Over on my facebook page someone asked …“If you had to explain what is autism in simple terms to a person who knew nothing about it what would you say? “
It was a great question and putting autism in simple terms… well that’s so hard because the word is misused for SO MUCH. For example among the conditions I identified in The Jumbled Jigsaw as part of an autism ‘fruit salad’ were… Read the rest of this entry »
The strangest thing happened on my way to pneumonia… Read the rest of this entry »
Sally Colletti is involved with Advocates for Autism (www.advocateforautism.com) and is compiling a book about Atypical Seizures. When I mentioned my diagnosis in my 20s of Atypical Epilepsy she asked me about my own experiences. Here’s our interview: Read the rest of this entry »
Like a large percentage of the autistic population and a large percentage of the ADHD population, I’m salicylate intolerant which means foods high in salicylates can increase asthma, give me hives, migraines and joint inflammation, suppress liver function, suppress immunity and trigger further food and chemical allergies and associated fatigue. High salicylate levels also make my mind race and make me anxious, distracted and hyper.
In those with salicylate intolerance, high levels commonly affect these people like cocaine might affect others and it’s not unusual to find those with salicylate intolerance diagnosed with Read the rest of this entry »
After 4 months of lung infection, nose infection, ear infection, throat infection, four antibiotics and every nutritional and lifestyle intervention for Primary Immune Deficiency, finally, fairly good news today from the doc today. They now know exactly which bug I have (they knew it was bacterial but had a lot of tests to work out which one it was) which means we can now fight it better. It’s a kind of pneumonia called Haemophilus Influenzae (one of which is Hib) and 3 of the 4 antibiotics we’d tried are not known to touch it so I may not be immune to antibiotics yet which is great news for me, thanks Santa. Read the rest of this entry »
Some of you may remember the Autie Christmas Poem I did on YouTube a few years ago
Well, it got turned into a song called “Merry Christmas” over on
Over on the 2009 online AWARES International Autism Conference the host there, Adam Feinstein, wrote:
What do you think of the latest study (from the University of Cambridge) showing that the brains of people with autism are less active when engaged in self-reflective thought. Read the rest of this entry »
Melanie Hadley is in her final year at Birmingham City University studying Textile Design. She is researching for her dissertation and is focusing on the benefits of art with children with disabilities, people on the autistic spectrum and adults. She asked me some questions about how art has affected my life and about my ARTism. Here’s our interview: Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to Autism 2009, the fifth online world conference to be held within the AWARES conference centre.
This conference opens on Monday, November 30, 2009, and runs for a week until December 7, 2009. Paper abstracts will be accessible from early November.
Speaker list includes*:
Professor Simon Baron-Cohen
Donna Williams
Dr Susan Folstein
Dr Gary Mesibov
Professor Susan Leekam
Dr Wendy Lawson
Dr Manuel Casanova
Stephen Shore….
Read the rest of this entry »
I knew these things, but somehow ‘the advertising’ got in the way
but I’m awake now and I know, I’ve always known,
that being ‘needed’ is not being ‘loved’
and being ‘controlled’ is not being ‘cared for’
BUTTERFLIES by Donna Williams
if someone takes your disabilities and makes them your gilded cage
then you take charge of your disabilities like never before
for they are your fallibility, the keys to your cagea key you allowed someone else to call theirs
because they taught you this was love and caring
and in the light of day you realise it had nothing to do with youso you look in the mirror and say, wow, there’s a fool
and brush off the dust and say, ok, so the world is full of fools so I’m in good companyand you look at your life and say, wow, there’s an island
but islands can build bridgesand you look at your smile and say
wow, I’d forgotten I could wake up with thisand you look at your time and say
you ain’t Florence Nightingale, so follow that smile
because a heart shouldn’t be heavy
it should be light
because a heavy heart will never fly
and butterflies can.
Donna Wiliams
Donna Williams is an Australian born adult with autism who was assessed as psychotic at the age of 2 in 1965, labelled disturbed in the 1970s and diagnosed as autistic in her 20s in 1991.
She acquired functional speech in late childhood and went on to become a qualified teacher with an honors degree in Sociology and a degree in Linguistics. She is the author of two international bestselling autobiographies and has 10 published books including 4 text books widely used in autism education and two books of poetry and prose.
As a screenwriter, she wrote the screenplay to “Nobody Nowhere”, the first book in her 4 book autobiographical series. That screenplay is currently under option to become a Hollywood film. She is an professional artist, singer-songwriter and published poet as well as a world renowned public speaker on autism now living with her husband in Australia. In her presentations she draws not only on her own experiences but on international experience as a professional autism consultant since 1996.
Donna’s is a speaker in demand around the world due to her unique perspective and ability to share her feelings and experiences on a very personal level. More information about her and her life’s work can be found on her website at http://www.donnawilliams.net .