Before we dive in, a bit about me: I am…

It’s hard being Autistic in a noisy and bright world — The lights in the courtyard are burning much brighter than before. Our building’s maintenance guy must have been told to switch them out. There have been problems with people smoking by the doors, leaving their cigarette butts in the grass overnight. Maybe the lights were changed in hopes of making…

It’s painful and exhausting to ‘mask’ Autism — but I have no other choice — Recently, I’ve become obsessed with the Instagram account MyAutisticPartner, which follows the lives of an allistic (that is, non-Autistic) man and his wife Boo, an Autistic nurse. …

Autism! It isn’t just for quiet boys who love trains! — I was a child in the 90’s, during the Asperger’s diagnosis boom. More and more kids were being identified as on the Autism spectrum. The checklists were getting to be well-known and more widely utilized, leading to more identification of something that had always been there. Some people mistook this…

On engineering a life that suits my neurotype. — I’m an Autistic person with a pretty put-together looking life. I always make rent. I have money socked away in savings and investments. I juggle several teaching jobs and do statistical and methodological consulting work. I sometimes find time to write. I have a social life. Except for the occasional…