Drama Queen: One Autistic Woman and a Life of Unhelpful Labels

Drama Queen: One Autistic Woman and a Life of Unhelpful Labels PDF Author: Sara Gibbs
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 1472274334
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
'It has taken me several years of exploration, but I am at a place now where I see autism as neither an affliction nor a superpower. It's just the blueprint for who I am. There is no cure, but that's absolutely fine by me. To cure me of my autism would be to cure me of myself.' During the first thirty years of her life, comedy script writer Sara Gibbs had been labelled a lot of things - a cry baby, a scaredy cat, a spoiled brat, a weirdo, a show off - but more than anything else, she'd been called a Drama Queen. No one understood her behaviour, her meltdowns or her intense emotions. She felt like everyone else knew a social secret that she hadn't been let in on; as if life was a party she hadn't been invited to. Why was everything so damn hard? Little did Sara know that, at the age of thirty, she would be given one more label that would change her life's trajectory forever. That one day, sitting next to her husband in a clinical psychologist's office, she would learn that she had never been a drama queen, or a weirdo, or a cry baby, but she had always been autistic. Drama Queen is both a tour inside one autistic brain and a declaration that a diagnosis on the spectrum, with the right support, accommodations and understanding, doesn't have to be a barrier to life full of love, laughter and success. It is the story of one woman trying to fit into a world that has often tried to reject her and, most importantly, it's about a life of labels, and the joy of ripping them off one by one.

Drama Queen: One Autistic Woman and a Life of Unhelpful Labels

Drama Queen: One Autistic Woman and a Life of Unhelpful Labels PDF Author: Sara Gibbs
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 1472274334
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Get Book Here

Book Description
'It has taken me several years of exploration, but I am at a place now where I see autism as neither an affliction nor a superpower. It's just the blueprint for who I am. There is no cure, but that's absolutely fine by me. To cure me of my autism would be to cure me of myself.' During the first thirty years of her life, comedy script writer Sara Gibbs had been labelled a lot of things - a cry baby, a scaredy cat, a spoiled brat, a weirdo, a show off - but more than anything else, she'd been called a Drama Queen. No one understood her behaviour, her meltdowns or her intense emotions. She felt like everyone else knew a social secret that she hadn't been let in on; as if life was a party she hadn't been invited to. Why was everything so damn hard? Little did Sara know that, at the age of thirty, she would be given one more label that would change her life's trajectory forever. That one day, sitting next to her husband in a clinical psychologist's office, she would learn that she had never been a drama queen, or a weirdo, or a cry baby, but she had always been autistic. Drama Queen is both a tour inside one autistic brain and a declaration that a diagnosis on the spectrum, with the right support, accommodations and understanding, doesn't have to be a barrier to life full of love, laughter and success. It is the story of one woman trying to fit into a world that has often tried to reject her and, most importantly, it's about a life of labels, and the joy of ripping them off one by one.

Odd Girl Out

Odd Girl Out PDF Author: Laura James
Publisher: Seal Press
ISBN: 1580057799
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
A sensory portrait of an autistic mind From childhood, Laura James knew she was different. She struggled to cope in a world that often made no sense to her, as though her brain had its own operating system. It wasn't until she reached her forties that she found out why: Suddenly and surprisingly, she was diagnosed with autism. With a touching and searing honesty, Laura challenges everything we think we know about what it means to be autistic. Married with four children and a successful journalist, Laura examines the ways in which autism has shaped her career, her approach to motherhood, and her closest relationships. Laura's upbeat, witty writing offers new insight into the day-to-day struggles of living with autism, as her extreme attention to sensory detail -- a common aspect of her autism -- is fascinating to observe through her eyes. As Laura grapples with defining her own identity, she also looks at the unique benefits neurodiversity can bring. Lyrical and lush, Odd Girl Out shows how being different doesn't mean being less, and proves that it is never too late for any of us to find our rightful place in the world.

I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder

I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder PDF Author: Sarah Kurchak
Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre
ISBN: 1771622474
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn’t let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly, and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become “an autistic success story,” how the process almost ruined her life and how she is now trying to recover. Growing up undiagnosed in small-town Ontario in the eighties and nineties, Kurchak realized early that she was somehow different from her peers. She discovered an effective strategy to fend off bullying: she consciously altered nearly everything about herself—from her personality to her body language. She forced herself to wear the denim jeans that felt like being enclosed in a sandpaper iron maiden. Every day, she dragged herself through the door with an elevated pulse and a churning stomach, nearly crumbling under the effort of the performance. By the time she was finally diagnosed with autism at twenty-seven, she struggled with depression and anxiety largely caused by the same strategy she had mastered precisely. She came to wonder, were all those years of intensely pretending to be someone else really worth it? Tackling everything from autism parenting culture to love, sex, alcohol, obsessions and professional pillow fighting, Kurchak’s enlightening memoir challenges stereotypes and preconceptions about autism and considers what might really make the lives of autistic people healthier, happier and more fulfilling.

Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed

Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed PDF Author: Jeannie Davide-Rivera
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615801438
Category : Asperger's syndrome
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Jeannie grew up with autism, but no one around her knew it. Twirling Naked in the Streets will take you on a journey into the mind of a child on the autism spectrum; a child who grows into an adolescent, an adult, and becomes a wife, mother, student, and writer with autism. This is a gripping memoir of a quirky, weird, but gifted child who grows up never quite finding her niche. It took 38 years to discover that all the issues, problems, and weirdness she experienced were because she had Asperger's Syndrome (AS), a form of high-functioning autism. The tale begins at age three and takes us all the way through her diagnosis. Along the way she explains autism in a way that will have fellow "Aspies" crying tears of joy at being understood, and "neuro-typical" people really starting to grasp the challenges that autistic people face every moment of every day.

My Son's Not Rainman

My Son's Not Rainman PDF Author: John Williams
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
ISBN: 1782433899
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
John Williams is a stand-up comedian. He is also a single father and full-time carer for his son, who has autism and cerebral palsy. This is their incredible story.

A Pony in the Bedroom

A Pony in the Bedroom PDF Author: Susan Dunne
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 1784500763
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Susan Dunne's life changed forever when a chance question from a doctor led her back to horses, an unfulfilled childhood passion. Detached and isolated due to undiagnosed autism, Susan had already survived rape, battled eating disorders and self-harm, and spent time homeless, when her world was turned upside again by a vicious, life-threatening assault. Severe post-traumatic stress disorder left her feeling distrustful and more cut off than ever before from a world she saw as confusing and dangerous. But as Susan's connection with horses grew stronger, her world started to open up. Poignant and witty by turns, Susan shares her story of survival and transformation, offering a rare insight into her relationship with horses, and how they helped her to find a safe place in the world.

Spectrum Women

Spectrum Women PDF Author: Barb Cook
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 1784508063
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Barb Cook and 14 other autistic women describe life from a female autistic perspective, and present empowering, helpful and supportive insights from their personal experience for fellow autistic women. Michelle Garnett's comments validate and expand the experiences described from a clinician's perspective, and provide extensive recommendations. Autistic advocates including Liane Holliday Willey, Anita Lesko, Jeanette Purkis, Artemisia and Samantha Craft offer their personal guidance on significant issues that particularly affect women, as well as those that are more general to autism. Contributors cover issues including growing up, identity, diversity, parenting, independence and self-care amongst many others. With great contributions from exceptional women, this is a truly well-rounded collection of knowledge and sage advice for any woman with autism.

How To Be Autistic

How To Be Autistic PDF Author: Charlotte Amelia Poe
Publisher: Myriad Editions
ISBN: 1912408333
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
An urgent, funny, shocking, and impassioned memoir by the winner of the Spectrum Art Prize 2018, How To Be Autistic presents the rarely shown point of view of someone living with autism. Poe's voice is confident, moving and often funny, as she reveals to us a very personal account of autism, mental illness, gender and sexual identity. As we follow Charlotte's journey through school and college, we become as awestruck by her extraordinary passion for life as by the enormous privations that she must undergo to live it. From food and fandom, to body modification and comic conventions, Charlotte's experiences through the torments of schooldays and young adulthood leave us with a riot of conflicting emotions: horror, empathy, despair, laugh-out-loud amusement and, most of all, respect.

The Power of Neurodiversity

The Power of Neurodiversity PDF Author: Thomas Armstrong
Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
ISBN: 0738215244
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
"Parents, teachers, and policymakers should all read this thought-provoking book. I loved it."--Temple Grandin, author of "Thinking in Pictures "

The Language Instinct

The Language Instinct PDF Author: Steven Pinker
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062032526
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 578

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Book Description
"A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book." — New York Times Book Review The classic work on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind In The Language Instinct, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published.