Asperger's Diary

Life through the lens of Asperger's Syndrome.

by Lynne Soraya

How Inclusion Benefits Businesses

Can inclusion have a bottom-line impact for business? It's a question I think about a lot. I'm an advocate, but I also work in the business world. Can those two worlds meet? Can the business world create value for the community, in a way that also benefits the company? I've always hoped so, and thus I’m always alert for concrete examples in my daily life. Read More

What Acceptance Means to Me

Since the 1970s, April has been known as Autism Awareness Month. Some groups are now saying that awareness isn't enough…that it needs to go further. That is why they are pushing for April to become known as Autism Acceptance Month. Read More

New Research on Autism and Suicide

More than two years ago, when I wrote my post on Asperger's and suicide, I googled the terms "autism and suicide" and "Asperger's and suicide." I was appalled to find how few resources there were out there. They were sparse to the point of nonexistent. Now, that appears to be changing. Read More

Visiting Sensory Shangri-La

In the autism community, we hear a lot about sensory aversions, and the overload that they can cause. In my last two posts, I talked about the way these experiences can have unexpected consequences, both in the classroom, and in the wider adult world. What we don’t often hear about is the flip side of this – when sensory experiences attract, rather than repel. Read More

Sensory Sensitivity and Problem Behavior

In many circles, there's a strong bias toward eliminating problem behaviors. Is there a problem with this approach? Read More

The Uncounted Costs of Sensory Sensitivity

After decades of living as an autistic person, I'm still learning about sensory overload, and its unexpected consequences. Read More

Shootings, Stigma, and the Myth of Safety

The holiday season is often difficult for me. It’s s a time of particular loneliness for many on the spectrum – where the emphasis is on a social world that isn’t easy for us to navigate. For me, it’s also difficult for other reasons. Because it brings back bad memories. Read More

When Pride Means Pain

Parental praise. Pride in accomplishment. Those are supposed to be good things, right? Recently, I read a book that made me challenge that assumption. Read More

Labels and Expectations Part 3: Fear

The last 10 years or so, I have done a lot of thinking about what my life would have been like had I been labeled in childhood. Unquestionably, there are areas where knowledge of autism would've been a godsend. But I also wonder how it would have changed how I was perceived. Read More

What Is Empathy?

What is empathy and how does it impact our daily lives? Beginning 9/24, and lasting the entire week, The Guggenheim museum will be sponsoring an online forum, “The Greater Good” which will cover this complex and nuanced topic. Read More

Labels and Expectations Part 2: Preconceptions

"You know," I said to a classmate one day, "I flunked Kindergarten." My classmate laughed, thinking I was joking. I assured her I was not. Flabbergasted, she responded with disbelief, "How can that be?!" Read More

Deadly Data: Sometimes Numbers Lie

Data. It’s something we draw upon in science, policymaking, and any number of other settings. It’s important. But there are times when blindly trusting in data can be devastating. Let me give you an example. Read More

Labels and Expectations Part 1: To Label or Not To Label?

Labels. Do they help, or do they hurt? Looking back on my life, the answer to this question isn't always clear cut. How do we prevent a label from being limiting? Read More

Meaningful Vulnerability: “Go Big Or Go Home?”

The other day, I read a blog post that spurred me to think about vulnerability. The author cited the work of writers like Maya Angelou, whose stories reflect intense vulnerability. The blogger wondered if she could have the same impact. Would her story measure up? When it came to vulnerability, did she need to “go big or go home?” Read More

Come Into The Garden: Hidden Issues With Expressive Language

Some time back, my mother and I were reminiscing when she mentioned something that brought me up short. She was remembering some of our earliest visits with my maternal grandmother. “You were so charming,” she said, “You kept running to the back door. In your chirpy little voice you’d call to us. You’d say, ‘Come into the garden! It’s a beautiful day!’” Read More

Of Vulnerability and Rainbows

Vulnerability is not a word that is commonly associated with those of us on the spectrum. When those of us on the spectrum are discussed the most common words you tend to hear are words that imply a lack of vulnerability. Words like “enigma” and “mystery.” Read More

Being Evil and Doing Evil: Are They Always The Same?

Are people who do evil things inherently evil? It’s a question my life experience has often driven me to explore. Not only because the ugliness I’ve witnessed, and experienced firsthand. But also for another reason...I’m one quarter German. Read More

Thinking About The Unthinkable

In the 1990 movie, Awakenings, there is a scene that I’ve always found chilling. In it, Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a fictionalized character based on Dr. Oliver Sacks, visits with an expert in an attempt to understand the condition (post-encephalitic parkinsonism) of a number of the patients in the chronic hospital where he works. Read More

Sorting out Synesthesia

“You know, it’s sad,” my father wistfully remarked to me one day, “Before MTV, you had to come up with your own pictures in your head when you listened to music.” I didn’t think there was anything unusual in his comment. After all, everyone saw pictures when they listened to music. Didn’t they? Read More

Pity, Respect, and the We/She Dynamic

In my last post, I talked about “othering” autism. What exactly is othering? Some who responded to the post seemed to feel that othering and ill will are synonymous. I disagree. In my experience, it can often be done by those with the best intentions. Read More

Stigma and the “Othering” of Autism

There’s been an ongoing debate in the autism community. One about ideology, one about words. It’s about what it means to support an autistic child (or adult), and it’s about how one feels about the word “autism.” Is it something to accept, or something to fight? Read More

The Damaging Legacy of Parent Blame

When I read explorations of many possible dynamics that may have caused the increases in the rates of autism diagnosis, I am pleased to see the diversity of causal factors considered. But there is one dynamic that I have yet to see covered, and it's one that's very personal for me. It's the legacy of parent blame. Read More

What Does Authenticity Look Like?

Authenticity. It's a simple word — but for some of us, it isn't so simple. When it comes to those of us who have different methods of expression...what looks like authenticity may not be, and what looks like inauthenticity may actually be the opposite. Read More

Re-Playing the Past

Since I learned about Asperger's, I've done a lot of "time travelling"...reviewing my past through a new lens. In this process, I made some very surprising discoveries, some of which I've written about previously. Sometimes these discoveries have come from places that I least expected. Read More

Social Justice and the Autism Spectrum

As the debate about the DSM 5 proposed revisions rages on, the focus of the media turns more and more to the upsurge in autism diagnoses. What does the increase in autism numbers mean? Are the standards for diagnosis too lax? Is autism really becoming more common? Or, is it that we are getting better at recognizing it? Read More

Is Asperger's Overdiagnosed?

In recent months, the New York Times has gotten a lot of positive press in the autism community for Amy Harmon's series of sensitive articles regarding the many issues that impact those with autism and their families. But two recently published pieces are causing a great deal of anger in the very same community. The thrust of these two op-eds: Asperger's is over-diagnosed. Read More

A Dream That Leads to a Nightmare

Last night, I had a dream. I was in a store with family, and I had an outburst, what we in the autism community call a meltdown. As the stress and frustration boiled over, I had to get out. So I ran. Read More

Love, Identity and Disability

Early this month, the Susan Baer of the Washington Post wrote a wrenching piece about the life of Page and Robert Melton. In 2003, Mr. Melton, a former WP reporter, experienced a stroke which resulted in an anoxic brain injury, and significant cognitive disabilities. Billed as an uplifting story, for me it brought up strong feelings in me which I am still struggling to sort through. Read More

A Letter to the Lonely

It's the holidays again. A time for togetherness. For family and friends. That's what they say, right? Unfortunately, that's not the reality for many of us. Several years ago, I wrote a post about the way in which loneliness and the holidays often seem to mix for me, and many others like me. Read More

Autism, Ability, and Adaptation: Asking The Right Questions

Recently, 60 Minutes did a moving segment called, "Apps for Autism." In it, they demonstrated the impact that the iPad has had for many people with autism who are unable speak. The segment demonstrated clearly how new tools and information can lead to breakthroughs that parents and professionals might previously never have expected. Read More