Hi all! Long time, no post! Just dropping you blog-readers a line to let you know that I've published a new essay via The Art of Autism. It's a fierce critique of Netflix's new satirical film, Don't Look Up, which features a disturbing portrayal of an autistic-coded villain. Read the whole essay here! This is… Continue reading Publication Announcement: A Critique of Autistic-Coded Rep in ‘Don’t Look Up’
Imagine a perfect morning. You're walking down a cobblestone street. Sun rays peer through leaves in the trees, around roofs and chimneys. A cool breeze bobs the geraniums in the window boxes. You have a coffee or a tea in hand. It is made exactly the way you like, from an open-air cafe just up… Continue reading Short Stories, $1
That's right, Millennials have coping skills. How could we have gotten this far without them? Reveling in the Ridiculous might be our most powerful skill.
I recently paid $40+ for a used paperback book. I wasn't required to buy it for any reason. And no, it wasn't a college textbook. (That'd be a steal!) It was a book I was very much interested in reading, that was not available through my library, and that was out of print. So I… Continue reading The Value of a Book
One of the most difficult parts in processing my late autism identification and diagnosis (at 30 years old) is dealing with a constantly shifting perspective, specifically in comparing how I function in the world and how non-autistic people function in it. I spent my whole life assuming my way of being was "normal" or neurotypical,… Continue reading Querying While Autistic
I was diagnosed with autism and inattentive ADHD in November 2020. Almost immediately after I found this out, I realized I hated saying that sentence, especially the "diagnosed with" part. I am still getting used to, "I am autistic," but through those words, I feel a sense of pride and relief: they help me know myself more fully. "Diagnosed with" never sat well, and as time goes on, it's sitting worse and worse and worse.
I knew I was autistic. So why did I bother getting assessed?
This is the fourth consecutive year I've written a "year in books" blog post, and 2020 is the weirdest of them all. This year (ugh, this year) has been wild, devastating, excruciating, depressing, anxiety-inducing, heartbreaking... We've all lost so much. Where I live, the library was closed--CLOSED--for a long period of time. So if I… Continue reading 2020 in Books
Even after hitting "Publish" on this post, I still don't know how I feel about the title statement. How it's worded, I mean. The ideas it represents are absolutely true. On November 9, 2020, I was assessed as having met criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In other words (and maybe… Continue reading I’m Autistic. (And I have ADHD.)
In an effort to process all that has happened in the past months, I collected and recorded what I'm calling Mantras for 2020.
Allison Wall 