You are not alone. Many teens who receive an autism diagnosis feel broken, and suffer from pain of acceptance — even to the point of suicidal thoughts. And the resources you need are not easy to find. So we asked several adult autistics who were once autistic teens themselves: If you were in this headspace, how would you feel, what would you want people to say to you, what could possibly help? These are their replies. Karla Fisher I was angry the day I received my diagnosis. At first it just made me feel “broken.” People tried to tell me that I was the same person I was before. But those words did not make me feel better. Reaching “acceptance” of my label took me around eighteen months. There is very little written about this process that pertains to autistic people as our emotions do not neatly lineup in the…
Tag: Carol Greenburg
Carol Greenburg www.thinkingautismguide.com The author and Stephen Shore Evidence-based information and spirited civil debate abounded at IMFAR 2012. Though I thought we all could have benefited from more power outlets in the breakout rooms, I had some terrific conversations with other attendees — some autistic, some not. I found the formal presentations a bit uneven (I confess the eye-roll Shannon Des Roches Rosa so kindly and repeatedly brought to TPGA readers’ attention happened during several panels). I found a few presentations maddening. One example was Karen Solomon’s talk on Autism and Friendship that seemed to boil down to a not-so-revolutionary point that autistic people are interested in making friends. Is the mythology about our anti-social nature really so deep-rooted, even among people who have met autistics, that it was necessary for attendees to fly in from all over the world for scientific verification? At times like these I skulked in…
Can’t make IMFAR? Don’t worry, four of our TPGA editors are covering the International Meeting for Autism Research in Toronto, Canada, from Wednesday May 16 through Saturday May 19. Reporting starts with today ‘s 11 AM ET press conference (assuming Shannon & Jen make their flight, which has been delayed, eep — stand by). Panel & presentation coverage will be posted here www.thinkingautismguide.com, via Twitter, and of course on the TPGA Facebook page. Follow us on Twitter at @thinkingautism, @jennyalice, @aspieadvocate, @ejwillingham and @shannonrosa. And if you’re at IMFAR, you can also buy our books at the Autism Science Foundation table — 100% of sales benefit the ASF. If you see one of us, say hi! Science devotees out!
We’re featuring “Slice of Life” conversations with Autistics of all ages — kids through adults — throughout April’s Autism Acceptance Month. Our goal is to help TPGA readers understand that autistic people are people who have interesting, complicated lives and who are as diverse and varied as any other population united by a label. We are the people in each other’s neighborhoods, and the more we know about each other — the more visible autistic people and children are — the more common autism acceptance will be. That is our hope. Today we’re talking with rapier-witted TPGA editor Carol Greenburg, who among her many talents gets every Star Trek references we lob at her. Do you have a website? My company’s website is www.nyspecialneedsconsulting.com What would you like a one-sentence description of yourself to say? Tiny, powerful and a trip and a half. (You can tell I’m autistic because I…
Carol Greenburg, Shannon Des Roches Rosa, and Jennifer Byde Myers www.ThinkingAutismGuide.com Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism editors Carol, Shannon, and Jennifer recently attended an event celebrating the work of Kate Winslet. Kate has a new autism awareness and fundraising book coming out next month called The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism. We were told the book is meant to shine “a light on a world very few people understand […] about people with profound autism and the challenges they and their families face every day, as well as all the ‘beautiful potential’ of people with autism.” The event was hosted by Ladies’ Home Journal, and featured Margret Ericsdottir, whose son Keli is the inspiration for The Golden Hat Foundation. (Kate is currently on the cover of LHJ, talking about how she was inspired to create The Golden Hat book and foundation with Margret; Margret is the foundation’s President and…
Kathi Flynn tips4specialkids.com If you are responsible for a child who has behavioral outbursts, you’re likely looking for ways to reduce both the behaviors and their intensity. As a behavior specialist, I have learned many reactive strategies that help to reduce existing behaviors. Though it’s critical in such scenarios to find the functions of the behaviors by conducting a Functional Behavior Analysis and setting up a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)1, here are five strategies/consequences to try in the heat of the moment: Ignore the Behavior Do not verbalize the behavior that is happening. If a child is doing something dangerous to himself or others, you obviously have to intervene, but you still do not have to draw attention to the actual behavior. This strategy only works if you know that your child is doing this behavior to get attention, even if the attention is negative. You don’t want to reinforce…
Carol Greenburg aspieadvocate-ascd.blogspot.com I feel sorry for those who think autistics have no ability to empathize. In my case at least, Asperger’s left me too vulnerable to the emotions of others. When I was a little girl, I smiled until my face hurt. I was nowhere near as delighted as the constant smile seemed to indicate, but I was not miserable either. The unrelenting smile was, I now believe, the product of rigid autistic thinking, which had led me to a false conclusion that like everything else in my world, there was a correct and incorrect path. Blocks must be stacked in a certain formation, every imaginable question had right and wrong answers. By that admittedly skewed, reasoning, the same principal must have applied to emotion. There was one correct emotion: happiness, which was always expressed with a smile. Other emotions existed, that was irrefutable. Whatever other explanation could there…
Carol Greenburg aspieadvocate-ascd.blogspot.com I could have kicked myself for not getting the name of the wonderful New York City police officer who pulled me over the other night. I’m a safe driver for the most part, but Asperger’s sometimes interferes with my perceptions whether I’m standing still or navigating a dark road. It was rainy, I was distracted, and if I can’t even read body language … Well, I was as I so often am, stumped. Even at my best it’s sometimes unclear to me why people honk their horns at me, so when the cop driving behind me started waving his hands I didn’t know if wanted me to get out of his way or whether he was trying to pull me over. Turns out it was the latter. I know this because he used his loudspeaker to announce to all of SoHo that I was to put my car…
I met Carol Greenburg last summer at the BlogHer conference in New York. Her confidence, humor, and commentary made her instantly appealing, but her kindness, fierce intelligence, and advocacy skills make knowing her both a luxury and a necessity. She is the executive director of Brooklyn Special Needs Consulting, and serves as the East Coast Regional Director of the Autism Women’s Network. She joined the Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism’s editorial board in January, where she adds her depth of knowledge as an advocate, parent of a special needs child, and an adult on the spectrum. ~Jennifer I’ve joked with you before that you really “have it all.” You’re an adult with Asperger’s syndrome, the mother of an autistic child, and an advocate in the autism community. Do you have trouble switching hats? Do you compartmentalize? I try to compartmentalize. I think that’s the only way to really do it.…
Carol Greenburg aspieadvocate-ascd.blogspot.com Please forgive the delay in my addressing the horrors of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan, which are linked to me in ways that will become obvious as you read this essay. I’m diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a type of autism. Although I am verbal and can express myself in writing, one difficulty I have is gaining enough control over strong emotions to communicate them constructively. Like many Aspies, another difficulty for me is obsessiveness. Autism experts call this perseveration which is one of those pathologizing terms used to describe a quality they’d call persistence in non-autistic folks. I’m used to perseverating and hearing myself described as obsessive. Nothing new there. The topic of my hyper-focus in these past two weeks, however, is new to me: I can’t stop thinking about George Takei. George Takei and I actually go way back, though we’ve never met. I used to edit…