Recently, I have had the privilege of becoming a contributor to The Mighty, a blog of many voices on all kinds of illnesses, diseases and disabilities. Check out the link here: https://themighty.com/2016/11/understanding-my-responses-to-sensory-triggers-related-to-spd/
I hope to get the word out about accepting and accommodating autistic people rather than judging and excluding them. The irony is that I do wind up feeling isolated due to the components that make up my autism.
1. My I.Q. is 110, but I struggle with sensory processing disorder in a very life limiting way.
2. Due mainly to the sensory processing, I don't get to do things like go over to people's houses (I also can't drive for the same reason) or go to restaurants. If there is a baby or a dog making noise, I must have a plan of absolute escape.
3. My meltdowns are horrors. They present more like a nonverbal, intellectually disabled autistic person's. Guttural screaming and hitting myself and others are two characteristics.
Most of the judgement that I receive can be summed up the way a judge once put it, "How can someone so smart be so stupid?"
She had been reading some of my poetry while on the bench. I was in court for throwing a canvas I had painted at a Borders bookstore manager for yelling at me and being sarcastic at the same time.
Autistic people deal in absolutes. I was told that the poetry reading was on over the phone, and arrived to be told it was cancelled. My mind could not reconcile the conflict. I was also stressed out due to being in public. The man yelled and used a sarcastic tone. I lost it. He threatened to call the police and did.
This is why I don't go into public place alone anymore. I have a safe person or I stay home.
Intelligence or lack of it doesn't determine how the chips fall when the abnormal brain is forming.
This is why I argue that autism is a disability, not only a way of thinking differently.
I hope to contribute more to The Mighty and a few other blogs.
One thing I refuse to do, however, is compromise my beliefs for gain.
