There are bigots and purists who can’t cope someone having autism and co-occurring mental health issues. I am diagnosed with autism AND Dissociative Identity Disorder. Anyone who lives with someone with autism will know that most people with autism dissociate (cut off, shutdown) more commonly than most, yet somehow tell people you have a dissociative disorder along the spectrum of dissociative disorders AND that you are a person diagnosed with autism, well, seems for some people, their head falls off. Read the rest of this entry »

I have worked with attachment disordered kids with autism and those who are not. Sometimes its a matter of the level of sensory perceptual chaos they live with, sometimes its about growing up treated more as a case/condition than a person, SOMETIMES its about being in an intensive program your particular personality PERCEIVES as repeatedly invasive, abusive, traumatizing even if an achievement driven (such as those with OCPD), pleaser types (those with AvPD) might thrive in exactly the same program. Of course if we acknowledge any of this we’d have to lose the idea of one-size-fits-all approaches. Read the rest of this entry »

I was asked if I’d ever heard of Disorganised Syndrome. Wow! At first I thought, how funny, don’t we ALL have disorganized syndrome! Then I thought, what a stupid, stupid world, that we are labeling and pathologising everything we consider ‘imperfect’. BUT…. yes, I did some quick research and yes, there IS a condition called Disorganised Syndrome! Read the rest of this entry »

People feel afraid, awkward etc re co-occurring (co-morbid) mental health issues. A lot of those interested in autism are unnerved if I talk about DID, as if they can’t reconcile that someone with a mental health problem is still functional, knowledgeable, empathic, fully ‘human’. Yet, ironically, 30% of adults with autism will have co-morbids, including those which commonly occur in people with DID and PTSD which is part of the same spectrum of dissociative disorders as DID. Read the rest of this entry »

How would you know your child was BORN autistic? How could you be sure your autistic child was not born autistic? How old was your child when you saw the first signs that your child was autistic? Read the rest of this entry »

As an autism consultant since 1996, I thought I’d do some Autism myth busting. I asked the 5000 people on my FB page to suggest a stereotype, assumption or belief about autism and lets do some myth busting. Here’s how it went: Read the rest of this entry »

A man diagnosed with autism, Paul Isaacs asked me: How big do you think the Autism Spectrum is? So far there seems to be many subgroups such as Classic Autism, Mid-Functioning Autism, High Functioning Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, Atypical Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Broader Autism Phenotype. Do you think there is room for more? Read the rest of this entry »

I know of adults and teens with autism who have spoken or written about losing awareness of parts of their body… they’ve felt they are floating without awareness of volitionally using their legs, or felt they are just a head and the body is working ‘without them’. I wanted to know about other people’s experiences so I put it to those on my Facebook Page:
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I am diagnosed with both autism and a dissociative disorder called DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). I have met others with both diagnosed conditions so the two can certainly co-exist. Read the rest of this entry »

To answer this we really need to ask several questions. Read the rest of this entry »