8 Things I Love About Being An Autistic Woman

I don't know about about the rest of the autistic community but if I am completely honest - I am fed up.

I am sick up of our voices constantly being ignored when it comes to conversations about autism. Why do parents of autistic people, teachers and other trained professionals always think they know better than us about our own disability? It's exhausting having to repeatedly say how each autistic person is unique and how we all have different needs amongst other things. It also doesn't help that the media can portray us in such stereotypical and occasionally negative ways.

We are not burdens.
We do not need to be fixed.
We just want to be accepted and understood.

We are in need of some positivity and the best way I can do that right now is to share what I personally love about being autistic because the list is endless and most of all; I want others to truly see how brilliant it can be!

Autism From A Sibling's Perspective

I have said many times on this blog that if you want to learn more about autism you should talk to an autistic person and ask them questions which is one thing I will always stand by as our voices are very important. However this doesn't mean that gaining an insight into the disability through other people's eyes isn't needed - the more people talk about autistic people and their needs the better!

Because of this, I went to Twitter to ask if anyone who has an autistic sibling would be willing to share their experience so when Katie offered to help I was so relieved! I've followed Katie and her wonderful blog for a while now so I knew you would be in good hands with her.

A big thank you to Katie for taking the time to write this honest and insightful post about her brother Ryan and I hope you enjoy the read as much as I did!

Hey guys! I’m Katie from Katie Middleton and I blog about beauty and lifestyle. However, when I saw that Ali was looking for people to write about ASD or siblings with ASD, I couldn’t say no. Autism is very close to my heart as my brother has Autism. So I’m just going to give you a little insight on what it my experience was like growing up with a sibling who has autism. Everyone’s experiences are different so I am not saying that everyone will be the same as me or my family but this is what it was like for us! I hope this helps someone in some way – even if it’s not you personally but you know people going through a similar situation.

Why Autism Representation Matters in Literature

Representation and diversity are two words on everyone's lips in the book world. As a book blogger, writer and general book world lurker, I see these conversations go back and forth in the news, in events, on twitter. When will we see representations of X in literature? Can we do better than this singular example of X? These are incredibly important questions, particularly in the world of autism.

I'm one of the "Lost Generation". I got diagnosed as autistic at twenty eight, only six months ago. It's a strange thing discovering that you've been living your life not knowing a really quite fundamental thing about yourself. I had always felt like everyone else had an insight into the workings of society that I lacked, but I chalked that up to just being a bit weird, awkward, somewhat uncomfortable in my own skin.

Skip forward to my mid twenties, when a friend of mine got diagnosed after meeting another autistic woman. After reading into experiences of people raised-as-women, I realised I was autistic (I've written about this on the blog this week here). Recognising myself in other people was key to my diagnostic journey.

Receiving A Late Autism Diagnosis | Rebekah's Story

The average age that someone in the UK will receive an autism diagnosis at is just five years old, yet so many people are left waiting for answers for much longer. I finally received my diagnosis when I was seventeen, in September of 2015, and have since heard many stories of people in the same boat, having received a diagnosis far past the stage where it would be considered late.

I think a lot of people regard late autism diagnosis’ as a rare thing; something that you hear about occasionally, but that doesn’t happen to most people. There has been very little research into statistics with late diagnosis’, but from the interactions I have had with other autistic people since my own diagnosis, I can say for sure that this occurs more often than people think it does.

I would even go as far as to say that I am lucky in receiving my diagnosis when I did. Although I went through seventeen years before my diagnosis, and questions about myself that nobody could answer, I’ve heard stories from people who have had to wait much longer. Some people are waiting far into adulthood before they receive their diagnosis. Some people don’t even realise it’s a possibility until their own children are going through the diagnostic process themselves.

Answering Your Questions On Being Autisitic

To gain a better understanding of what it's like to be autistic, in most cases you're better off talking to those who are autistic themselves. You would think this is obvious but when you look up autism online the majority is either from a parent's perspective or from a medical point of view.

So where are all the pages written by autistic people?

Well they're definitely around *raises hand* but unfortunately our opinions seem to be at the back of the line when it's our voices that need to be listened to! Which is why I went to Twitter to ask what you wanted to know about autism from an autistic person and I'm here to answer them and share my experience.

Misconceptions about Autism

As much as Autism has become more widely understood over the past 50 years, there's still a number of misconceptions surrounding it and what's worse is that the majority of them are actually quite negative. With me having Aspergers myself I've encountered many of them both as a child and an adult which is why it's important to help raise awareness so more people can have a better understanding of the condition. This is the post where I debunk some of the misconceptions that deserve to be left in the past!

Did you know Autism affects more than 1 in 100 people in the UK?

Mental Health Awareness Week

Helloo Everyone,

I never thought I would ever mention this on my blog because I always wanted to keep it private but I want to be 10000% honest on here so you guys get to know the real me not just bits and bobs, plus it's Mental Health Awareness Week so it's perfect timing. I'm not ashamed of who I am and I'm very happy to do this post as it was my choice and mine alone however I am nervous so I apologise now if I may be sounding more odd than usual. Before I get started I just wanted to add that this isn't just about me; okay yeah I will be talking about my experience of course but I will also be talking about mental health as a whole so I can help raise awareness and hopefully get one step closer to stopping the stigma that mental health has!