Autism waiting times are unacceptable. Those stuck waiting are not to blame

New NHS England statistics on waiting times for autism assessment in 2023 are due to be published on Thursday. This might explain why last week, The Times published an article with the headline "People self-diagnosing ADHD and autism 'overwhelm services'". The online article is paywalled, but was circulated widely on social media. It's almost entirely …

[Hysteria] Healthcare By Algorithm

Hysteria is a series of blog posts about recent adventures in menstrual healthcare that got me nowhere except finding new ways the entire system is broken. You can find out more here and view all posts here. While this post doesn't go into details, it's ultimately about healthcare and medical products and there are a …

[Hysteria] Weird Things I Blamed My Symptoms On (repost)

This was originally published on a separate Substack on 2nd December 2023. For various reasons, not least because Substack would apparently much rather host actual literal Nazis, I’ve decided to bring the Hysteria project into my primary WordPress blog instead. You can find out more about the project here, and I’ve created a Hysteria category where you can find all related …

[Hysteria] About Hysteria (repost)

This was originally published on a separate Substack on 25th November 2023. For various reasons, not least because Substack would apparently much rather host actual literal Nazis, I've decided to bring the Hysteria project into my primary WordPress blog instead. I've created a Hysteria category where you can find all related posts. This post explains …

Royal Blood: Back To The Water Below track-by-track

Royal Blood's Typhoons is a special album for me. Released at the tail end of the COVID-19 lockdowns, it was seen at the time as a significant departure for the band, mixing their tried-and-tested blues-rock with dancier sounds you'd more likely associate with Daft Punk. The album campaign marked frontman Mike Kerr speaking publicly about …

“Then why couldn’t you do it before?”: Autism and fluctuating abilities

The following events all happened within the same week: I woke up feeling low. I knew why: this time of year is a tricky one, and it wouldn't be over any time soon. I'd planned to get things done at home, and none of it was happening. Eventually, I decided to accept I wasn't being …

I took notes on another 13 extra A Christmas Carols (and one extra Muppets movie)

Last week, I was lucky enough to go to a sing-along screening of The Muppet Christmas Carol, definitively the best adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and also the best film to have ever been made. I wasn't around for The Muppet Christmas Carol's first run in cinemas so it was brilliant to see …

Muse: Will Of The People track-by-track

Because I'm on a long train home, and because if I'm honest with myself this will be too long for a Twitter thread. 1. Will Of The People THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE, THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE, THE WILL OF THE WILL OF THE- Released as a single back in June. It's still weird …

Do The Thing That’ll Make Your Life A Bit Easier (Or: How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love Running Away)

Greetings from my boyfriend's flat in Dover, where last weekend we decided I should see out the heatwave. I decided to get the blog out while I was still here, partly so I had something to do while said boyfriend was busy creating elaborate memes, but mostly so I could pre-empt the more extreme weather …

No, there isn’t an official list of disabilities

The Equality Act 2010* defines a disability as "a physical or mental impairment [which] has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on... ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities." That's it. No set list of conditions that do or don't count, no strict criteria - it's basically for each person to consider for themselves. This …