Living Neurodivergent
Understand ASD beyond borders. And strategies to improve neurodivergent life that doesn’t involve masking.
As Greta Thunberg was named TIME’s Person of the Year, the conversation about autism and autistic people continues. If you have read my writing before, you may know that I’m also on the autistic spectrum; which is the term I always prefer using over ‘’a person with Asperger’s syndrome” or “I have ASD”.
I wholeheartedly believe being autistic simply means my brain works differently than the “norm” and there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t see autism as a disorder or a disability (speaking from a, for lack of a better word, “high-functioning” point of view); which also applies to other types of neurodivergence, e.g. dyslexia, ADHD, OCD, bipolar. I like my brain, and I don’t need to be cured. Some people in the autism community agree with me, and I know there are plenty who don’t.
As you could already tell, we’re not a monolith. Contrary to what many would believe, autistic people are not all geniuses and we don’t just exist when we are so. We also have challenges, different than most, but not unlike everyone else.
Somewhere in my teenage years, I suffered my first panic attack. By the time I was 18, I had attacks almost every day, resulting in a visit to…
