“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 …

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 …

Slightly self-indulgent post about doing a thing with Channel 4 once

Some of you may remember the initial publicity around what became Are You Autistic? - it made waves for all the wrong reasons. But when Ambitious about Autism's Youth Council wrote to Channel 4 and Betty with our concerns, they really listened. They came to Ambitious to meet with us. They made massive changes to …

Happily ever after?

It's been almost three months since I last wrote here. Seeing as my last blog was about the birth of a special interest, I'm conscious it looks a bit like all my productive time has sunk into the Royal Blood YouTube rabbit hole, and I can confirm that this is absolutely true. More seriously, I've …

Spring Isn’t My Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Warm weather is... a major challenge. The major challenge, actually, at least until last year. It's a huge sensory trigger for me, it's pretty much inescapable, and at some point that spiralled out of control and took on a life of its own. The way I describe The Heat Thing has fluctuated a lot - …

Over-compensating

When I was diagnosed with autism in 2003, the story goes, my parents were left to look it up for themselves. What they found was a long list of things I'd never be able to do: I wouldn't leave home, I wouldn't build a life that they didn't have to set up for me, I …

Quick thoughts: Sia please stop digging you’re making everything worse

I understand that The Sia Discourse has escaped the autistic-Twitter bubble and made its way into the wider world, so I thought it was worth writing a (hopefully) brief explainer of what's going on, why it matters and why this isn't just Mean Trolls On The Internet. Essentially: On Thursday, Sia released the trailer for …

“Conceal, don’t feel”: The case for autistic Elsa

Everything else is unimaginably, unbearably bleak and terrifying, so here's why Elsa is neurodivergent. It's worth noting from the outset that very little of this is new - autistic Elsa fan theories were all over the internet at the time of Frozen's release - but I've wanted to revisit it for a while and I …

The feasibility of this unreasonable jerk of a brain retaining any degree of sanity: A follow-up study on meteorological changes in the context of COVID-19.

A sequel to this previous “study” blog post, further demonstrating extreme commitment to a joke. Citation Harper G (2020). The feasibility of this unreasonable jerk of a brain retaining any degree of sanity: A follow-up study on meteorological changes in the context of COVID-19. Mind The Flap. bit.ly/346hJ1i Abstract Like many autistic people, this unreasonable …