Neurodistinct™

Jude Morrow shares his experience of being autistic from the lens of his childhood. Amazing insight into the real life experience of being autistic.

I've had long conversations with Jude. His ability to tell of his lived experience of autism in a way that is easy to relate to is incredible. While he does clearly explain how you can be a hero to an autistic child, an even bigger message is that being autistic is normal for us, not something to be squashed out of us.

If schools, providers, and parents all took the approach Jude recommends we would see a huge reduction in the employment challenges us autistics face. Building autistic adults who can function in the adult world starts by building confidence in what we can do well. Instead the medical community and well meaning, but misguided, neurotypical created and run community say we need to eliminate as many of these differences as we can so the child can have a normal life. Jude does an amazing job explaining that our...

A wonderful guest post by Tas Kronby. Check out their Bio at the end of the post.

Trigger Warning: fictional description of a medical appointment, mention of hospitalization, mistreatment by mental professionals, mention of mental health diagnosis terms ie. anxiety, suicidal ideations, depression. Discussion of autism and the lack of awareness in the medical field.

Imagine for a moment you walk into a doctors office seeking medical attention for pain in your shoulder. You stand in line, check in, and the nurse takes you back to the exam room. You sit down on the cold examination table and they begin to ask questions. Health questions, maybe some small talk here and there. Finally, it happens. The moment of dread hits you when they ask, "What is your diagnosis?"

Why is this so terrifying? Often,  the lack of awareness from physicians and other healthcare professionals leads to problematic treatments, lack of treatments, or even being invalidated because you have a...