Autistic Self-Reliance Support Network
My expertise
I am not an autism expert, I’m an AuDHD (Autistic + ADHD) PhD who’s spent decades experimenting on myself and analyzing my experiences as a private hobby. My formal expertise and academic work is on studying “them” — the general-to-specific neural processors, through the lenses of gender, sexuality, and myth. And I have some additional formal training in positive psychology. After realizing a lot of my questions and perspective were grounded in my own neurodivergent traits, I got formally diagnosed and spent more than 600 hours in 2022 researching ASD and reading/listening to other Autistic people talk about their experiences and insights, including completing the Autism from the Inside Online Summit. I’ve listed some of my favorite resources for self-education below.
"Autism Spectrum Difference: "A neurodevelopmental difference characterized by alterations in social functioning, hypersensitivity to stimuli, repetitive behaviors, and deep interests—often combined with advanced cognitive & perceptive abilities."
My experience
In summer 2022, I read a novel by a late-diagnosed Autistic woman (Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient) and realized that I was also Autistic. It wasn’t the first time I’d wondered, but it was the first time I’d come across an Autistic woman writing from own experience. After researching and realizing how little the medical profession understands the autistic neurotype in women (or in general), I went through a formal diagnostic process in the hopes of collaborative discovery. It was an unexpectedly traumatizing experience and motivated me to engage in self-advocacy for myself and others in the community. The playlist below contains videos I made documenting my diagnostic experience and any public events centering autism/ADHD that I’ve done since then.
My AuDHD experience
Autistic people's voices
Books
- The Kiss Quotient, The Bride Test, and The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang (novels)
- I think I might be Autistic by Cynthia Kim
- Autism in Heels by Jennifer Cook (formerly Jennifer Cook O’Toole)
- The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin
- I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder: A Memoir by Sarah Kurchak
- A Day With No Words by Tiffany Hammond (picture book)
- A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert (novel)
YouTube channels