An Autistic Burnout
The sad truth is that so many Autistic people, children and adults, go through autistic burnout with zero comprehension of what is happening to them, and with zero support from their friends and families.
The sad truth is that so many Autistic people, children and adults, go through autistic burnout with zero comprehension of what is happening to them, and with zero support from their friends and families.
ABA therapy training to adapt doesn’t in any way help us adapt—it forces us not to complain about the routine sensory punishment beatings we take because we are autistic and society is inflexible in its attitude.
It’s not okay to dismiss one autistic person’s lived experience as having nothing to do with “real” autism simply because you don’t understand what autism is like for them.
Hans Asperger was, most likely, a complicated and conflicted man who recognized the potential of “autistic intelligence” long before anyone else did, but who was willing to go along with his Nazi bosses even when Jewish storefronts were burning in front of his eyes.
Functioning labels do not always relate to people’s real skills and can be based on hurtful stereotypes about autistic people. They also assume that people’s skills cannot change over time.
Ellenby wrote in the first half of Autism Uncensored that she was Zack’s accommodation and he “rides” her. By the second half of the book it is becoming clear that she is riding Zack, using his autism for a social payout to herself.
Why does the media keep letting parents of autistic kids exploit those kids’ most vulnerable moments? Autistic writer Sarah Kurchak talks to her mom Jane about why such stories aren’t parents’ tales to tell, and why Jane will never write about raising Sarah.
We need more people to stand up and tell the world that exploiting your autistic child for “honesty” and profit is unacceptable, and that autistic people and their families deserve better than the constant barrage of misery and pain memoirs the publishing industry assumes to be our lot.
The Autistic unemployment rate is higher than the unemployment rate for all disabled Americans in general, and higher than the unemployment rate for non-Autistic Americans with developmental disabilities.
Everyone in my life knows that I’m transgender. Comparatively, very few people know about another major part of me: that I’m autistic.