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Laura

Relationships

Note: I’ve elected to start with discussing some aspects of the criteria for diagnosis in the DSM-5, out of convenience, before branching out to less medicalized/deficit-based facets of the conversation. Please don’t take this to mean that I think the DSM criteria are the most accurate or complete explanation of the autistic experience, nor is this a complete discussion of those criteria. — Criterion A-3 of the DSM criteria for autism spectrum disorder refers to “deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships.” When the psychiatrist… Read More »Relationships

Nonverbal Communicative Behaviours

Note: I’ve elected to start with discussing some aspects of the criteria for diagnosis in the DSM-5, out of convenience, before branching out to less medicalized/deficit-based facets of the conversation. Please don’t take this to mean that I think the DSM criteria are the most accurate or complete explanation of the autistic experience, nor is this a complete discussion of those criteria. — You may have heard that many autistic people struggle with making eye contact. Criterion A-2 in the DSM criteria for autism spectrum… Read More »Nonverbal Communicative Behaviours

Social-Emotional Reciprocity

Note: I’ve elected to start with discussing some aspects of the criteria for diagnosis in the DSM-5, out of convenience, before branching out to less medicalized/deficit-based facets of the conversation. Please don’t take this to mean that I think the DSM criteria are the most accurate or complete explanation of the autistic experience, nor is this a complete discussion of those criteria. — As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a hard time starting conversations. I also have a hard time continuing conversations.… Read More »Social-Emotional Reciprocity

Autism in My Life

I’ve spent a lot of the last three years learning about autism and figuring out what it might represent in my lived experience. When I started telling people about my diagnosis, I learned pretty quickly that most people don’t have years of learning and reflection to pull from in understanding this. In fact, most people have a pretty shaky grasp on what autism is at all. I certainly did, prior to 2023. So, I decided to put together a series of blog posts covering some of what… Read More »Autism in My Life

Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month

Just in time for Autism Awareness (or Acceptance) Month (April), I got to celebrate my autistic awareness (or acceptance) with my very own official diagnosis. This has been a long time coming. I started looking into the possibility that I might be autistic at the beginning of 2023. It’s the main reason that my blog posts since then have been much sparser than they were in 2022. It was hard to find the motivation to write about my mental health when I couldn’t be as… Read More »Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month

40

I always thought people made too much of a big deal of 40. Now it’s here, and I’m not sure how I feel anymore. Part of me is looking back at all I haven’t accomplished in the last 40 years and blaming myself pretty heavily. I can see some pretty big mistakes on my part, and I can see some problems that were completely out of my control—not least of which is what the world has learned about brains so far—but if I’m being completely… Read More »40

Change in Delivery Methods

For a number of reasons, we’ve decided to pull our music from Spotify, Apple Music, etc. It will still be available on Bandcamp, and the two lyric videos (“Wholehearted” and “Come Around”) will stay up on YouTube, hopefully to be joined by more in the future. When the album (eventually) comes out, it will also go up on Bandcamp and it is currently my intention to make a lyric video for each song. So, people who want to listen for free can watch the videos,… Read More »Change in Delivery Methods

The Ups and Downs of Knowing Your Limits

It’s been months since my last post. I haven’t really felt like I have anything to say, or if I do, it’s in the form of a song or a story. And I promise, there’s movement on the album and the novel. But recently I realized I did have something I wanted to say, and it wasn’t going to fit neatly into either format. So here I am, back in the blog. My younger self didn’t know what my limits were. She would go running… Read More »The Ups and Downs of Knowing Your Limits

What I Love

I’ve written a lot of things. Stories, essays, poems, songs. Typically, these have ended up in one of two categories: “this is garbage, I hate it,” or “someone else says this is good so I guess it’s good.” I’ve also made a lot of music. Mostly amateurly, though on rare occasions professionally. But these performances have tended to fall into the same two categories: “this is garbage, I hate it,” or “someone else says this is good so I guess it’s good.” But increasingly, over… Read More »What I Love

Mood Music

Twenty years ago, or thereabouts, I had a collection of mix CDs which each bore a label according to the mood of the music contained on the CD1. I can’t remember all of them, but I’m pretty sure they included things like “Giddy,” “Silly,” and “Angsty.” Nowadays I keep my music on Apple Music playlists. And although I do often listen to entire albums, I have two main playlists that I will turn to when I’m not in the mood to do that. The first… Read More »Mood Music