Go to todaysautisticmoment.com for the transcript.
Ana Aragon is my special guest for this premier to discuss the context of the theme for Today's Autistic Moment in 2023. The Strengths and Achievements of Autistic Adults.
The guests and topics during 2023 on Today’s Autistic Moment’s podcast and Autistic Voices Roundtable Discussions will do more than talk about our many challenges; we will talk about how so many amazing Autistic Adults are using their challenges to build up their strengths so that we can set reasonable goals and achieve them successfully. There are so many talented and skillful Autistic Adults that are authors, educators, mathematical geniuses, advocates, who are using their tenacity to help the movement for Neurodiversity create community to support and encourage one another. In 2023, you will be meeting and hearing from many of them on Today’s Autistic Moment and Autistic Voices Roundtable Discussions.
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Segment 1
Transcript
The Strengths and Achievements of Autistic Adults
January 8th, 2023
Happy New Year and Welcome everyone to the Premier for Season 3 of Today’s Autistic Moment: A Podcast for Autistic Adults by An Autistic Adult. My name is Philip King-Lowe. I am the owner, producer, and host; and I am an Autistic Adult. Thank you so much for joining me as we continue to support Autistic Adults and their caregivers.
Today’s Autistic Moment is a member of The National Podcast Association.
Today’s Autistic Moment is a free to listen to podcast that gives Autistic Adults access to important information, helps us learn about our barriers to discover the strengths and tools we already have to use for the work of self-advocacy.
This first segment of Today’s Autistic Moment is sponsored by The Autism Society of Minnesota: Minnesota’s First Autism Resource. For over 50 years the Autism Society of Minnesota has been honored to support Minnesota’s Autism Community. Visit them online at ausm.org.
Please visit todaysautisticmoment.com where you can listen to the podcast, get the transcripts, program updates, and read the guest bios page. The transcripts are sponsored by Minnesota Independence College & Community.
Some of you have written in to tell me that you want to be able to print the transcript, but the darker background uses up the ink from your printer. Others have mentioned that you want to be able to read the transcript on a lighter background. Starting with the Premier episode of Season 3, The Strengths, and Achievements of Autistic Adults, go to the actual link on the website, click on that, and as you scroll down to read it; you will find a link that if you tap or click on it, it will take you to a written document with a white background. You can print it and it won’t use up the ink on your printer and/or you can read it from a white background that works for your sensory input.
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The first Autistic Voices Roundtable Discussion for this season will be on Wednesday, February 22nd at 2:00pm central standard time. The topic will be Autistic Business Owners, Professionals and Employees. The panelists will talk about how they use the best of their Autistic identity and skills to be successful. The mainstream media and the general public focuses on the deficits of having Autism. The negativity around Autism suggests that Autistics are not capable of being successfully employed. The panelists at this roundtable discussion are Autistics who own businesses, work in professional environments, and are employed in jobs where they are successful. The panelists will include those who are employed and/or self-employed, working full-time or part-time jobs. The roundtable discussion will be livestreamed and recorded on Today’s Autistic Moment’s YouTube Channel. I am seeking 6 to 8 Autistic individuals to be panelists. Whether you work 40 hours a week, 20 hours a week or no more than 5 hours a week; you are welcome to participate. If you are interested, please send an email to todaysautisticmoment@gmail.com by January 31st.
During Season 3, Today’s Autistic Moment is going highlight the Strengths and Achievements of Autistic Adults. During Season 2 we talked a great deal about the Medical and Social Models of Autism. Among the comments we made is that the medical model that is used to diagnose Autism, also places Autistics in a classification of having deficits in social communication, sensory processing disorders, special interests, have executive dysfunctioning and are most likely unable to thrive in relationships and careers, and therefore live a low quality of life. The functioning labels and the continued use of words like Asperger’s Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder are counterproductive in helping Autistics to be accepted, embraced, celebrated, and encouraged to reach for their life’s potential. The guests and topics during 2023 on Today’s Autistic Moment’s podcast and Autistic Voices Roundtable Discussions will do more than talk about our many challenges; we will talk about how so many amazing Autistic Adults are using their challenges to build up their strengths so that we can set reasonable goals and achieve them successfully. There are so many talented and skillful Autistic Adults that are authors, educators, mathematical geniuses, advocates, who are using their tenacity to help the movement for Neurodiversity create community to support and encourage one another. In 2023, you will be meeting and hearing from many of them on Today’s Autistic Moment and Autistic Voices Roundtable Discussions
Ana Aragon is my special guest for this premier to discuss in greater detail the context of the theme for this year. Ana lives in the United Kingdom. Ana moved to the UK at the age of 18 and was diagnosed as Autistic when she was 19 years old. Ana is an Autism professional who supports Autistic people. Ana worked with Autistic Adults and Children in various educational settings for over half a decade. Following the completion of her master’s degree and Autism specialization, Ana founded her own Autism-related company, Autism-Thoughts. Ana is committed to ensuring that Autistic people and families in general, have the tools they need to work with their brain type rather than against it, and learn how to accept themselves as they truly are, so that Autistic people can build self-esteem and truly trust themselves and their wonderful talents.
Please stay tuned after this first commercial break to listen to my conversation with Ana Aragon.
Commercial Break I
Segment 2
Please join me in welcoming Ana Aragon.
Philip King-Lowe
Well, Ana, thank you for being on Today's Autistic Moment. Happy New Year to you.
Ana Aragon
Happy New Year. Thank you.
Philip King-Lowe
You're welcome. You're welcome. Yeah, yeah, it's great to finally pass the threshold and start a new year. Well, today, I'm starting off with the new, the new theme that I'm going to be saying throughout 2023. And about the Strengths and Achievements of Autistic Adults. And I want to start by a little more explaining that I'm doing this because we tend to emphasize the challenges we have, and in no way is this to suggest that those are not important. Of course, those are important. And that this is not going to set the challenges aside. But what we are going to look at throughout 2023 is how, in spite of a lot of the challenges we have as Autistic Adults, we have strength that takes us through those challenges. And we use them to achieve amazing things. It is my position that a lot of the challenges that we as Autistics have, are used to say that we are weak, we are, "deficient" or whatever. And therefore, there's always things that we can't do. And I personally say that's a bunch of bunch of hogwash, as I call it, I think I think we are far more capable than we are given credit for that even we give ourselves credit for. So, during 2023 and again, I want to emphasize that I'm not setting challenges aside, we're still going to talk about a lot of the challenges we have. But what we're going to talk about is how we often use those challenges. And in spite of a lot of those challenges, we achieve great things, as Autistic Adults achieve great things, and that they're by no means something to denigrate to you know, somehow suggests that they're any less wonderful the things that we achieve than then our neurotypical friends and that sort of thing. So, I want us to, that's why we're spending this 2023 on this particular theme. So, you're going to hear it throughout the year. And so, let's Ana you and I talk about this a little more in depth. And so, let's say it. What important information to Autistic Adults and our supporters need to have as we begin this journey, of talking about our strengths and achievements as Autistic Adults?
Ana Aragon
Um, I think that, like you said, sometimes we tend to focus a lot on the things that we struggle with or the things that don't work for us within the society and planet world. But once we also accept those and relearn how to work with them, rather than against them, as you said, this other side is exceptionality that Autistic people have comes to play. And then people like Einstein happen. Where do we care that he had sensory problems and could not wear socks? We don't. What do we remember, we remember his accomplishments. We remember his exceptionality. We remember his intellect. And when an Autistic person is treated in a way that makes sense to them and works with their brain rather than against it, that's what happens.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, absolutely. We have so many examples of Autistic individuals who are just contributing so much to the world. Yeah, you named him. But then it's suspected that Mozart was. Its Sir Anthony Hopkins was.
Ana Aragon
Most people that were exceptional. If you look at it actually were Autistic, it's the other way around. For me, my doubt comes into, is it possible to be that exceptional if you're not Autistic? That's the question.
Philip King-Lowe
Absolutely. And you and I are part of a network of some amazing Autistic people on LinkedIn. I mean, we have people who are, you know, Candice Christiansen, who does her therapy and her work with relationships. You know, we've got David Gray-Hammond, who might whom I'm going to interview again later this year, who's done this exemplary work about substance abuse, addiction, and recovery, and now has written a book. We've got Eric Garcia, who wrote, We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation. I mean, there are so many things that people are contributing. And I agree with you once we discover and accept that we're Autistic. And we, we see those things that challenge us. And instead of allowing us to be "defeated by them," we use them to do the things we do.
Ana Aragon
Exactly, it’s just about that, it's finding that balance that for us, sometimes it's so hard to get. But once you get there, life just feels different, this feeling that we have a lot of the time and not feeling in and everything does not disappear completely, but it gets much easier, much lighter, because you start having people around you to understand you start being able to understand yourself a lot better as well. And a lot of the times this feeling of not fitting in, comes from as not understanding what's happening here is fantastic compute, right?
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, it's, it's as if we accept the masking, we accept that we have to hide ourselves. So we have to, you know, we don't have to fit into the neuro majority's thinking of how we should be, you know, you know, I think I think a good a good point of you to use for this would be to maybe do some talking about, you know, how, how may have, how might you have discovered how your Autistic challenges how you can use them to achieve many of the great things that you do. You want to talk about that?
Ana Aragon
Yeah, um, so that is actually something I'm writing a book about at the moment. And the book is going to be called, Accepting Your True Authentic Autistic Self. Because of that, it's that authenticity. And I think that sometimes people confuse conscious mind with unconscious mind a lot. And controlling your conscious mind is a skill and it's necessary and the more you control that conscious mind and the overthinking and all of those things, the better you can navigate the world. But the unconscious mind if you are in conflict with and that's where masking happens and all those things. That's the issue if you will learn to accept your unconscious mind. Accept the feelings that you have seen them as tail signs and follow them and understand that they are there for a reason rather than be upset by them. That's when you tap into this other side of yourself where self-esteem actually comes to play. Because self-esteem is not "Oh, I think I'm pretty," it's part of that. But self-esteem is trusting your unconscious mind, trusting your unconscious mind in the way that you know, your personal decision that understands the world. You also give yourself space to make mistakes, because we are flawed, and we are human. And you also understand that you reflect on those, and you go back and apologize when you have to. Once that comes into play, and once you understand that that's possible, that level of trust towards the self. That's when you can actually do amazing things.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, that's a great way to say it. Yeah, I mean, maybe we can talk about some of the strengths that we often have. Because I know that for some of us, when we're first get a diagnosis, whether it's from a medical diagnosis, or if it's a self-diagnosis, we will receive that news, we might start questioning, oh, my God, what a terrible person I had been or whatever, because of the things that you remember. And then of course, the fact is a lot of things that happened weren't really your faults. They were just because of the way your brain is wired. You just didn't know that then.
Ana Aragon
Yeah, and total self-acceptance towards those mistakes to is having to forgive yourself for those
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, absolutely.
Ana Aragon
And that's why I feel like a lot of people, and I don't know, if you experienced that I definitely did. Once, I first got diagnosed, it came in a way of relief. And then you just ride off, they just crashed down, they brought me down. And he brought me into this like, really, I don't know, but almost depressive state, like why Autistic burned out just from figuring out that I was Autistic and having to understand all of that. All the pain that comes from us self not knowing and other things could have been different as well. A lot of that comes to play. And that's why I think it is important to have support and a professional like myself and like others that are out there alongside you in this journey. But once you go through that phase, and you forgive yourself for those things, and you recover from that Autistic burn out, that's when life starts for you. That's when all of these doors open and you're like, Okay, now I'm going to take things. I'm not sure I can say this, but by the horns, you know, and you just go along with the journey, you go along with the ride. And again, you start trusting your brain, you start trusting yourself your innocence.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, um, a therapist that I saw a while back. I said it best when they said that when we're diagnosed, as Autistics as adults, that it rewrites our life history. And it just starts to tell a story that we understood in one way, and it tells it through in another way. And, you know, the thing is, is that it's that point that we may begin to understand we did some of the things we did because we did not understand and probably the others that participated in creating some of that trauma didn't also did not know and we're still living in a to be honest, we're still living in a time when there's a lot that people still do not understand about Autism and being Autistic. But that does not mean that we don't have something to contribute. Yeah, and that's why we're talking about the strengths and achievements. Um, you know, um, you know, I want to clarify again, that what I'm looking to talk about during this year, I'm not talking about toxic positivity, which is gaslighting and not healthy. I'm talking about our challenges are what they are. And yes, sometimes they can bring us down to a point where we feel like we may have failed, we may not have risen up to an expectation, you know, and some of these things come like when a job fails or when a relationship has failed or when we feel like we’ve lost everything, and we don't know where to begin. The thing is, is that those special interests that we get so interested in those ways that we stim to recover a sense of balance that we do. Those things are our strengths, because it's through those things that we recover if you will recover who we are.
Ana Aragon
Yeah, 100%. And learning to accept that, again, is part of that. And I guess that's how you go around toxic positivity. Because if you try to drill into yourself this sense of, I need to be always okay, I need to be always happy, I can't feel anxious, I can't stim. That's when you tap into that I need to be always with a smile on my face. That's masking. It's accepting the anxieties, like you say, accepting the steams accepting needing to recover. Because everything does even on phones, we use it every day. And then at night, we need to plug it, if we want to use it the next day, everything needs to recharge, is just learning what works for you recharge wise, if it is stimming, if it is hiding yourself, and just being alone for a day in the dark, just watching videos. If it is the special interests, I think it's a lot of that normalizing recovery, normalizing rest and getting that energy back up in different ways that looks different for different people.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Stay tuned after this next commercial break when Ana and I will talk about misinformed therapies, respecting different brain types, encourage neurotypicals to avoid shutting down the strengths we have, and talk about one Autistic person who is changing the conversation about climate change.
Commercial Break II
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Segment 3
Philip King-Lowe
Well, now we're going to talk a little bit more about the barriers that I often talk about what are the barriers for Autistic Adults? And, you know, we can immediately start with the social stigmas that plague Autistic Adults. We can also talk about these once again, there are these therapies out there that seem to want to fix who we are, you know, to, to correct who we are. And, you know, when it comes to therapies, and that sort of thing, I have my own way of saying that the therapies and such are to help us manage so that we can use them use our Autistic strengths to achieve things. But that, you know, a lot of those barriers just comes with misinformation. We can talk a lot about that. So go ahead.
Ana Aragon
Yeah, definitely. One of the things that people used to say to me when they started having sessions with me, and I couldn't really understand what they meant until quite recently was that they had been with other professionals and speaking about Autism, but when they came to me, I spoke about Autism in a way that no one had before. Which I think it's because I'm Autistic myself, and the double empathy is real. And I can understand Autistic people in ways that other professionals wouldn’t because they are simply not Autistic. And I think it's also because of this side of, again, trust and acceptance and understanding or a brain rather than being upset for having the brain that we have, you know, and it is complicated, and it comes with anxieties and panic attacks sometimes and like if that stimming and all of these things, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I wouldn't want to be Autistic; I want to be exactly who I am; I want to be this person with this brain. And I guess that's that, that sense of owning who you are as an Autistic person that I try to convey to other people that it's possible to get there, understand your struggle, and understand that those are always going to be part of you. But again, accept them and learn how to be okay with them too. You know, and I can be okay with recharging be okay with needing time being okay with not being like everyone else.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah. And, and again, we don't have to be like the neuro majority. Again, the part of that you know, one of those barriers is obviously ableism which, which continues to push that if you are, "disabled," then you're not like us and so because our brain um, works differently. It's the Autistic brain is not like the neurotypical brain. It is a different brain. And the movement for neurodiversity seeks to say that our brain is different. That difference is not a weakness, nor is it really a setback. What's the setback? Is, is the societal norm that says we have to be like they are. That is one of the bigger barriers ahead. Yeah.
Ana Aragon
Yeah, all of this around us. Yeah, like 100%. That's the thing. It's, if you take my brain, if you take your brain, if you take your brain of any Autistic person, and you actually put it in an environment that works for us, then we just thrive, and again, we have all of this exceptionality. I 100% agree, I do think that the environment is what makes us feel all of this difference in that sense. And I used to have this analogy about how I felt like I was a fish and I felt like I was swimming in the ocean with all the other fishes, I was always drowning. And I didn't know why I felt like I was a fish that was bad at swimming. But then I figured out that I was a fish swimming in a quagmire while everyone else was swimming in water. And that's why it looked like I couldn't breathe properly. And once I figured that out, I could forgive myself for not being able to swim on socializing that type of thing and actually work with it. So, it is about that we are not fishes that can't swim, we are just in a different environment compared to other people, because this environment just doesn't work for us most of the time. Unfortunately.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I'm, you know, I know that for myself, because I've said this before, but when I was first diagnosed, for the first four or five years, I felt like I was in this place where I didn't know who I really was, I didn't know where I was really gonna go with this. And then when I found the Autism Society of Minnesota, and a group of people around me who were who were just like me, who had these, you know, challenges in relationships, these challenges with these things, and I found other people say, I have these challenges too. And here's how I've learned to cope with them, how I've learned to live with them, and use them to, to do the things I do. And from that, I discovered this amazing world, this amazing Autistic culture that is so much wider than all the things that we say we can't do, or we think we can't do. And I've seen over and over again that when Autistics come together, and we work with each other, we help each other we listen to one another. We assist one another. I just find that there's this wonderful sigh of relief for myself that says, I am. I am a person and I have a “community” of people who are just as unique as I am. And what a wonderful experience this is.
Ana Aragon
Yeah, belonging in the near 100%. Meeting other Autistic people is exactly the same thing as, oh, again, I'm not the only fish in the quagmire as well. There's all of these other people, all of these other fishes that have the same struggles that I do to have the same brain and it was just, I remember crying a lot when I met another person that was Autistic, and we were openly talking about it for me for the first time about being Autistic. Because it was just such a relief again, just Oh, okay. It's not just me.
Philip King-Lowe
Right. Absolutely. Yes. You know, yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Well, let's now move into what important steps do Autistic Adults and our supporters need to take to advocate for our strengths and achievements. I'm gonna let you start. Start with us one, go ahead.
Ana Aragon
Okay. I would say that this is the main advice I give to parents that I work with as well. work with what's there. Do not force Autistic people to be good at things that were not and do not force us to shut down the things that we're good at. Work with who we are with the skills we already have helped us develop those if we're good at letters, letters, good, be good at letters and explore that. And not everyone needs to be good at everything. If someone is exceptional at math or drawing, or if that's their drive, help them build that help them see how exceptional they are in those areas, and also help them deal with the struggles alongside help them learn how to accept those and how to work with those in ways that make them feel safe. I think for Autistic people, this feeling of safety is one of the most important things that neurotypicals almost take as a guarantee that they'll have we don't so help Autistic people feel safe as they are exploring their personality and interests and struggles and everything.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah. And, and that, again, that doesn't mean that our challenges are not something we need support for and needing supports is part of our strengths, not our deficits by any means. When we need our support. That's a good thing. Yeah, but yeah, but just because we need supports doesn't mean that we don't have our own tenacity that can help us achieve the best things that we can do.
Ana Aragon
Yes, I love that one as well. Yeah. 100% Yeah.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah. Um, you know because our tenacity as Autistics, it's really rather incredible.
Ana Aragon
We are unstoppable. You know, all, look how much we've been through. And look where we ended up, like just coming out the other side. And it’s just, yeah, it's beautiful. I think being Autistic is just fabulous. I do I genuinely.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, I do, too. I mean, and yes, it can take it can take some time to get to that place where we feel that. Exactly. You know, yeah, you know, and I, and I know that we're saying this and I, and there's gotta be some people in my audience who they've just lost their job, they've just lost a relationship or something. Let's see if we can say some things to those who are walking through that sort of thing. And talk about how you can find your strengths, and you can achieve great things, even while you're in the middle of these very, very challenging times. Go ahead.
Ana Aragon
Life is not linear, and the ups and downs, the spiral of life, is just part of it. And that's not just for Autistic people, that's for anyone but if there weren't ups and downs, we wouldn’t evolve, we wouldn't learn we wouldn't discover new things about ourselves. So we go through the downs, so we can enjoy the ups and as that sounds hard, and it is and when we are in pain it's hard to believe that it's going to change. But life is impermanent, and you are in this situation because you are learning things about yourself, and it does not mean you cannot come out the other end and take what you learned out of this down and push yourself back up and do fabulous things with it. Because as especially as Autistic people that's what we tend to do we take this pain we take these the struggles and we do turn them into resilience and into beautiful creativity and thinking beautiful things in science and sometimes when we're down that's when we have the time to also dedicate ourselves to our special interests and this type of thing that most because we need them so explored those connect with those connect with what makes you feel like life is worth living.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, and to do those things, it can take some real self-exploring, exploration. And by all means, take that time. Take that time and you was those us that tenacity to work through that. You know, I mean, you know, we do go through these periods of time when a lot of things will just come in. And they are, you know, very difficult. And sometimes the word challenging, is almost an understood is really an understatement as to what those things can be like for us. You know, and yes, society can be extremely cruel, and we're not, again, not undermining that or are underestimating how much that can affect us. But they don't have to own us, I guess, to the point where we cannot use these things, these things that are challenging us so deeply, to find new things about ourselves that perhaps we didn't know yet. And I often find that when I when I work through challenges, and I find a way to cope with and sometimes for me, that means taking a few steps back and thinking about what's happened. And also looking for some steps as to how to use it to move on. That may mean talking it out with somebody I trust, that may mean talking about it with a psychotherapist that I trust. It may mean searching for something or someone that really can help me. But I feel and I want to encourage our listeners who are in those situations. It's those things that we do that we use those moments when we reach out. And those moments when we reach into ourselves, that's when we find our again, tenacity, which is a synonym for strength. We find that tenacity within ourselves. And we can use that. And when I talk about achieving things, I'm not just talking about achieving a degree. I'm talking about, I'm talking about achieving something that we can take some sense of pride in. I mean, we can achieve something really, really small. And yet somehow it will, in time contribute to the whole of our own lives and to the whole of lives around us. You know, like I say you look at like Greta Thunberg, who just has this incredible love for the for the environment, you know, and she's using her Autistic strengths, that this is something she's so hyper-focused on to challenge the world. And yes, Greta is getting a lot of pushback because of what she does. That pushback is actually a sign that she's doing something excellent. Because she's getting that pushback. And it's difficult to see that. But that pushback is saying you're doing something good, but we just don't want you going any further because we're protecting our Exactly, yeah. But I mean, Greta is just, she's managed to captivate a lot of people about why climate change is an important thing to deal with. And you know, one of the things about Greta, that's amazing. It's just when someone says, oh, look what we've done. Greta is the one who says But look, but you haven't, you haven't done this. Again, she she's pulling the best of human being’s abilities to do something amazing. She's pulling out that the tenacity of others who feel like they're so weak. And you know, it is her Autistic strengths that are that are that are she's using to do this. You know?
Ana Aragon
Yeah, I liked that. We added some nice examples on to this conversation.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, um, you know, Greta is using her special interest. And she's using the fact that she's hyper focused on it, I think. And people are listening and responding reacting. But you know, Greta is amazing in what she's doing.
Stay with us after this next commercial break to thank Ana for her conversation followed by Today’s Autistic Community Bulletin Board. Please stay tuned.
Commercial Break III
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50th Show
Be sure to join me and my guests on January 22nd, as we celebrate the Strengths and Achievements of Autistic Adults on the 50th Show of Today’s Autistic Moment. The 50th show is a big milestone. During the 50th show, many of my previous guests will be stopping by to talk about their experience and why they love Today’s Autistic Moment. I would love to have some feedback from my audience as to the great ways that Today’s Autistic Moment has been helpful to you, to use in the 50th show. Please go to the contact us or reviews page of todaysautisticmoment.com and send me a message.
There are some unforeseen circumstances that necessitate changes for February’s topic and guest line up. I will update you with what shows are coming up on the 50th show on January 22nd.
Thank you for listening to Today’s Autistic Moment.
Segment 4
Philip King-Lowe
I keep returning to Dave Gray-Hammond when I interviewed him in 2021, about his substance abuse, addiction, and recovery, of how he identified how his Autistic challenges were really were really difficult when he was abusing substances and how he had to use those same struggles to work towards recovery. And that once he found that niche, and he started taking his steps towards working on that, he is an incredibly articulate and eloquent talker about the wonderful things Autistic people can do. Including he has this amazing statement about how that word disorder is a social construct.
Ana Aragon
Yeah. 100%.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah, and what we're talking about with the strengths and achievements of Autistic Adults, is we are talking about destroying those social constructs. This is because we are disordered, we have a deficit. That means we have to be placed on you know, the weak one, the failure, what, all these things. None of that is true.
Ana Aragon
Exactly. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Yeah.
Philip King-Lowe
Yeah. You know, like I say, and that's why I'm really taking this year to talk about this sort of thing. You know, you're going to hear, during this year, you're going to hear from people of other races, you're going to hear from women, you're going to hear about you know, some people about how they unmask and you're going to hear from Autistic mothers and Autistic fathers. This year, you're gonna hear a lot about how these individuals are taking all of these things that they have, and they're achieving incredible things. So, but yeah, I mean, yeah. Well, Ana, I want to thank you so much for being my first guest for this particular conversation, and for really helping us begin this journey this year. Um, you know, this is going to take, like I say, looking at our challenges, but also recognizing how those challenges can be used to do the achieving, they can become our strengths. And so, like I say, thank you so much for coming on today and for helping me begin this this incredible year.
Ana Aragon
Of course, it's always lovely to see you and do these things for Autistic moments. So yeah, I'm really happy I was here. Thank you for having me.
Philip King-Lowe
You're welcome.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Today’s Autistic Community Bulletin Board
All of these events with their links can be found on todaysautisticmoment.com/bulletinboard.
Understanding Autism virtual classes will be offered by The Autism Society of Minnesota. These classes are perfect for Autistic individuals, caregivers, those who want to understand the basics of Autism and support Autistic people. Classes will be held on January 16th from 10am to 12 noon. February 20th from 2pm-4pm. March 20th from 2pm to 4pm. Classes are free of charge, but you must register to attend.
On Tuesday, January 24th, starting at 7pm to 9pm Dayna Nelson will present a virtual skillshop at The Autism Society of Minnesota entitled: Surviving Autistic Burnout. This session will discuss what Autistic burnout is, how to recognize it, and what common causes are. After you understand burnout, you’ll get some hacks that will help you survive burnout plus narratives and resources around asking for help and support. This isn’t your guide on solving burnout, its your guide to recognizing, taking care of and being kinder to yourself when you’re burnt out. This is a class for Autistics, caregivers, educators, and professionals who are surviving burnout.
Mark your calendars now to attend the 28th Annual Minnesota Autism Conference that will be held at the Marriott Minneapolis Airport Hotel April 26-28th. Keep listening to Today’s Autistic Moment and checking the website for when registration will open.
Go to ausm.org for more information about these and other events at The Autism Society of Minnesota.
Matthew the #ActuallyAutistic Coach has room in his Finding Your Autistic Self Group Coaching Sessions. Go to the autisticcoach.com and click on Autism Groups for more information.
If you have opportunities and events for Autistic Adults and their caregivers that you would like announced on the Today’s Autistic Community Bulletin Board on January 22nd, please send them to me in an email to todaysautisticmoment@gmail.com by Wednesday, January 18th by 4:30pm.
Today’s Autistic Moment is sponsored in part by Looking Forward Life Coaching. Looking Forward turns stumbling blocks into stepping stones towards success. Go to lookingforwardlc.org for more information.
Today’s Autistic Moment is sponsored in part by Therapy Dynamics. Go to therapydynamicsmn.com for more information.
If you would like to sponsor an ad or have questions about Today’s Autistic Moment, please send an email to todaysautisticmoment@gmail.com.
Thank you for listening to Today’s Autistic Moment: A Podcast for Autistic Adults by An Autistic Adult.
May you have an Autistically Amazing day.