Autism Acceptance?

Autism MeetUp 2016, UNSW Art & Design

Community service announcement:

Dear organisations jumping on the Autism Bandwagon. You really need to do better than “everyone else” if you wish to win the trust and confidence of Actually Autistic people. That is IF you truly wish to be inclusive (as you so claim) and learn about intrinsic autistic modalities and paradigms, in order to properly support autistic people in respectful ways. This is the ‘homework’ you need to do BEFORE asking autistic people to do freebie work for your ’cause’. Show us that you are worthy of our efforts. Any other is at best mere tokenism, and at worst exploitation. Add to that, spreading harmful misinformation.

#actuallyautistic #autismacceptance #nothingaboutuswithoutus

traction

Lucy in sensory study in blue and white

My research & praxis emanates from lived-reality, as lived-reality unfolds from research & praxis. The last four months before my PhD submission saw me and Lucy hurtling through the grand cosmic roller-coaster of instability, betrayal of trust and excruciating vulnerability. We moved home four times in those four months, and Lucy suffered terrible physical and mental distress, as did I. But we pulled through and the PhD dissertation has been submitted.

Now what?

climbing mountains

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Nosh has been blah-boring lately. But I am sharing the visuals anyway, because this blog is about sensory adventures after all.

Immediately after Lucy was out of danger, I suffered an intense autoimmune flare. For two days, I was battling pain from inflammation everywhere, and unexplained nausea. Lucy kept me going, she was the reason I had to get out of bed and take slow walks, of course, and that made me take in some sunshine and fresh air. She kept my mental processes in check, no sinking into the abyss of despair, because I need to be well for her. At the back of my mind, whenever I feel the tugging downwards of depressive thought, there is this solid rock: “What would happen to Lucy if something bad happened to me?” I cannot, of my own volition, allow her to face such a desperate situation.

The conversation is fresh on my mind, and it makes me smile. It has also spawned other trajectories that I shall explore in my writing and research-practice.

“Lucy is spoiled because you do everything she wants,” said her vet to me.

“Yes, true, but she does everything I want her to do, and there is no conflict, so I consider it fair exchange!” was my reply.

We both laughed, and the vet did concede that I had a winning formula.

apotropaic

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My brain has not rebooted back into full verbal mode. It’s been somewhat soggy lately, the weather, as well as my verbal abilities. Lucy doesn’t need words, we speak through our senses, and that is such a comfortable medium for me. The weather, temperature and humidity affects the senses in a very concrete and powerful way. Most people don’t grasp the intensity of it, unless they suffer the consequences themselves. The wet and damp also triggers a purplish-green depression that seeps in through the feet, knees and top of the head, then leaves a sticky layer of sickly vomit clinging to the skin. All I can do is to keep on keeping on, knowing that the rain and its accompaniments of pain and gloom will not last forever.