SYA? was invited to speak at the Kent Autistic Pride 2019. Chloe gave a short talk about how SYA? supports autistic students to foster a sense of pride, where pride means not hiding who you are in the safe space Chloe and Annette provide in their structured progamme.  Chloe was struggling with burnout from writing... Continue Reading →

The following definitions and descriptions of autistic experience are from autistic researchers, vloggers/bloggers, self-advocates, and the autistic community. If you want the non-autistic definitions, the outsider-looking-in definitions, see the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders V (DSMV) and/or the International Classification of Diseases 11 (ICD11) or the National Autistic Society here - be warned that... Continue Reading →

The following slide show exhibits student appliques - positive words or phrases students came up with about them being autistic, sewn on to fabric. In one of our later sessions students are given the opportunity to come up with positive words or phrases they feel represent them and how they now feel about being autistic. These... Continue Reading →

Where to go for all things Autistic - starter guide - PDF versionDownload

Hello, I am Chloe, I am a 35-year-old autistic woman. I am also a PhD student, an autistic consultant, a girlfriend, a sister, a daughter, and an aunty. Compare this with: Hello, I am a person called Chloe, I am a person who has lived for 35 years. I am a person with femaleness and... Continue Reading →

Deciding whether to get a diagnosis of autism is a personal choice.  For some autistics it's important to have it on paper, to be "official" in some capacity. For others, it's enough to "self-diagnose". Chloe and Annette both have official diagnoses, but have come to consider themselves discovered autistics, not diagnosed, as the assessment and... Continue Reading →

[PICTURE CREDIT] Sometimes as autistics we're not sure how we feel/find it hard to articulate emotions, not because we don't feel them, but because they can be "too big". When people ask me how I (Chloe) feel I often answer "small" - which my partner always replies with "that's not a feeling". But to me... Continue Reading →

[Picture credit] Many of us apologise for everything, almost saying "I'm sorry" for our very existences.  We need to be able to strike a balance between saying sorry for something because we truly should - "I stepped on your foot? I'm sorry" - and apologising for breathing.  For instance, why should you be sorry because... Continue Reading →

Why seek a diagnosis? Pros and Cons The decision to seek a diagnosis is a personal choice. It may help you feel validated because “you definitely are autistic” if you have a diagnosis. However, bear in mind you may also find it difficult to get a referral, or if assessed get a diagnosis, if the people who refer... Continue Reading →

[Featured picture credit] This is a brief blog and resources working in tandem with the session on the intersectionality between autism, & the fluidity of gender & sexual preference.  Gender and sexual diversity on the spectrum Simplistically, there is a large proportion of autistics who identify in a way other than their biological sex (i.e.... Continue Reading →

NOTE: please click on the original post so they receive the credit Coping Strategies: What Can Help You Not To Mask?#TakeTheMaskOff POSTED ON AUGUST 27, 2018 BY INSIDE THE RAINBOW "This week – how to be mask-less (ish) and survive with marbles intacto. Firstly, no more f**ks shall be given. By ‘f**ks’ I mean Not giving... Continue Reading →

[Picture credit: Gemma Correll] "Coined by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978, impostor syndrome is defined as believing like one is unintelligent, incapable, or uncreative despite evidence of high achievement. This is accompanied by a constant fear of being exposed as a fraud despite high motivation to achieve. It’s basically having terrible sense... Continue Reading →

Please go to the original post to read a well-written post: "Autism from the inside - how too many depictions of autistic people rely on tired clichés. The neurotypical world needs to take note of our own voices" - by Katherine May, a writer from Whitstable. In Katherine's blog post she explains why neuro-typcial people... Continue Reading →

[Featured picture credit: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/autism-and-vaccines] You read the title correctly, the correlation (link, not causality) between autism/autistics and vaccines is that autistic people are over-represented in scientific fields (due to our awesomeness), so it may have been the case that an autistic person/group developed vaccinations (please note this is satire, and a commentary on the debunked vaccine-autism... Continue Reading →

Many autisitic people may feel at home in academia, it is a place where ones autistic drive and view of the world is valued. The academic world, however, is not always the most suited to autistic need, but that doesn't mean it can't be. As with many contexts and situations, there is a lot of... Continue Reading →

There are some key things to help you understand why, for instance, it's difficult to start things that need doing (why we procrastinate, as linked to autistic inertia), such as what UNDERSTANDING AUTISTICS calls "initiation error". UNDERSTANDING AUTISTICS also discusses the autistic need for sufficient information to make decisions: don't tell us you need us... Continue Reading →

...or why when there's too many options you can't move! This is a good understanding of autistic inertia by autisticality: "Inertia doesn’t mean laziness, or not wanting to do things, or procrastinating – although it can look like all of those things. But sometimes it also looks like mania, obsessiveness, or even a burst of... Continue Reading →

Trigger warning: Discussion on risk of suicide, suicidal thinking, self-harm, and harmful (but non-suicidal) behaviours in the autistic community.  Unfortunately, being an internal autistic, especially when you didn't know you were autistic for most of your life, can lead to poor mental health and suicidality. This is linked to the fact that as an internal,... Continue Reading →

Something that Annette and Chloe notice with many of our autistic friends and group/workshop attendees are harmful stims, such as skin picking and scratching (and this is called dermatillomania), which can lead to bleeding and scarring. There are a number of reasons why many of us autistics have these stim behaviours. It may link to... Continue Reading →

NOTE: this is from an original blog, and not written by SYA? Please click to the original post, even if you read it below, so as to provide the original poster with view statistics. "THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO AUTISM Sunday, July 29, 2018 The Protective Gift of Meltdowns Maxfield Sparrow unstrangemind.com Photo © 2017, Maxfield... Continue Reading →

Realising autism  “I am a 46-year-old woman and I am Autistic. I was diagnosed at the age of 39, after years of feeling confused, frustrated and alienated, because I was aware of my difference but I didn’t know how I was different. After years of misdiagnosis and a life time struggle with mental health issues,... Continue Reading →

Realising autism "I was diagnosed at age 32 after a lifetime of being told I am "weird", "odd", "stand-offish", and "unapproachable". I struggled to make friends, and experienced bouts of depression and constant anxiety. It was only once I realised I was autistic that I found my "group of weird" - the autistic community, and... Continue Reading →