Personal Questions/Paths to Diagnosis:

KATE BOUNDY:

What was your pathway to your current diagnosis like?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

1965: Diagnosed as psychotic at age 2 in 1965 at St Elmos Private Hospital, Brunswick, Vic, Australia.

1970s: Assessed by Psych and Guidance team as ‘disturbed’ some time in mid-late childhood.

1972: Diagnosed with language processing disorder around 1972 and again in 2006.

1973: Teacher suggested autism to my parents around 1973

1972: Health interventions around 1972 (zinc, vit C, multivitamin/minerals)

1991: Diagnosed with autism by Dr Lawrence Bartak, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, Vic, Australia

KATE BOUNDY:

When were you first diagnosed?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

1965, aged 2.

KATE BOUNDY:

What diagnosis were you given?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

Childhood psychosis

KATE BOUNDY:

Were you given other diagnoses over the years before obtaining your current diagnosis/diagnoses?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

Those under the age of 3 diagnosed psychotic or disturbed would usually today be diagnosed with autism. It was the semantics of the 60s and 70s which had changed by the 80s.

KATE BOUNDY:

Do you agree with your current diagnosis?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

I feel autism doesn’t exist. I feel autistic is an adjective for a type of withdrawal, encapsulation, a style of development and behaviours.

I feel I had visual/verbal/body agnosias (sensory perceptual disorders), that these and co-morbid mood, anxiety, compulsive disorders since age 2-3, together with immune deficiencies since 6 mths (and measles and mumps at age 2), against a developmental backdrop of marked neglect, abuse, trauma and loss (my mother was an emotionally disturbed alcoholic who probably had post natal depression) alcohol damage in utero and inheritance of genetic issues from a paternal line of two generations of first cousin marriages contributed to a combination of challenges.  In combination, I feel these challenges were so overwhelming to my physical, neurological, emotional, social and communication development I had a kind of developmental derailment. I believe that derailment resulted in a different developmental path which was an autistic (as in the adjective) one.

KATE BOUNDY:

If you were previously misdiagnosed with another condition, what is it you feel is more accurate about your current diagnosis?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

My diagnosis as psychotic at age 2 was the result me appearing deaf, staring through people and compulsively tensing my stomach muscles and compulsively coughing against this resistance to the point of coughing up blood (self injurious behaviours). As such I believe the diagnosis as psychotic was due to medical ignorance at that time about visual/verbal agnosias and Tourette’s in toddlers. I feel however that if today the same type of child was diagnosed with autism, that would also be ignorant even though ‘autistic’ would be correct. In other words, I had presented with health issues (bruising, bleeding gums, eyelashes falling out), with Tourette’s tics, with verbal and visual agnosias so I’d like to think we’ll evolve to a place where specialists can diagnose WHAT conditions are presenting ‘autistically’ rather than looking for ’symptoms of autism’ or, as it was in 1965, ’symptoms of childhood psychosis’.

I feel that in mid-late childhood my behaviour was disturbed and that the isolation and chaos of my conditions and the environment’s inability to understand or work appropriately with these did lead to emotional disturbance. I think it was wrong to cast aside my emotional disturbance when I was formally diagnosed with autism because in my case the issues that comprised my ‘autism’ had, until they were managed and adaptations made use of, made me emotionally disturbed.

KATE BOUNDY:

What do you see as the benefits and downsides to obtaining an official official diagnosis?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

It helped me look beyond the labels of psychotic, disturbed, autistic, to learn about ‘autism fruit salads’ and from that understand the vast diversity of children and adults diagnosed on the autism spectrum. It also helped me to rebel and assert where my ‘autism’ differed from my personality and so reclaim my personhood, that I am more than any label or condition.

KATE BOUNDY:

In your experience, are there any differences in the paths men and women follow when seeking an official diagnosis, particularly of an autistic spectrum disorder?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

As toddlers, no. As adults, yes. The women are still less likely to neatly fit the stereotypes and if they get too emotional, appear too insightful etc, they seem more likely to be dismissed when seeking a diagnosis.

Neurodiversity Questions:

KATE BOUNDY:

When did you first hear of or how did you first become involved with the neurodiversity movement?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

Many who joined the movement after the mid 90s don’t know that I am one of the founders of the movement.  It was me, Jim Sinclair and Kathy Lissner-Grant in 1992 who began ANI (Autism Network International) as the first global self advocacy group run by people diagnosed on the spectrum. This was before the online forums, before all the splinter groups. We were the first group. Before us was only MAAP (More Advance Autistic People) which was parent run but we wanted the voices of those with autism to lead, to show we could do this for our own people.

Jim became the most outspoken in the neurodiversity movement with his iconic ‘Don’t Mourn For Us’ paper. Kathy remained a welcoming committee and my job was to use my public profile like a beacon so people would know how to find ANI and link up. But by 1996-98 they had created their own offshoots.

Coming from a position of someone with significant health issues, co-morbids and agnosias, I empathised with families who wanted treatment and so, whilst I equally advocated for recogition of our equality, our right to be ourselves, use our own systems, I never became part of the war between culturalists and cureists. I was criticised for this, sometimes very publicly hated, but I had to be who I am.

Today I’m accepted by many in both the culturalist and cureist movements (and equally hated by zealots in both camps). I don’t want to erradicate autism. I don’t support a cure for ‘autism’ but I do support treatment and cure for disabling health conditions such as immune disorders, and gut disorders like Coeliac, Crohns, Ulcerative Colitis and detox disorders like severe Salicylate Intolerance etc.

I support treatment for health disorders, co-morbid disorders, sensory perceptual disorders, disabling neurological impairments etc. If individuals or families chose cure routes for these things I would accept that and if it reduced their child’s ‘autistic’ presentation so be it. I also distinguish between autistic looking personalities and ‘autism’ and I distinguish between dyspraxia and autism and between social emotional agnosia and autism…. in other words, I see a day where the word autism will be looked at the way we look at the terms ‘childhood psychosis’ or ‘emotionally disturbed’. We’ll realise we were learning about diversity and that we had far more differences than we had similarities, only the struggles for services, equality, the right to be oneself were our commonalities.

KATE BOUNDY:

What do you see as the most central tenets of the neurodiversity movement? What has its greatest cultural impact been so far?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

It has helped some people have pride, find belonging. It has confused others who have joined it but then rejected it as too extreme, too focused on stereotypes to the degree they felt they had to play down their differences, conform, and felt at risk of losing their identity and individuality.

The movement welcomed many but as aggressive extremists dominated some forums, making themselves spokespeople for all, it developed a war monging air to it, a stigma of ‘hate groups’. There was often overindulgence in self pity and resentment to the degree that for some it seemed to take a long time for them to consider diplomacy and those who did were seen as ‘weak’ or despised as ‘moderates’.

I think its greatest cultural impact has been to help people recognise autistic traits in much of society and the valid reality that there are a significant percentage of those on the spectrum who don’t require treatment or interventions, just advocacy, understanding and adaptations.

KATE BOUNDY:

How has this movement and/or the ideas coming out of this movement affected you personally?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

I’d have to say that it didn’t become what me, Kathy and Jim envisioned. We envisioned something more inclusive. Our vision was one of building bridges, not declaring wars, of bringing autism-friendly non-spectrum people into our circles, of diplomacy, a sharing of cultures. We all detested the division between ‘high’ and ‘low’ functioning and saw us all as different but equal and none of us saw the way forward as being flag waving figures like Einstein or Newton or boasting high IQs. We felt we had enough heros in our own ranks and wanted them to have a voice, to be known. We celebrated our differences not just our similarities. We were delighting in smashing all the stereotypes, not playing up to them, and certainly not creating new ones. We never talked of ‘one voice’. I guess our vision was more John Lennon, more Martin Luther King Jr, less Malcolm X, more Ghandi, less Mugabe.

I guess I’m still watching the movement transition, lose its novelty factor, watching the war horses separate from the diplomats. Yeah, I’m watching. I’m also very much my own movement. I’m about deconstructing the labels themselves. So, I guess I’m a maverick, not a follower.

KATE BOUNDY:

Are there any aspects of the goals/tenets that you think are problematic? If so, what are they and why do you see them as problematic?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

The new stereotypes are flimsy. They are already falling apart. Those most public seem full of rhetoric or repeating the same lines, saying nothing new, not being innovative, afraid to cross any lines of exploration. I’m a sociologist but many are behaving like politicians or psychologists. They’re not looking holistically and not daring to embrace difference where it might deconstruct the labels themselves. Deeply loving a label, building your entire selfhood, identity or career on it, is a very blind route. I’m know for my autism, I’m an autism consultant and public speaker, my books are associated with autism, my art and music are valued because they speak of autistic realities. But I have always tried to be more, to be Donna, to sing, write poetry, paint, sculpt about things way beyond autism. With The Aspinauts we do songs about environmentalism, war, feminism, globalisation, media.

KATE BOUNDY:

What would a culture that truly honored neurodiversity look like?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

We already have it. There are wonderful people in the community who accept neurodiversity without ever being pressured to do so… its their nature as personalities. There are other personalities who could never embrace neurodiversity because that’s just who they are. But it’s a myth to think that the latter are non-spectrum. I’ve met those on the spectrum who detest difference and disability and are disgusted, even traumatised to learn or face their own neurological differences. So it comes down to personalities and waiting for some nirvana in which all conservative Xenophobic personalities are eradicated or supressed doesn’t sound like my egalitarian nirvana. It doesn’t sound like ‘truly honored neurodiversity’ because even Xenophobes are neurodiverse… lets face it, they aren’t everyone, and we can’t completely unmake a Xenophobe, therefore they are part of neurodiversity.

KATE BOUNDY:

How would the lives of both those who identify as neurodiverse and those who see themselves as neurotypical be different in such a culture?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

There are those on the spectrum who insist on hiding their neurodiversity, sometimes even from themselves, because they are simply averse to ‘difference’ and see it as ‘damage’ etc. So I don’t accept there are those who are one or the other, not at all. Get close, very close, to anyone ‘neurotypical’ and you’ll find a degree of neurodiversity whether its that they are coffeeholics, diabetic, have a phobia of baldness, have fetishes etc.

KATE BOUNDY:

What kind of structural change might have to take place?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

To achieve some biblical truly honored neurodiversity at a broad cultural level you’d have to create a holocaust in which you killed off all with Xenophobic, even strongly conservative-conformist tendencies. I’m a Taoist. I don’t dream of such ‘nirvana’ because to me that sounds like a bland, dictatorial hell. I can live with the knocks, with the Xenophobes and rigid conservative conformists. They are part of the tapestry. We help each other define who we are, fight for who we are, agree not to sameness but to a truce. I forgave ‘them’ their world in my 20s, long after most who had ever abused me had already forgave me mine. I do take the Xenophobes and conservative-conformists to task, just as they try to with me. That’s part of life. It is abrasive, and sometimes its smooth sailing. But I don’t dream of a nirvana in which I’d have to become their judge, their master, dictating their cultural values.

Gender Questions:

KATE BOUNDY:

How many people in the movement do you know? Of these, how many are women and how many are men?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

Plenty.

KATE BOUNDY:

Do you perceive a difference in their activism? If so, describe the difference.

DONNA WILLIAMS:

There are extremists, zealots, egalitarians and diplomats amidst both genders. It is a stereotype to think the men are more war monging. Some of the most damaging and extremist have been women.

KATE BOUNDY:

Do you perceive any changes in who is being singled out by the media, etc to represent the movement over time? If so, please describe.

DONNA WILLIAMS:

Before I’m lynched, let me say that on a personal level, I’ve spent time with Temple and as a person, I like her as much as most human beings, no more, no less.   Nevertheless, Temple Grandin is the ‘autistic’ most used to represent the neurodiversity movement.  But my view is that this is because she utterly toes the line. She nevers rock the neurodiversity boat. She’s never challenges the movement. She introduces herself not as a person with autism but as ‘an autistic’ and proclaims that all of her value is due or traceable back to her autism so she is totally identified with it.  That is the neurodiversity movement’s version of a post child.

Temple doesn’t distinguish her obsessive-compulsive personality nor Social Emotional Agnosia or Alexithymia or being a solitary, forthright personality or a masculine woman from her autism. To her they are one and the same and that helps call it all ‘autism’, which I think is utterly unhelpful and stagnates the field.

Whilst she has been treated for depression and panic disorder, Temple otherwise lacks any significant co-morbid disorders, health issues or severe sensory perceptual disorders (such as visual-verbal-body agnosias or aphasias) so she’s much easier to put forward as an archetypal ‘autistic’. And she’s from the ‘right’ social class. Her lineage is well educated with high IQ, good early access to nannies and therapists. It’s an utterly tidy background, quite homogenous. There’s no untidy class issues or social issues to juggle.

Her personality is fixated on ability and achievement, reason and logic. She is able to proclaim high IQ and is at ease to speak of herself in the same sentence as Einstein. She achieved PhD level and in an industry outside of autism (slaughter industry and animal husbandary). She’s American which makes her the iconic representative of the largest English speaking population and that which dominates media representations of autism and the neurodiversity movement. All of this makes her ‘a safe bet’.

But Temple represents only one form of autistic development, or ‘autistic’ personality, of ‘autistic intelligence’. And she’s not holistic and her long term hands-on work has been with cows, not autistic children so she doesn’t have much more than her own experience to draw upon or those she meets through conferences or online. It’s not the same as those who have long term hands on experience way beyond their own case. So, for example, she has written in published works and proclaimed in public interviews in the past that all autistics need more stimulation, that all autistics think in pictures, that augmented communication is a sham, that those who appear ‘low functioning’ have mental retardation and so forth. She’s ultimately had to retract all of these sorts of statements but ideally I’d have preferred that she’d have had enough in depth, hands-on involvement working with those with autism (instead of cows) that she’d have learned the limitations of her statements before needing to retract them.  So however iconic and useful the neurodiversity movement has found her, these sort things put some limitations on the value of her input to the field in general.

KATE BOUNDY:

How do you perceive your own participation? Do you believe your participation and/or particular movement related interests are shaped by your gender? If so, how?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

I feel I have been able to say more things than a male could have. Being female I’m more forgiven for being outspoken but also more susceptible to being dismissed as nuts. There’s both a gender and classist element there. From men, I’ve been a traget on both accounts. From women, I’ve been a target from a classist aspect.

KATE BOUNDY:

Do you see any differences in the social/cultural expectations applied to men with autism as opposed to women with autism?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

Yes. Women can be blunt and outspoken and it’s often laughed off. Men who do the same are often seen as more of a threat. Men, however, can be solitary and detached and it’s accepted as ‘male’ but women who are solitary and capable of great logic and detachment are not as accepted. Similarly, sensitive, aloof men are far more bullied where the same in women has made them victims of sexploitation and abuse or part of missing out on a diagnosis.

KATE BOUNDY:

Are there any misconceptions about women within the neurodiversity, about the neurodiversity movement in general, or about women with your diagnosis that you would like to correct?

DONNA WILLIAMS:

It’s a misconception that we speak with ‘one voice’; that there is a division between those who are neurodiverse and those who are neurotypical (as opposed to a scale or matters of degree).

This item originally posted here:

Donna Williams speaks out about autism and neurodiversity.

My original art works have been exhibited and sold nationally and internationally and usually sell for $100-$1,500.  The Limited Edition prints are from collections of only 50 meaning that after 50 art prints are made of each of the original works these are derived from no more art prints will be made so there will only ever be 50 of these in the world.

If you’ve wanted one of my original artworks, or want to buy one as a fundraiser for a charity auction, now’s a good time to grab one in this sale.  It lasts 6 days so be quick.  You can find the ebay link here

Happy bidding.

Warmly,

Donna Williams *)
author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.

http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm

http://www.aspinauts.com

• Email address: bookings(at)donnawilliams.net
• Web site: www.donnawilliams.net

(* denotes solo exhibit)

• 2004: Postcard Exhibition, Linden Gallery, Melbourne
• 2005: * Original works and prints, Art@8 Gallery, Melbourne (solo)
• 2005: Frankston Festival Art Exhibition, Melbourne
• 2006: * Autism and Sensing, Vanguard Gallery, Melbourne (solo)
• 2007: * Alternative Normalities, Gallery 15, Melbourne (solo)
• 2007: Spectrum art auction, Cornwall, UK
• 2007: Prism Gallery, Huntington, Virginia, USA
• 2008: * Alternative Normalities, Grenfell Gallery, Adelaide, Australia (solo)
• 2008: World Autism Awareness Art Exhibition, United Nations Building, New York, NY, USA
• 2008: The Savant Exhibition, Manhattan Children’s Centre, New York, NY
• 2008: * Beyond Words, Gallery 15, Melbourne, Australia (solo)
• 2008: Footsteps Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
• 2009: * A Place of Belonging, Grenfell Gallery, Adelaide, Australia (solo)
• 2009: Jarmbi Gallery, Burrinja Cultural Centre, Melbourne, Australia
• 2009: UN Plaza, New York, NY, USA

• 1997: Sculpture Exhibition, Malvern Hills College, Great Malvern, UK
• 1998: * Victorian Water Cure Exhibition, Malvern Museum, Great Malvern, UK (Commissioned museum exhibit for public display)
• 2006: * Autism and Sensing; the Unlost Instinct, Vanguard Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
• 2009: Jarmbi Gallery, Burrinja Cultural Centre, Melbourne, Australia

• 1990: Nobody Nowhere became a number one international best-seller and was the first mainstream published autobiography of a person diagnosed with autism. It was a controversial and groundbreaking book at that time which became translated into 20 languages, was 10 weeks at number one on the New York Times Best-Seller list and sold over half a million copies. Its worldwide exposure paved the way for so many others who have since had their works published throughout the world.
• 1992: Somebody Somewhere also became an international number one best-seller.
• 1996: Autism; An Inside Out Approach.
• 1998: Autism and Sensing; The Unlost Instinct.
• 1998: Like Colour To The Blind.
• 2003: Exposure Anxiety; The Invisible Cage of Involuntary Self Protection Responses.
• 2004: Everyday Heaven.
• 2004: Not Just Anything.
• 2005: The Jumbled Jigsaw.
• 2010: Weirdos Like Me.

• 1999: Nobody Nowhere (named after the book)
• 2005: Mutation
• 2010: Broken Biscuit

In 2000 two songs from the Nobody Nowhere album were featured in a Japanese TV series, Things You Taught Me (TBS) that has been released internationally and released on the soundtrack for the film.

In 2007 and 2008 two tracks from the Nobody Nowhere album made the top 50 on Artist Underground and the track Beautiful Behavioural Mutations had 15,000 hits in a year on You Tube.

In 2008 Donna formed an inter-arts rock band, Donna and The Aspinauts which began performing in 2009.

They produced their debut album, Broken Biscuit, in 2010, produced by Paul Spears at PV Sounds Studio.

• 2005: Wrote the screenplay to Nobody Nowhere (now under option to Hollywood producer Beverly Nero).
• 2005-2006: Wrote 5 other feature films, now represented by a Hollywood film agent, Liz Hanley of Bicoastal Talent, Burbank, CA.
• 2007: Awarded a commendation for the feature film screenplay The Tower.

I featured in four television documentaries:

• 1993: Autism, Emotion and Behavior, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung, USA
• 1995: Jam Jar, Fresh Film, in association with Channel 4, UK
• 1995: Krankheit Als Schicksal, Spiegel TV, Germany
• 1995: Yokoso Watashi No Sekai E “Jiheisho” Donna Williams, NHK, Japan

and five other television appearances:

• 1992: Person Of The Week on Peter Jennings, ABC News, USA
• 1998: Midlands Today Evening News, UK : appeared with my life sized sculpture, My World, The World
• 1994: Norwegian Evening News, Norway.
• 1999: BBC, UK.
• 2006: Insight, SBS, Australia.
• 2007: Win News, Channel 9, Australia.
• 2008: Visions, Channel 31, Melbourne, Australia

• New York Times (US)
• Los Angeles Times (US)
• Boston Globe (US)
• Washington Post (US)
• Toronto Star (Canada)
• National Post (Canada)
• Maclean’s Magazine (Canada)
• Mirabella (US)
• Life Magazine (UK)
• Hello (UK)
• Women’s Day (UK)
• The Guardian (UK)
• The Mail (UK)
• The Express (UK)
• The Independent (UK)
• The Age (Australia)
• Leader (Australia)
• MX (Australia)
• Other publications in Norway, Germany, Israel, France, Japan, Italy.

• Women’s Hour, Jenny Murray, BBC, UK
• Morningside Program, Peter Gzowski, CBC, Canada
• National Public Radio, New York, USA
• Autism One Radio, USA
• ABC, Sydney, Australia
• 3CR, Melbourne, Australia
• MDR, Melbourne, Australia
• Also featured on German radio.

This item originally posted here:

Art Works by Donna Williams on Ebay

Wondering how to stop thinking, doing, judging and learn how to be, or how to strengthen the ability to be to the point it doesn’t cause boredom, agitation or withdrawal symptoms from Facebook or Nintendo?  Then I recommend this place.

It’s donation basis is highly affordable.  You can attend sessions on an ad-hoc basis and see if its for you.  The Buddhists at the centre are real people, earthy, warm, approachable with none of that floating on clouds false ‘new agey’ thing.  Tibetan Buddhism is steeped in rich history thousands of years old.  This is real, tangible spirituality at your own pace (note, I said spirituality, not religion) and, no, you don’t have to be a vegetarian nor religious to try it out.  Even if you just go along for a new cultural experience, it’s a great atmosphere and as close as you’ll get to the feel of a Buddhist temple in the foothills of Dandenong Ranges (it’s also walking distance from Tecoma station if you want to leave the car at home).

This item originally posted here:

Melbourne Buddhist Centre in Tecoma

I had yellow teeth with holes,

Big enough to fall through.

Twenty six years of antibiotics

written on my enamel.

I got famous, got veneers,

I felt so guilty,

people were starving in Africa

and I wanted to smile

without shame.

When I was a homeless girl

I had favorite knickers.

They’d done time.

Their sides held with safety pins

on a dyed blond punkette

but they were mine.

I got famous, bought lingerie,

I had a bra from a shop that smelled of newness

I had knickers you could frame on a wall

And I wondered how much a girl in China

Had got paid for each pair.

When I was a homeless girl

I fought with a druggie over a fifty cent sweater

it was cable knit, wool, shrunken and tatty

but it looked so alive in the dead of winter.

And he won, after he slapped my face.

I got famous,

bought the best sweater in the op shop

a whole five dollars

with a no-name label

and the knowledge it was mine.

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

When I was a homeless girl

On May 21st, for one night only Donna Williams and The Aspinauts will perform the rock musical Footsteps of a Nobody at the prestigious Wendouree Centre For Performing Arts.  Proudly sponsored by Ballarat Autism Network as part of World Autism Awareness Month, the WCPA is Ballarat’s jewel in the crown theatre with seating for over 850.  With question time to follow the show this is an opportunity for an amazing, informative and inspiring night out.

WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH EVENT

Footsteps of a Nobody is a powerful one woman rock-musical written, directed and performed by Donna Williams, author of the international bestseller, Nobody Nowhere; Autobiography of an Autistic Girl and musically accompanied by The Aspinauts.   Through characterisations, gestural signing, evocative spoken word and song it traces Donna’s pivotal experiences from a meaning deaf, meaning blind feral child to homelessness and on to her ultimate fight to claim a place of equality among others.

Disabled access is available.  Show is suitable for teens and adults. Question time available after the show.

REVIEWS OF DONNA WILLIAMS’ WRITING:

She allows us to understand our own perceptions as never before.
NEW YORK TIMES

Powerful and unique.
DAILY TELEGRAPH

Deserves every superlative a reviewer can muster.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Powerful enough to make one reassess what it means to be human.
MODE

By turns fascinating and harrowing…
PEOPLE MAGAZINE

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THE FOOTSTEPS SHOW:

“The show was outstanding; you are very talented. The Q & A at the end was a great surprise. Thank you for a great night, fantastic performance, amazing music and wonderful conversation provoked afterwards!”

- Kelly O’Brien

“I found your performance last night extremely moving. You have a beautiful voice and your poetry and song lyrics are amazing! Thank you once again for your inspirational show Donna”.

- Jill Young
WHERE: Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts, Howitt St, Wendouree, Ballarat.

COST:  Full Price $20,  under 18s  $5.00

TIME: 7-8pm

BOOKINGS: Phone Bookings & payment direct to Booking Office -03 5338 0980
Hours- Tues-Fri -9.00am -1.00pm and 2.00 – 4.30pm

ENQUIRIES: contact Kris on kks(at)netconnect.com.au

• Disabled access available

• Suitable for teens and older children

• Question time available after the show

Proudly sponsored by: Ballarat Autism Network

http://www.donnawilliams.net

This item originally posted here:

The Aspinauts head to Ballarat’s Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts

Here’s the video clip made by Oz Thomas, a colorful human and a wonderful poet in his own right.

This item originally posted here:

Ladies and Gentlemen , welcome to the war

To quote from http://houseconcertsaustralia.ning.com/

House Concerts are one of the most important trends in independent music today – and they’re popping up all over the world!

How long do artists play?

4 piece band (drums, lead, bass, vocals)
(or $15 per person if 30 people).

3 piece band (drums, keys, vocals)
(or $10 per person if 30 people).

Duo (keys, vocals)
(or $8.50 per person if 30 people).

email us: bookings@donnawilliams.net

This item originally posted here:

Melbourne House Concerts – Donna and The Aspinauts

Severe autism is NOT being discussed and it’s getting real old…this is such bs….everyones ignoring this side to the detriment of their own souls

If Temple Grandin was 2 trying to say ‘ball’ but only able to say ‘bah’ and couldn’t communicate until she was 3, is that ’severe autism’?  If we add to that that she smeared feces at age 2 and 3 and hated scratchy petitcoats so much she tantrumed does that make her autism more ’severe’?  An obsessive compulsive personality (see OCPD) geared for achievement and capable of high levels of fixation.  Does that make Temple more autistic than other personalities?   If we add that she was a highly intelligent with enough dyspraxia to have been unable to pronounce speech clearly without speech therapy, sensorily disorganised (commonly occurs in dyspraxia) and was unco-ordinated enough to be misjudged as ‘brain damaged’ how does that shape our view of her discussion of having been ’severely autistic’?  She was brought up by nanny’s with a temperamental, detached father and a mother busy with her career as a performer and at age 3 she so craved to be part of their dinner party conversations she felt communicatively disabled unable to be part of them.  She was such a high level visual thinker that not only could she think fluently in pictures but she could put those to incoming speech.

It is clear from her interview that her father was quite socially detached.  Could he have had social emotional agnosia – the inability to read facial expression, body language and intonation, if not Alexithymia so common in those with Asperger’s and rendering them far more cerebral, logical in the absence of a functional emotional world?  Did Temple inherit that, rendering her world a cerebral, intellectual one?

And what would an emotive, artistic mother have made of that, of having such a ‘masculine girl’ (and there’s no doubt Temple is a picture of female masculinity) when she expected her to like pretty dresses like her sister did?   Could such gender related expectations complicate emotional and social development if one by nature could never possibly comfortably live up to these whether autistic or not?

Could we see a socially and emotionally frustrated/overwhelmed ’severely dyspraxic’ child whose natural identity was rather cerebral, even masculine, who had developed complications of autistic withdrawal, attachment disorder and behavioral disturbance?  This is not to say Temple is not autistic.  She is as autistic as anyone formally diagnosed with autism.  However looking beyond the word ‘autism’ makes Temple’s case one of the rich tapestries of autism cases which have us keep true diversity in mind.

But it does raise the question of what do we really mean by ‘SEVERE AUTISM’?

I’ve been to the homes of autistic children deemed ’severely autistic’.  Some were like Temple would have been, some were like I was.  Some were completely different again.  Working as an autism consultant I’ve had the privilege of seeing how these kids then grew up.   A few who were ’severely autistic’ at 3 developed functional verbal or typed speech and had outgrown much of their ‘autism’ by the age of 5.  Some had moved from appearing ’severely autistic’ at 3 to appearing only moderately autistic by their teens.  One progressed to having Catatonic Excitability and Catatonic Stupor and presented even more ’severely autistic’ by his teens but once hospitalized and treated for this began to develop basic skills.   I also saw ’severely autistic’ teens who became far more well adjusted, responsible for their behaviors and self help once they were able to type.

In working with hundred’s of children and adults with autism since 1996, I had to research far beyond my own ‘autistic’ experiences.  Through this I learned that by ’severe autism’ people often mean severe visual/verbal/body agnosias, Speech Aphasia, Apraxia, severe hypotonia, severe Tourette’s, severe OCD (not to be confused with OCPD)severe Rapid Cycling Bipolar, severe depression and Anhedonia,  Catatonic Exciteability, Catatonic Stupor,  severe untreated gut/immune/metabolic disorders impacting on gut and brain function, extreme learned helplessness and Dependant Personality Disorder, extreme Exposure Anxiety in a pursuing socially invasive environment, rage disorders, people addicted to their own behaviourally induced chemical highs.

We do need to discuss ’severe autism’.  But we need to discuss the MEANING of severe ‘autism’ versus where severe underlying conditions so isolate and burden the individual, so derail development that they develop significantly disabling ‘autistic defensiveness’, ‘autistic withdrawal’ and develop and behave ‘autistically’.

‘Autistic heros’ should use their public role not to portray ‘their autism’ as ‘the real autism’, ‘the only autism’, ‘the one true autism’ or allow themselves to be waved as a ‘poster child’ for autism or any one-sized-fits-all, but ill-fitting, ‘hope’.  If autistic ‘heros’ have a role, it might be to use their visibility to remind all people to dare dissect the word itself.  That means not fixating on a new stereotypes of ‘autistic culture’ (that’s had enough press and books to last a decade) but open mindedly exploring our vast range of autism fruit salads and the autistic differences these lead to.  Only then will people be able to build their own road maps for their children based not on those of ‘autistic heros’ but on the unsung hero they live with.

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

My own case could be equally dissected.  Born to an alcoholic mother who was from several generations of alcoholic mothers.  My father’s somewhat ‘autie‘ mother was the product of two generations of first cousin marriages.  Both of my parents were uneducated, came from poverty.  Addiction, alcoholism, ADHD, bipolar, depression, rage disorders, dyslexia, OCD, Tourette’s, Agoraphobia, Asperger’s, Autism, allergies, gut disorders, cancer, respiratory and ear infections, verbal agnosia (meaning deafness) have appeared in combinations on each side.

I was subject to abuse and neglect from months old.  I was the second child, born 16 months after my brother to a young mother, already struggling with alcoholism, domestic abuse and probably Post Natal Depression who was already damaged from a background of poverty, ignorance, abuse and neglect.

I had immune dysfunction from 6 months old, grew up face blind, meaning deaf, object blind, context blind, disconnected from my body (visual, verbal, body agnosias and the attachment difficulties those would have entailed regardless of environment), dealt with Tourette’s tics since age 2, bipolar since age 3, OCD since age 9, had inherited tendencies toward addiction which had me compulsively trying to trigger extreme emotional states to get high, lived with PTSD and extreme Exposure Anxiety resulting in compulsive avoidance, diversion and retaliaton responses.

I was assessed at a hospital as psychotic at age 2, disturbed by mid childhood, still tested for deafness at age 9 when my meaning deafness was finally understood, and acquired functional speech by late childhood after a lifetime of echolalia.  I was diagnosed with autism in my 20s.  We could call me brain damaged, developmentally disabled due to abuse and neglect, someone with genetic and environmental immune system damage which affected my neurological development and brain chemistry.  Or someone with an ‘autism fruit salad‘ born to a family genetically and environmentally predisposed to different elements which only together in enough combination would have resulted in autistic withdrawal, autistic development.

Adopt out my parents at birth to other environments.  Would that pair still have brought their own ‘fruit salads’ to the table resulting in a child with the same issues, albeit perhaps less complicated?

Two of my first cousins on my mother’s side were adopted out at birth.  Both found their birth families in their 20s.  Both committed suicide.   Maybe what we inherit physiologically, genetically, would play out regardless.

This item originally posted here:

Where are the real autistics?

Grizzle, grizzle, grizzle grump.
Sore throat you woke me like a broken record.
“But you sounded so good…”.
And I remember myself like a poster glossy and shiny
shredded overnight in my interrupted dreams.

We’ll fingers crossed, hey?
We’ll hope like hell.
‘Cause Jesus ain’t waiting in the sunlight with fairy dust.
and positive thinking won’t buy me a Mercedes
(or an immune system).

Click your heels Dorothy.
Hope ’til your nipples fall off.
My body doesn’t wave magic wands.
‘Oh well, we’ll see’ works fine for me.

‘If you just had thought…’, ‘if you just had…’
‘if you’, ‘if’, ‘ifffffff… ‘
OCD loves magical thinking and all the ‘just believes’.
It pops my ear tubes to create magical perfection
80% of my waking hour
until I wonder where’s the knife to cut my head off.

Bugs don’t give two shits how I look.
Immune boosters make me glow a million bucks (and almost cost the earth).
My immunity thumbs its nose like a cheap whore
and says, with a wink, ‘check mate’, what’s you’re move’?
And I quickly fumble in my pockets for loose change.

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

The dance with immune deficiency

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

It’s In The Can