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Category: Autistic Adults

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Post-COVID Transition Anxiety and Autistic Burnout

Post-COVID Transition Anxiety and Autistic Burnout

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For more than a year now, we’ve been dealing with the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic.  This has had a devastating impact, both in general and in particular on many disabled people. Most obviously, COVID-19 has killed millions of people worldwide, and neurodivergent communities have been disproportionately impacted.  The death toll among people with intellectual disabilities in residential group homes and institutional settings has been catastrophically high.  Unfortunately, discrimination against neurodivergent people – again, particularly people with intellectual disabilities…

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A photograph depicting a large crowd of young people at an event featuring displays by different vendors at tables.
Networking and Planning Careers

Networking and Planning Careers

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Have you heard the term “hidden curriculum” before?  It refers to everything that is not explicitly taught in a place of learning. One important part of the hidden curriculum in a university – the setting where people are getting an education in preparation for undertaking a professional career – is how to actually go about getting a career.  Universities teach people academic information – facts, theories, and so forth.  Information about how the world works.  We don’t really discuss how…

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A Tale of Discrimination

A Tale of Discrimination

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This is a bit of a departure from what I usually do with this blog, but I was contacted recently by an autistic person who was forbidden from pursuing an interest in aviation because of an autism diagnosis. I find this to be an outrageous case of discrimination. Now, obviously not everyone is going to be suited to flying planes. I certainly don’t think it would be my cup of tea. But a blanket ban on anyone from a particular…

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Get Early Job Experience

Get Early Job Experience

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Jobs are pretty important.  Obviously, we live in an economic system that happens to value “productive” labour – i.e., work done in jobs.  We get paid for jobs.  Through jobs, we also get something to do with our days and a way to be satisfied with ourselves, a way to feel that we are contributing to society. (I personally don’t think productive labour should be so closely tied to our self-worth and the way society values us – I don’t…

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Practical Executive Functions

Practical Executive Functions

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Lately, I’ve been devoting a lot of thought to the question of how we can best conceptualize executive functions with an eye towards the real world: towards practical concerns like strategies and interventions that can help us to improve our time management skills. I’ve heard some autistic people arguing that we shouldn’t be trying to force anyone who struggles with executive functions and organization to improve through effort and force of will.  Instead, the argument goes, we should provide accommodations…

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Stages of Social Practice

Stages of Social Practice

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I’ve previously written a post about the need to learn social skills through practice until they become automatic.  I recently had some very interesting conversations with two other autistic graduate students, both of whom research autism, in which I was able to refine some of my thinking about this topic. Furthermore, I’ve realized that my previous post didn’t address the important concern that deliberate attempts to look more neurotypical – to “camouflage” our autistic selves – might adversely affect our…

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Mental Health and Adult Outcomes

Mental Health and Adult Outcomes

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Today, the community of autistic adults is in a state of crisis.  Many of us are unemployed.  Moreover, those of us who do have jobs tend to have marginal, precarious experiences of employment: we are often hired in under-paying jobs for which we are probably over-qualified, and many of us go from one such job to another in a continuous, revolving door.  Many of us are only able to secure part-time work. Nor are our challenges limited to the domain…

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Do We Spend Enough Time Thinking About Independence?

Do We Spend Enough Time Thinking About Independence?

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Sometimes, the things we don’t talk about can be very revealing. I’ve previously written about my fear that many autistic people are becoming dependent on supports and failing to surpass the low expectations that others have of us.  While this usually doesn’t cause too many problems in childhood, it can be disastrous in adulthood.  Not only does the adult transition take autistic people into new and unfamiliar environments, with greater demands, but our society strips away most supports just as…

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The Need for Adult Diagnostic Services

The Need for Adult Diagnostic Services

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After my recent, somewhat abstract and theoretical post on neurodiversity, I thought it might be a good time to turn to something a little more practical.  I think it’s about time I wrote a post I should have written long ago: a rant about the expensive, inaccessible, disorganized, uncoordinated, under-capacity, and generally grossly inadequate system for diagnosing autistic adults. I hear that jurisdictions in the UK are moving to make obtaining a diagnosis is a relatively accessible process.  But across…

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Rational Paranoia

Rational Paranoia

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Dealing with autistic adults and adolescents can sometimes be difficult.  I know many of us can be quick to take offense, even where none was intended – which is rather curious when you think about it, because autistic children tend to start out being socially naïve.  At some point, these naïve children can become nervous, reactive adults.  Why is that?  It seems kind of like a transformation from one extreme to the opposite extreme. Well, the problem with naïveté is…

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