Mental Health Therapy and the Autistic Client: When Clinicians Don’t See the Autism (It’s All the Autism)
When Clinicians Attribute All Psychiatric Symptomatology to the Autism Autistic people find their way to therapy when symptoms of depression, anxiety, OCD and other diagnoses become problematic to them in their daily lives. When a client has been previously diagnosed with autism it is common for mental health clinicians to attribute all psychiatric symptomatology to the autism, which often results in autistics not being diagnosed or treated for comorbid mental illnesses when warranted. As clinicians we need to understand the autistic operating system – in other words, to see the autism – if we are to be helpful to
Autism and Processing Social Information
My autistic neurology means that I am not good at picking up typical social cues, understanding complex social situations, automatically picking up meanings of idioms, or understanding the hidden curriculum that most others automatically pick up (Endow 2012). This means I often look naïve and gullible. The fact is I AM naïve and gullible when I try to use the social constructs of neuromajority folks to navigate the world around me. When I was younger and deemed “in need of help” that “help” largely involved others trying to teach me to think and act as if I had a
Autism and Stubbornness
I am an autistic woman. Most of my life people have let me know they think I am stubborn and controlling. Over time I have learned to hide the behaviors so people do not think I am stubborn and controlling. I understand you view my stubbornness as a bad thing so I have learned to hide it. Today I would like you to consider that what you label as stubborn and controlling is often a solution to help us manage our anxiety and fear. Whenever we have a fearful or anxious moment – and those moments tend to
Outsmarting the Hard of Autism to Attend Live Theater
I love musicals and other live theater performances. About five years ago I googled the name of the performing arts theater in my town along with “season tickets” and was delighted to discover the possibility for a whole new adventure! My friend Marilyn and her adult son Jimmy (who also likes musicals and has autism) decided they would like to do this too. Each year I am the person who sends out the information on shows and orders the tickets for all three of us. Along the way we had to outsmart the hard of our autism and figure out
New information about IL-6 protein’s role in development of neurological disorders
A UT Dallas study is revealing new information about a key protein's role in the development of epilepsy, autism and other neurological disorders. This work could one day lead to new treatments for the conditions. Dr. Marco Atzori, associate professor in
