Charlie's Journey
@charlies-journey.bsky.social
I have recently learned that I am Autistic. I am sharing my journey of discovery here as a way to safely tell my story. I hope it is helpful to others whose are finding their way along their own paths.
Reposted by Charlie's Journey
I recently started a practice to boost my therapy. Every morning I write plans for the day, affirmations, gratitudes. Every evening I write accomplishments, what did and didn’t go well. This makes each day more intentional and keeps the things I’m working on front of mind. #ActuallyAutistic ♾️
June 20, 2025 at 1:01 AM
I recently started a practice to boost my therapy. Every morning I write plans for the day, affirmations, gratitudes. Every evening I write accomplishments, what did and didn’t go well. This makes each day more intentional and keeps the things I’m working on front of mind. #ActuallyAutistic ♾️
Got my official diagnosis: Autism Spectrum Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s what I expected, but it was also jarring. Reading the report felt very othering. #ActuallyAutistic
May 23, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Got my official diagnosis: Autism Spectrum Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s what I expected, but it was also jarring. Reading the report felt very othering. #ActuallyAutistic
Wow.
“I am flawed. I am, in part, broken. Not by my autism, but by my insistence on fighting it and by the stresses it places on me. My being different from most people around me—and the years of living a life not meant for me—have taken their toll.” - Laura James, Odd Girl Out
#ActuallyAutistic ♾️
“I am flawed. I am, in part, broken. Not by my autism, but by my insistence on fighting it and by the stresses it places on me. My being different from most people around me—and the years of living a life not meant for me—have taken their toll.” - Laura James, Odd Girl Out
#ActuallyAutistic ♾️
May 11, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Wow.
“I am flawed. I am, in part, broken. Not by my autism, but by my insistence on fighting it and by the stresses it places on me. My being different from most people around me—and the years of living a life not meant for me—have taken their toll.” - Laura James, Odd Girl Out
#ActuallyAutistic ♾️
“I am flawed. I am, in part, broken. Not by my autism, but by my insistence on fighting it and by the stresses it places on me. My being different from most people around me—and the years of living a life not meant for me—have taken their toll.” - Laura James, Odd Girl Out
#ActuallyAutistic ♾️
Came home from a trip with a friend exhausted and down. My (new) therapist said I did well letting my friend be herself (filled with unending questions and childlike wonder), but I didn’t ask for what *I* needed (more quiet or alone time). Unmasking sounds easy, but it’s a bitch. #ActuallyAutistic ♾️
May 9, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Came home from a trip with a friend exhausted and down. My (new) therapist said I did well letting my friend be herself (filled with unending questions and childlike wonder), but I didn’t ask for what *I* needed (more quiet or alone time). Unmasking sounds easy, but it’s a bitch. #ActuallyAutistic ♾️
The very things we are trying to avoid, or control, wind up directing the course of our lives. As Carl Jung put it: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
- Alda Sigmundsdóttir
open.substack.com/pub/aldasigm...
#MentalHealth
- Alda Sigmundsdóttir
open.substack.com/pub/aldasigm...
#MentalHealth
It's not about getting high. It's about getting real.
What if the healing power of psychedelics met the powers of destruction we are witnessing today?
open.substack.com
March 31, 2025 at 12:48 PM
The very things we are trying to avoid, or control, wind up directing the course of our lives. As Carl Jung put it: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
- Alda Sigmundsdóttir
open.substack.com/pub/aldasigm...
#MentalHealth
- Alda Sigmundsdóttir
open.substack.com/pub/aldasigm...
#MentalHealth
I finished my 3rd and last assessment interview with grasp.org. I'll get the results in 6-8 weeks. I originally signed up to get an official diagnosis of my self-identified #ActuallyAutistic self. But they also offered testing for #ADHD, #OCD, and #PTSD, so I signed up for those as well.
GRASP
Visit the post for more.
grasp.org
March 30, 2025 at 3:17 AM
I finished my 3rd and last assessment interview with grasp.org. I'll get the results in 6-8 weeks. I originally signed up to get an official diagnosis of my self-identified #ActuallyAutistic self. But they also offered testing for #ADHD, #OCD, and #PTSD, so I signed up for those as well.
MIGDAS2 Q: When you're doing your favorite things, is it ever hard to stop and focus on something else?
My A: Y would I stop n focus on something else? Is it because I'm interrupted? If so, then, yes, it's hard to stop n focus on something else, because I'm mad and/or irritated.
#ActuallyAutistic
My A: Y would I stop n focus on something else? Is it because I'm interrupted? If so, then, yes, it's hard to stop n focus on something else, because I'm mad and/or irritated.
#ActuallyAutistic
March 3, 2025 at 10:44 PM
MIGDAS2 Q: When you're doing your favorite things, is it ever hard to stop and focus on something else?
My A: Y would I stop n focus on something else? Is it because I'm interrupted? If so, then, yes, it's hard to stop n focus on something else, because I'm mad and/or irritated.
#ActuallyAutistic
My A: Y would I stop n focus on something else? Is it because I'm interrupted? If so, then, yes, it's hard to stop n focus on something else, because I'm mad and/or irritated.
#ActuallyAutistic
Reposted by Charlie's Journey
Rescue worker Graeme Hart, 32, said: “He was looking a little thin, but otherwise he seemed in weirdly good spirits for someone who’d been isolated from society with seemingly no hope of return.”
Autistic man stranded on desert island asks rescue team for a couple more weeks
An autistic man who became stranded on a desert island after a shipwreck has asked the search and rescue team who found him if they wouldn’t mind fucking off again, reports have confirmed. Concerns h...
thedailytism.com
February 21, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Rescue worker Graeme Hart, 32, said: “He was looking a little thin, but otherwise he seemed in weirdly good spirits for someone who’d been isolated from society with seemingly no hope of return.”
Reposted by Charlie's Journey
I know things can be scary, but they’re counting on our despair, don’t give it to them.
#Resist #Resistance #FascistsDontWin #TheRevolutionWillBeMemed
#Resist #Resistance #FascistsDontWin #TheRevolutionWillBeMemed
February 21, 2025 at 1:02 AM
I know things can be scary, but they’re counting on our despair, don’t give it to them.
#Resist #Resistance #FascistsDontWin #TheRevolutionWillBeMemed
#Resist #Resistance #FascistsDontWin #TheRevolutionWillBeMemed
Welp, I decided to get an official #ActuallyAutistic diagnosis. Had my first of 3 interviews today with GRASP, the Global and Regional Autism Spectrum Partnership. Very welcoming and open to whatever issues I do and don't have. 100% neurodivergent staff. ♾️
grasp.org
grasp.org
GRASP
Visit the post for more.
grasp.org
February 20, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Welp, I decided to get an official #ActuallyAutistic diagnosis. Had my first of 3 interviews today with GRASP, the Global and Regional Autism Spectrum Partnership. Very welcoming and open to whatever issues I do and don't have. 100% neurodivergent staff. ♾️
grasp.org
grasp.org
Excerpts from Steve Silberman's NeuroTribes:
“… instead of investing millions of dollars a year to uncover the causes of autism in the future, we should be helping autistic people and their families live happier, healthier, more productive, and more secure lives in the present.”
#ActuallyAutistic
“… instead of investing millions of dollars a year to uncover the causes of autism in the future, we should be helping autistic people and their families live happier, healthier, more productive, and more secure lives in the present.”
#ActuallyAutistic
February 10, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Excerpts from Steve Silberman's NeuroTribes:
“… instead of investing millions of dollars a year to uncover the causes of autism in the future, we should be helping autistic people and their families live happier, healthier, more productive, and more secure lives in the present.”
#ActuallyAutistic
“… instead of investing millions of dollars a year to uncover the causes of autism in the future, we should be helping autistic people and their families live happier, healthier, more productive, and more secure lives in the present.”
#ActuallyAutistic
"Neurotypical syndrome is a neurobiological disorder characterized by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity. There is no known cure."
- #ActuallyAutistic Laura Tisoncik @webmuskie.bsky.social, in Steve Silberman's book, NeuroTribes.
Love it!
- #ActuallyAutistic Laura Tisoncik @webmuskie.bsky.social, in Steve Silberman's book, NeuroTribes.
Love it!
February 7, 2025 at 12:04 PM
"Neurotypical syndrome is a neurobiological disorder characterized by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity. There is no known cure."
- #ActuallyAutistic Laura Tisoncik @webmuskie.bsky.social, in Steve Silberman's book, NeuroTribes.
Love it!
- #ActuallyAutistic Laura Tisoncik @webmuskie.bsky.social, in Steve Silberman's book, NeuroTribes.
Love it!
I don't really understand anxiety. My therapist recommended I watch the movie Inside Out 2. So, I did.
Anxiety played a major role. She was strong, and influential, and had a tendency to spin out of control. Honestly, I found it anxiety-inducing just to watch. Urgh.
#ActuallyAutistic
Anxiety played a major role. She was strong, and influential, and had a tendency to spin out of control. Honestly, I found it anxiety-inducing just to watch. Urgh.
#ActuallyAutistic
February 1, 2025 at 9:46 PM
I don't really understand anxiety. My therapist recommended I watch the movie Inside Out 2. So, I did.
Anxiety played a major role. She was strong, and influential, and had a tendency to spin out of control. Honestly, I found it anxiety-inducing just to watch. Urgh.
#ActuallyAutistic
Anxiety played a major role. She was strong, and influential, and had a tendency to spin out of control. Honestly, I found it anxiety-inducing just to watch. Urgh.
#ActuallyAutistic
Steve Silberman's book, NeuroTribes, describes how #ActuallyAutistic kids were clinically diagnosed in the west in the early 1900s. It’s fascinating, informative, and tragic. The missed opportunities and misguided theories driven by the egos of a few investigators fills me with rage and sorrow.
January 26, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Steve Silberman's book, NeuroTribes, describes how #ActuallyAutistic kids were clinically diagnosed in the west in the early 1900s. It’s fascinating, informative, and tragic. The missed opportunities and misguided theories driven by the egos of a few investigators fills me with rage and sorrow.
Reposted by Charlie's Journey
You don’t owe anyone an explanation for being autistic.
It’s your identity and your journey, and you get to decide who, when, and how to share it - if at all.
Many people will feel entitled to details about your life, but their ableist curiosity never outweighs your boundaries.
It’s your identity and your journey, and you get to decide who, when, and how to share it - if at all.
Many people will feel entitled to details about your life, but their ableist curiosity never outweighs your boundaries.
January 26, 2025 at 9:48 AM
You don’t owe anyone an explanation for being autistic.
It’s your identity and your journey, and you get to decide who, when, and how to share it - if at all.
Many people will feel entitled to details about your life, but their ableist curiosity never outweighs your boundaries.
It’s your identity and your journey, and you get to decide who, when, and how to share it - if at all.
Many people will feel entitled to details about your life, but their ableist curiosity never outweighs your boundaries.
Reposted by Charlie's Journey
Hi friends 🦋
We're in for a rough ride, that's abundantly clear.
However, with all the doom & gloom out there, please:
✨ remain resilient
✨ embrace your authenticity & values
✨ stay informed!
✨ celebrate small victories
✨ help/support others!
✨ don't let anyone divide us!
#UnitedBlue 💙🫂
We're in for a rough ride, that's abundantly clear.
However, with all the doom & gloom out there, please:
✨ remain resilient
✨ embrace your authenticity & values
✨ stay informed!
✨ celebrate small victories
✨ help/support others!
✨ don't let anyone divide us!
#UnitedBlue 💙🫂
January 23, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Hi friends 🦋
We're in for a rough ride, that's abundantly clear.
However, with all the doom & gloom out there, please:
✨ remain resilient
✨ embrace your authenticity & values
✨ stay informed!
✨ celebrate small victories
✨ help/support others!
✨ don't let anyone divide us!
#UnitedBlue 💙🫂
We're in for a rough ride, that's abundantly clear.
However, with all the doom & gloom out there, please:
✨ remain resilient
✨ embrace your authenticity & values
✨ stay informed!
✨ celebrate small victories
✨ help/support others!
✨ don't let anyone divide us!
#UnitedBlue 💙🫂
Random anecdote from Steve Silberman's book NeuroTribes hits home, "... the fathers and grandfathers of children with autism were more likely to be engineers."
My grandfather, father, and mother were all engineers. Hmmmm. ♾️
#ActuallyAutistic
("The valley" in the full quote is Silicon Valley, CA.)
My grandfather, father, and mother were all engineers. Hmmmm. ♾️
#ActuallyAutistic
("The valley" in the full quote is Silicon Valley, CA.)
January 20, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Random anecdote from Steve Silberman's book NeuroTribes hits home, "... the fathers and grandfathers of children with autism were more likely to be engineers."
My grandfather, father, and mother were all engineers. Hmmmm. ♾️
#ActuallyAutistic
("The valley" in the full quote is Silicon Valley, CA.)
My grandfather, father, and mother were all engineers. Hmmmm. ♾️
#ActuallyAutistic
("The valley" in the full quote is Silicon Valley, CA.)
I once signed up to help adults learn to read. Part of our training aimed to make us volunteers experience the discomfort of being illiterate. We were asked to read aloud from a piece of paper with mirror image writing on it. No one could do it, except me. I thought it was easy.
#ActuallyAutistic
#ActuallyAutistic
January 17, 2025 at 1:31 PM
I once signed up to help adults learn to read. Part of our training aimed to make us volunteers experience the discomfort of being illiterate. We were asked to read aloud from a piece of paper with mirror image writing on it. No one could do it, except me. I thought it was easy.
#ActuallyAutistic
#ActuallyAutistic
"... the behavioral inflexibility seen in autism may result from genes that diminish forgetting."
"... benefits of forgetting: creativity, self-reinvention, mental clarity, big-idea thinking, forgiveness, the updating of knowledge, and the reduction of post-traumatic stress."
#ActuallyAutistic
"... benefits of forgetting: creativity, self-reinvention, mental clarity, big-idea thinking, forgiveness, the updating of knowledge, and the reduction of post-traumatic stress."
#ActuallyAutistic
January 16, 2025 at 12:24 PM
"... the behavioral inflexibility seen in autism may result from genes that diminish forgetting."
"... benefits of forgetting: creativity, self-reinvention, mental clarity, big-idea thinking, forgiveness, the updating of knowledge, and the reduction of post-traumatic stress."
#ActuallyAutistic
"... benefits of forgetting: creativity, self-reinvention, mental clarity, big-idea thinking, forgiveness, the updating of knowledge, and the reduction of post-traumatic stress."
#ActuallyAutistic
Reposted by Charlie's Journey
#BIPOC voices are often missing from autistic spaces, so here is a BIPOC starter pack! 😊
go.bsky.app/TtXfpAt
#racialequality #antiracism
The image of autism as “only white boys” leads to underdiagnosis, discrimination & isolation for many
Our autistic community is much more diverse than that! ❤️
go.bsky.app/TtXfpAt
#racialequality #antiracism
The image of autism as “only white boys” leads to underdiagnosis, discrimination & isolation for many
Our autistic community is much more diverse than that! ❤️
December 14, 2024 at 5:32 PM
#BIPOC voices are often missing from autistic spaces, so here is a BIPOC starter pack! 😊
go.bsky.app/TtXfpAt
#racialequality #antiracism
The image of autism as “only white boys” leads to underdiagnosis, discrimination & isolation for many
Our autistic community is much more diverse than that! ❤️
go.bsky.app/TtXfpAt
#racialequality #antiracism
The image of autism as “only white boys” leads to underdiagnosis, discrimination & isolation for many
Our autistic community is much more diverse than that! ❤️
Reposted by Charlie's Journey
“It’s a relief to know, to be honest. I’ve always felt like something about me was different. When I see other cats slow blinking at their humans, I’m like, what are you doing? Turns out they were trying to avoid prolonged eye contact.”
thedailytism.com/scientists-d...
thedailytism.com/scientists-d...
Scientists discover first cat without autism
Scientists believe they have finally discovered the world's first neurotypical cat, a new study has revealed. Quiche, three, is a remarkably non-jumpy, non-erratic British shorthair who adores firewor...
thedailytism.com
January 15, 2025 at 10:10 AM
“It’s a relief to know, to be honest. I’ve always felt like something about me was different. When I see other cats slow blinking at their humans, I’m like, what are you doing? Turns out they were trying to avoid prolonged eye contact.”
thedailytism.com/scientists-d...
thedailytism.com/scientists-d...
Alone with my husband, I compliment him on something.
He asks me why I never do that in front of other people.
What?
He says he compliments me in front of others all the time.
I know. I hate that. It's so embarrassing. I just want to crawl into a hole.
He is shocked.
#ActuallyAutistic
He asks me why I never do that in front of other people.
What?
He says he compliments me in front of others all the time.
I know. I hate that. It's so embarrassing. I just want to crawl into a hole.
He is shocked.
#ActuallyAutistic
January 14, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Alone with my husband, I compliment him on something.
He asks me why I never do that in front of other people.
What?
He says he compliments me in front of others all the time.
I know. I hate that. It's so embarrassing. I just want to crawl into a hole.
He is shocked.
#ActuallyAutistic
He asks me why I never do that in front of other people.
What?
He says he compliments me in front of others all the time.
I know. I hate that. It's so embarrassing. I just want to crawl into a hole.
He is shocked.
#ActuallyAutistic
Before I retired, I got a temporary promotion working for my boss' boss. He told me that I needed to work on my "presence". He said no one noticed when I walked into a room.
I thought about that a lot. It was a powerful observation.
I didn't address it. I couldn't. It felt like ... not me at all.
I thought about that a lot. It was a powerful observation.
I didn't address it. I couldn't. It felt like ... not me at all.
January 13, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Before I retired, I got a temporary promotion working for my boss' boss. He told me that I needed to work on my "presence". He said no one noticed when I walked into a room.
I thought about that a lot. It was a powerful observation.
I didn't address it. I couldn't. It felt like ... not me at all.
I thought about that a lot. It was a powerful observation.
I didn't address it. I couldn't. It felt like ... not me at all.