By Charlotte aka The Spectrum Girl

Recently I left home to go on a health journey to Thailand in order to get away from the freezing cold temperatures of Norway and the increase of chronic pain connected with it.

In addition to being autistic/ADHD, I have hyper mobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which is a connective tissue disorder that affects my collagen which is in the ligaments and joints in the body. The biggest hint is already in the word 'connective tissue', so literally everything that keeps my body together is affected. I have good days and very bad days, but it can still be hard to express my level of pain even on my worst days because it's not something that you can really see but something only I can feel.

By Daniel M. Jones aka The Aspie World

Many Autistic people have major issues when it comes down to focus and concentration. This is mainly down to a co-occurring ADHD diagnosis, where there is a conflict between the autism brain and the ADHD brain. With Autism, the brain wants to hyperfocus on a specific topic or task and really get submerged into it. With ADHD, the brain wants to switch from task to task and be distracted constantly.

So how do we achieve actual focus and concentration within Autism and ADHD?

There are many medications that can help with this of course, however I do happen to test different hacks to try and see what works and what doesn’t. I have here the best of the ones I have tried that actually work and I hope this helps you!!

By Archer Rosenkrantz

When I was a kid, stimming was something that I had to hide. Stimming is repetitive motions that are often associated with autism. It’s a self soothing mechanism that autistic people use to self regulate and calm themselves down. When I was in kindergarten my parents started to worry about my constant repetitive motions and sounds that didn’t seem to stop. They took me to a doctor and that doctor diagnosed me with a tic disorder. Even though I exhibited many signs of autism I still went undiagnosed for a very long time. I was labeled by tons of other diagnoses to explain my behaviors. This isn’t unusual, because I was assigned female at birth. People assigned female at birth are criminally underdiagnosed when it comes to autism. Autism used to be thought of as a boy’s disease. Anyways, I was taught that my stimming was something that was wrong with me. It also seemed to bother those around me. I learned that the best way for me to fit in was to stop swimming.

By Daniel M. Jones aka The Aspie World

I was asked in January 2020 to brief the EU parliament in France on the current state of autistic employment. 

Let me say that I did just that and what I told them shocked them.

I started by telling the story of a friend of mine called Anna, an autistic female from the UK.

Anna wanted to find employment and applied for numerous jobs in the midlands of the UK, out of which she was accepted by 5 employers.

Once Anna started each one of these jobs and disclosed to them that she was on the autism spectrum, she eventually was “let go” from the company as the work had “dried up”.

By Charlotte aka The Spectrum Girl

Traveling is really exhausting for me as an autistic because of how it takes me much more time than it does for others to get used to changes in surroundings that occur when we travel. When the things I experience during a trip are among what exhausts me the most, it is quite ironic that I love to travel and experience new things and people so much.

That's why I've come to realize that a short weekend trip isn't always the most beneficial type of trip for me, especially if I'm going to a place I've never been before, it will just be a total waste of my time.

By Archer Rosenkrantz

I have found throughout my life that birds of a feather flock together. By that, I mean that people with autism tend to find one another before they even know the other is autistic. The same goes for LGBTQ+ people, and neurodivergent people in general. This is my own experience, and may not reflect the experience of other queer neurodivergents. I think my theory holds up in most cases. In loud social spaces, you might run into another neurodivergent person escaping the noise outside in the quiet alley. These miraculous happenstances can create the greatest of friendships; united by brain structure! 

By Sef Scatterbrain

Like many awkward and socially-avoidant autistic kids, I spent a good portion of my childhood observing the world at a distance. Through movies, TV series, advertisements, and countless hours of watching others' lives on social media, I began to form an idea of what my teens and early twenties were supposed to look like. I learned about important cultural milestones like your first time at a bar, going out clubbing or raving with friends in college, and a young adulthood full of concerts and shows. It seemed like these loud, crowded, boozy events were the perfect judgement-free settings for the social connection I so desperately craved. No matter how bad the loneliness or the bullying got as I was growing up, I reassured myself that I would be fine if I could just manage to make it through high school. I skipped school spirit assemblies, ate lunch in my car, and even chose not to walk at my graduation, all because I didn't feel comfortable around people, especially not in noisy crowds. 

By Archer Rosenkrantz

I’ve got SPD, which means Sensory Processing Disorder. This means that I am overly sensitive to all stimuli. It also means that I have a low pain tolerance, I am uncoordinated, I bump into things, and I have a hard time telling where my limbs are in space. “Clumsy,” “overdramatic,” and “attention seeking” are the words I was often called growing up because of this. I lived in a state of constant overstimulation. The lights in classrooms hurt, the noise of my classmates who were being too loud hurt, and I was “clumsy” enough to land myself multiple TBI’s (traumatic brain injuries). This is just the beginning of the choke hold that my autism had on my life, and all the trauma that came with it. Put your seatbelts on, this blog post might be intense. 

By Daniel M. Jones

Dating someone with autism can be difficult for people who are not educated that much on the autism spectrum.

It can also be difficult to date somebody with autism because of the varying degree in differences between Neurotypical and neurodivergent brains.

Here I’m outlining autism dating tips and dating problems to help you with your dating needs.

There are many ways to improve and maintain a healthy relationship, be it romantic or platonic.

But a lot of autistic people find it challenging to be in a long term romantic relationship.

Here are some awesome ideas and tips from my proven way of living on the spectrum and having a successful romantic relationship.

The main thing is love language, which Is a type of communication that the person you are in a relationship with responds best to. 

By Jersey Noah

It's so funny to me when I post something online about how much I love weed and people respond like, "hey, not cool. I can't smoke weed and you're out here publicizing that everyone should smoke."

Lol. Why does me smoking weed have anything to do with you not smoking weed? Do whatever the heck you want and I will, too.

I really do not care if other people do or do not consume weed and I'm not quite sure why anyone would care. The whole point of body AUTONOMY is that we get to make our own choices and fulfill our own needs; it's the basic idea that we know what is best for ourselves, it's about what we do with and put into our bodies (and minds). Body autonomy is about freedom of identity and presentation (i.e. transitioning genders socially and/or medically), reclaiming words and names that have been used to hurt us as empowered parts of ourselves (i.e. identifying with terms like f@g). Body autonomy is about our right to self diagnose and not be forced to rely on the psychological industrial complex to define our mental health. Body autonomy is about our medical access, choices, needs and desires being fulfilled despite anyone else's opinions of our process.

By Charlotte aka @thespectrumgirl

As an autistic with ADHD, I have a different way of learning things. I have a delayed processing of things that I learn, and sometimes people may find it annoying to hang out with me or to work with me because it may seem like I’m lazy or stupid and I don’t understand anything.

Because of this a lot of people never bother checking to see if I’ve actually understood and registered what was talked about before wrapping up a meeting or social situation, either at school, work or among peers. 

By Archer Rosenkrantz

When I was a kid, I was different. It’s probably the autism. The things I was interested in and the things I wanted didn’t make sense to most people. I wanted three things the most: video games, a reptile, and a job. Looking back, my need for engaging in underpaid labor seems weird, but heck, getting a job was so much fun. I didn’t have many friends in high school, and I spent most of my time inside and outside of school alone. A job sounded stimulating, engaging, and interesting. My first job found me because of my autism, and I’m so grateful for that. I think most of my jobs find me because of my autism. Who woulda thought?

Near my highschool there was a laser tag arena in construction, and I spotted it right after I turned 16. I wanted to see so badly what the arena might look like that I dragged a begrudging friend over to help lift me up so I could look into the windows. I peered inside, catching glimpses of laser tag in the works.  “Can I help you?” said a man behind us. We screamed, and I was dropped on my back in front of the person who would soon be my first boss. 

As I have gotten older, I have been unmasking more and more. I’m not talking about masking for covid of course. I’m Talking about Masking my autism. Masking autism means trying to act like everyone else, and hide who you really are in order to live life. Basically, It’s pretending to be someone that you are not.

Not everyone in the autism community has the ability to mask. People who say this have higher support needs. I Have low support needs. Meaning that my autism doesn’t affect me to the point where I can’t be independent. I can talk, drive, have relationships, work a full time job (which has Its challenges, But I will get to that later).Basically, I don’t need a whole lot of help to live my life. A High support needs autistic has needs that need to be helped with, hence “High Support Needs”. There have been many High support needs autistics that have said that masking is a privilege. I can understand why they would say this. But, as someone who has HAD to mask for a good portion of their life, I can say with confidence that it isn’t. Masking has taken a big toll on my mental health. In fact, masking is actually a response to trauma.

By Sef Scatterbrain

Even if I don't always feel like I know how to talk to people, I still wanna kiss 'em! For me and many other disabled folks, meeting people online is a LOT more accessible than trying to connect with strangers in-person, so I've never had less than two different dating apps installed on my phone, even if I was only looking for friends. Over the years, I've dated people across the spectrum of gender, sexuality, and disability, I've dated people my age, people a little younger and a little older, people from my hometown and people from the other side of the world, and believe it or not, I've even dated extroverts. Some first dates have been great, some terrible, and many of them awkward, so I'm hoping that I learned the hard way so others don't have to. 

Here are some things I wish I knew before I started dating.

By Daniel M. Jones aka The Aspie World

Lots of Autistic adults are at a higher risk of having co-occuring mental health issues.

It is stated that over 70% of autistic individuals will experience mental health problems including depression and other motivation issues.

This comes as no surprise as more than 30% of autistic people have co-occuring conditions like dyspraxia dyslexia and ADHD among other health conditions.

What is interesting is the relationship between autism and depression.

Not depression is quite a scary word when you hear it it allows you to think about things that are dark and scary and also quite upsetting because depression can lead to some quite difficult life challenges and other difficulties and this is not so positive.

By Jersey Noah

My boyfriend is inside my house working, I'm sitting outside playing on my phone.

He walks out the back door, "are you smoking a joint?" I was, in fact, smoking a joint.

He walked toward me, his brown eyes glimmered in a ray of sunshine, "can I join you?"

I feel relief in my chest from anxiety I didn't know I was having. I like smoking in the sunshine with my favorite people.

My boyfriend has a fancy job. I do things like this, write random blog posts, post memes, take naked photos of myself for my only fans (you know, the typical 9 to 5). I'm a ball of chaos, he's a ball of chaos; our chaos is so different and yet, it's so complementary.

By Archer Rosenkrantz

Important Note: Autism is as much of a shared experience between autistics as it is a deeply personal one. It’s almost like a jacket. It is going to fit differently on each person, look different, and people might wear it in various ways. For this reason, when I speak about autism, you are learning about my personal autism experience, not the experience of all autistics. 

Special Interest: Intense fixation on a specific topic that lasts a long time or even an entire lifetime. A symptom of autism spectrum disorder.

Special interests are one of the most important aspects of my autism. My unique, personal passions that shine as special interests carve out who I am in the world. My life revolves around these incredible fascinations, as they help regulate my body and mind. They are my safe place, and the place where my brain lights up with serotonin. My special interests, light a fire within my heart, the tendrils of flame igniting every aspect of my life. They are the lens in which I view the world. My special interests feel like joy in every capacity.

By Cory Singer

Can you hear me? Being autistic without a doubt has many challenges. One of the biggest challenges that I face as an autistic person are sensory issues. Now what is a sensory issue or challenge?  Autistic People face sensory challenges on different levels with sound, taste, touch or texture and even smell.  Now allists also experience sensitivity to different things but not on the same level that we do. It is next level sensitivity that can sometimes lead to meltdowns. 

I am going to start with sound sensory issues. Let’s say for example you are in a restaurant and you are autistic. Guests are speaking, people are sitting down, getting up, waiters are taking orders, there is a lot going on around you that is to be expected.  But as an autistic, I only hear the clinking of plates and silverware and the sound of people chewing their food.  It makes me nauseous and the sounds are extremely loud to me. I get agitated to the extent that people have shared how they feel when there are nails scratching a chalkboard.  I can be sitting next to someone who is or is not autistic and these sounds will not bother them.