The Blog
Let's Talk About Autistic Sex, Baby
Autistic people experience sex differently due to sensory sensitivities, communication styles, and the need for structure, but these differences can enhance intimacy when understood and embraced. By prioritizing clear communication, sensory-friendly environments, and alternative expressions of intimacy, autistic individuals and their partners can create fulfilling and pleasurable sexual experiences. Rather than forcing neurotypical expectations onto autistic sex, recognizing its unique strengths—such as deep focus, enthusiasm, and thoughtful communication—can lead to deeply satisfying and affirming connections.
Why Autistic Adults Struggle to Feel “Grown-Up
Many autistic adults struggle to feel "grown-up" because societal definitions of adulthood rely on rigid milestones like career advancement, social networking, financial independence, and traditional relationships, which often do not align with neurodivergent experiences. Challenges with executive functioning, workplace discrimination, masking, and the need for ongoing support contribute to feelings of being out of sync with neurotypical peers. Instead of measuring adulthood by neurotypical standards, society must recognize and validate alternative paths, allowing autistic individuals to define success and fulfillment on their own terms.
Why We Need to Talk About Workplace Bullying Against Neurodivergent Adults
Neurodivergent adults face widespread workplace bullying due to rigid professional norms, lack of accommodations, and systemic biases that label them as difficult or incompetent rather than recognizing their differences. This mistreatment often takes subtle but damaging forms, including exclusion, micromanagement, and manufactured incompetence, leading to burnout, job loss, and long-term psychological harm. Addressing this issue requires systemic change, including stronger workplace protections, neurodiversity-affirming policies, and a cultural shift toward valuing diverse ways of thinking, working, and communicating.
Why ABA Should Be a Human Rights Violation (And Why It Still Exists)
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a harmful and unethical practice rooted in behaviorist principles that prioritize compliance and the suppression of autistic traits rather than genuine support. Despite evidence linking ABA to trauma and PTSD in autistic individuals, it remains widely used due to financial incentives, systemic ableism, and misinformation that portrays it as the only effective autism intervention. A human rights-based approach to autism support should center autonomy, sensory needs, alternative communication, and self-advocacy rather than forcing autistic people to conform to neurotypical expectations.
The Invisible Epidemic of Autistic Suicide: What Needs to Change Now
Autistic people face an alarmingly high risk of suicide due to lifelong social exclusion, masking, trauma, lack of accessible mental health care, and systemic neglect. Many autistic suicides go unrecognized due to misclassification, executive dysfunction, and a lack of neurodiversity-affirming crisis interventions, leaving this crisis largely invisible. Addressing autistic suicide requires systemic change, including better research, accessible mental health support, and a fundamental shift in how society values and supports autistic individuals.
Disability Justice and Climate Justice: The Overlap No One Talks About
The climate crisis disproportionately impacts disabled people, yet climate policies and disaster response systems often fail to account for accessibility, leaving disabled individuals more vulnerable to displacement, food and housing insecurity, extreme weather events, and disruptions in healthcare. Many proposed environmental solutions, such as sustainable transportation and green job initiatives, overlook the needs of disabled people, reinforcing systemic ableism rather than addressing it. True climate justice must integrate disability justice by ensuring accessibility in policies, disaster planning, and sustainability efforts, recognizing that a just and equitable future must include everyone.
Neurodivergence is Political: Why Our Fight for Justice is Intersectional
Neurodivergence is inherently political because systemic barriers in education, employment, healthcare, and legal systems disadvantage autistic and ADHD individuals, particularly those who are multiply marginalized. Discrimination against neurodivergent people is not just a personal struggle but a structural issue rooted in ableism, racism, and economic inequality. True justice requires dismantling these oppressive systems and advocating for radical change that prioritizes accessibility, inclusion, and equity across all aspects of society.
Why Autism Awareness Month is Exhausting (And What We Actually Need)
Autism Awareness Month is often exhausting for autistic people because it prioritizes outdated, pathologizing narratives, performative allyship, and harmful symbols like the puzzle piece and blue lighting rather than meaningful action. Many awareness campaigns focus on fear-based messaging, exclude autistic voices, and disappear once April ends, leaving systemic barriers unaddressed. What autistic people actually need is year-round acceptance, inclusion, and systemic change that prioritizes accessibility, neurodiversity-affirming perspectives, and leadership from autistic individuals themselves.
Why “Just Ask for Accommodations” Doesn’t Work for Most of Us
The advice to "just ask for accommodations" oversimplifies the complex barriers neurodivergent employees face, including fear of discrimination, inaccessible policies, and workplace stigma. Even when accommodations are granted, they are often ignored, resisted by management, or create tension with colleagues, leading to burnout and job loss. Instead of placing the burden on individuals to constantly self-advocate, workplaces must take systemic responsibility by proactively designing neurodivergent-friendly environments that support all employees equitably.
The Rise of Autistic Mutual Aid: How We’re Supporting Each Other When No One Else Will
Autistic mutual aid networks have emerged as essential support systems in response to the failures of government and nonprofit organizations to adequately serve autistic individuals. These grassroots efforts provide financial assistance, employment support, housing aid, healthcare navigation, and emotional solidarity, ensuring that autistic people have access to resources that traditional systems often deny them. By prioritizing community-driven care and lived experience, autistic mutual aid is reshaping disability support, proving that when institutions fail, autistic people step up to support one another.
The Future of Neurodiversity Advocacy: Where Do We Go from Here?
The future of neurodiversity advocacy faces challenges such as funding limitations, corporate tokenism, and reactionary pushback, but also opportunities for growth through intersectionality, digital activism, and systemic reforms. Ensuring sustainability requires centering neurodivergent voices, securing equitable funding, and demanding accountability from institutions that claim to support neurodivergence. By embracing inclusivity, leveraging technology, and pushing for policy changes, the movement can continue to drive meaningful progress and create lasting change for neurodivergent individuals.
The Cost of Being Autistic and ADHD in 2025: Inflation, Disability, and Economic Survival
Autistic and ADHD adults in 2025 face significant financial struggles due to employment discrimination, inadequate disability benefits, rising healthcare costs, and housing insecurity, all exacerbated by inflation. Many neurodivergent individuals experience job instability, barriers to accessing necessary support services, and economic precarity, often relying on mutual aid and community networks for survival. Without systemic policy changes to improve workplace protections, increase disability benefits, and expand affordable healthcare and housing options, neurodivergent individuals will continue to face disproportionate economic hardship.
AI and Neurodivergence: The Unexpected Accessibility Tool We Can’t Ignore Examining
Artificial intelligence is becoming a powerful accessibility tool for neurodivergent individuals, offering support in executive functioning, communication, workplace inclusion, and daily life. AI-powered tools help with organization, speech-to-text, sensory regulation, and social interaction, making tasks more manageable for those with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, and other forms of neurodivergence. However, AI also presents risks when designed without neurodivergent input, reinforcing biases or creating new barriers, making it crucial to advocate for ethical, inclusive AI development that prioritizes accessibility and user autonomy.
Not Just a Phase: Why We Need to Believe and Support Neurodivergent Gender-Diverse Youth
Neurodivergent gender-diverse youth, particularly autistic trans and nonbinary individuals, face unique challenges due to widespread misconceptions, systemic barriers, and increasing anti-trans rhetoric. Despite claims that their identities are a phase, research shows that autistic people are more likely to be gender-diverse and that affirming their identities significantly improves mental health outcomes. To support these youth, we must listen, believe, and advocate for their rights, ensuring they have access to gender-affirming care, safe educational environments, and communities that celebrate their existence.
Neurodivergent Joy is Resistance: Finding Happiness in a World That Others Us
Finding joy as a neurodivergent person is a radical act of resistance against a world that tries to suppress our authentic selves. Embracing our special interests, sensory experiences, and community allows us to reclaim happiness on our own terms, free from societal expectations of productivity and conformity. By prioritizing joy, rest, and self-acceptance, we assert our right to exist fully and unapologetically, creating a more affirming and inclusive future for ourselves and others.
Why Neurodivergent People Are More Susceptible to Workplace Bullying
Neurodivergent individuals are disproportionately targeted for workplace bullying due to power dynamics, ableism, and a lack of understanding about neurodivergent communication and work styles. Many workplaces prioritize neurotypical norms, forcing neurodivergent employees to mask, struggle with unclear expectations, and endure mistreatment that is often dismissed or justified. Protecting oneself involves recognizing the signs of bullying, setting boundaries, documenting incidents, and seeking support, while also pushing for systemic change that values neurodivergent workers for their strengths rather than forcing them to conform.
Reclaiming Your Autonomy: Understanding and Unlearning People-Pleasing as a Neurodivergent Person
Many neurodivergent individuals struggle with people-pleasing, a behavior rooted in masking and learned survival mechanisms that prioritize the needs of others over their own. Breaking free from these patterns requires recognizing when people-pleasing is happening, reconnecting with personal needs, and setting boundaries without guilt. Healing from a lifetime of suppressing one's own desires and limits is a gradual process, but it leads to greater self-trust, authenticity, and the ability to build relationships based on mutual respect rather than appeasement.
How to Reconnect with Lost Special Interests
Reconnecting with lost special interests is a deeply personal and healing process for neurodivergent individuals who have set aside their passions due to burnout, external pressure, or the demands of adulthood. This article explores ways to gently reintroduce curiosity and creativity into daily life, emphasizing self-compassion, exploration without expectation, and reclaiming joy for its own sake. By removing the pressure to be productive or "good" at an interest, neurodivergent people can rediscover the fulfillment and comfort that special interests provide, allowing them to reconnect with a part of themselves that may have felt lost.
Why So Many Neurodivergent People Struggle with a Sense of Self
Neurodivergent individuals often struggle with a fractured sense of self due to factors such as alexithymia, identity masking, and the pressure to conform to neurotypical expectations. Many spend years suppressing their natural traits, leading to a disconnect from their authentic identity and internalized feelings of failure or inadequacy. However, through community, self-acceptance, and engagement with special interests, neurodivergent people can reclaim their sense of self and build an identity that embraces their unique ways of thinking, feeling, and experiencing the world. A guide to knowing yourself is included in this article.
ADHD Medication Is Under Attack—And It’s a Dangerous Precedent for All Psychiatric Care
The article examines the Trump administration’s executive order targeting ADHD medication, driven by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s long-standing anti-science rhetoric, and the dangerous implications of framing these essential treatments as a "threat." It highlights how ADHD medication is not a luxury but a necessity for millions of neurodivergent individuals, enabling them to function, regulate emotions, and maintain stability in daily life. The piece calls for urgent advocacy against misinformation and political interference in medical care, emphasizing the need to protect access to ADHD and other psychiatric medications as a fundamental disability and healthcare right.