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Lucy Berrington

About

Lucy Berrington is a writer and editor based in Massachusetts, and the parent of an Aspergerian teen. She edits Student Health 101, an online health and wellness magazine for college students, and is a clinical instructor in Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Asperger's Association of New England (AANE), a nonprofit dedicated to supporting people with Asperger syndrome and related conditions, and chairs its Advocacy Committee.

Her journalism and fiction have been published in numerous publications in the US and UK, including The Boston Globe, The New York Post, The New England Review, The London Times, The Guardian, The Independent online, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Harpers & Queen.

Lucy has an MS in Health Communication from Tufts University School of Medicine and a BA from Oxford University. The opinions expressed in Asperger's Alive! are her own.

Recent Posts
5 Tips for Using Stories in Disability Advocacy
What do disability stories say to their various audiences? Who’s saying it? Why? How can we tell difficult stories without pitying or demeaning the people in them? How can advocates understand the power of the narratives we use? Here, the director of a disability film festival uses autism films to highlight successful approaches.
Should We Welcome the "Gift" of ADHD — or Return it?
ADHD Awareness Month, now ending, is part of a vigorous public relations effort on behalf of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. But there is a delicacy to celebrating the strengths of a neuropsychological condition without minimizing the challenges. Repackaging ADHD as a gift can still fail those who receive it.
Where Are We in Autism World and Who Are Our Guides?

Every so often a new autism resource appears, and like an updated map or set of directions it gives us the opportunity to check out where we’ve got to in autism world. The video-based, government-funded website "Interacting with Autism" reveals progress in how we think about autism and whose thinking we value.

Every so often a new autism resource appears, and like an updated map or set of directions it gives us the opportunity to check out where we’ve got to in autism world. The video-based, government-funded website "Interacting with Autism" reveals progress in how we think about autism and whose thinking we value.

Awkward in Person, Graceful on the Page

We present differently online and in person. For most of us, that transformation happens because the internet allows us to be something we’re not. For autistic people, it's because the internet allows them to be something they are.

We present differently online and in person. For most of us, that transformation happens because the internet allows us to be something we’re not. For autistic people, it's because the internet allows them to be something they are.

Is Asperger’s Overdiagnosed Because Parents Want Free Stuff?

In any harsh political climate there’s much snarking about free stuff and those who are supposedly getting it. Takers versus makers. The 47%. There’s a free stuff theme in autism politics, too, and it goes like this: Why is Asperger’s overdiagnosed? Because parents want free stuff and an Asperger’s diagnosis is how they get it.

In any harsh political climate there’s much snarking about free stuff and those who are supposedly getting it. Takers versus makers. The 47%. There’s a free stuff theme in autism politics, too, and it goes like this: Why is Asperger’s overdiagnosed? Because parents want free stuff and an Asperger’s diagnosis is how they get it.

When Secession is an Option, After All

My 13-year-old son with Asperger's acquired a new obsessive interest: micronations. Perhaps establishing his own small country was an attempt to impose order on a too-big world. But how much of a threat to him (and us) was isolationism?

My 13-year-old son with Asperger's acquired a new obsessive interest: micronations. Perhaps establishing his own small country was an attempt to impose order on a too-big world. But how much of a threat to him (and us) was isolationism?

The Pain of Being Linked by Asperger Dx to a Mass Shooter

The autism community has responded with shock, pain and eloquence to the horror at Newtown, CT. The commentaries share an essential theme: please judge the shooter, not the autism or mental illness (if he even had autism or a mental illness). But they approach it in different ways and with varying emphasis.

The autism community has responded with shock, pain and eloquence to the horror at Newtown, CT. The commentaries share an essential theme: please judge the shooter, not the autism or mental illness (if he even had autism or a mental illness). But they approach it in different ways and with varying emphasis.