Growing in to Autism
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Growing in to Autism
- Ebook$22.99 $22.99 $22.99 $22.99 $22.99
‘After years of failed relationships, I stopped making the same mistake’
My first “romance” was when I was about 14 years old. My older sister was a bit of a party person at the time and one weekend, when our parents were away, she invited a group of friends over. This was also my first experience drinking alcohol (but that’s another story). I hung out on the edge of the party, not wanting to miss out but not knowing how to engage.
The Sydney Morning HeraldI was different, not broken’: how my autism diagnosis changed my life
The realisation that I was autistic came slowly and in pieces. When I look back, the earliest inklings were in my adolescent years, and many other clues were spread through my adulthood. When I was studying for my Bachelor of Arts degree, I took some psychology classes. I enjoyed learning more about this “disorder” but sometimes struggled to understand why some of the characteristic (diagnostic) behaviours seemed to me to be very normal thoughts, feelings and actions. I was at the time seriously considering continuing with a psychology major, but I was counselled by the university careers adviser that there weren’t many jobs for psychologists and that perhaps I didn’t have the “people skills” for that career.
The GuardianSandra Thom-Jones on understanding autism and life after diagnosis
After realising she had autism, Sandra Thom-Jones began to understand that she didn't experience the world like neurotypical people. She shares her path to diagnosis, the costs of masking her true self and the decision to disclose her autism.
ABC Radion National