Mental Health Awareness Week is upon us. Personally, I handle this by self-advocating away any toxic positivity. I don’t plaster on a fake smile like this one. Instead, I tell people how I really am. If they don’t care, why ask? We need to tackle the causes of mental health challenges, not jolly our mentalContinue reading “Mental Health Awareness Week”
Author Archives: Ausome Charlie
Unregulated neurodiversity bandit
I am one of those unregulated neurodiversity advocates, neurotic to the bones no doubt about it. You have been warned! Only follow me if you are interested in my lived experience of:– Autism, ADHD and C-PTSD– The double rainbow intersection of both the AuDHD and LGBTQIA+ spectrums– Surviving bullying and discrimination in education and work–Continue reading “Unregulated neurodiversity bandit”
Autism month brain dump
Questions from Carol Jean Whittington for her Mind Your Autistic Brain website. Question 1 – What does accessibility mean to you? Reducing or eliminating barriers to inclusion or success, which requires conscious inclusion. Question 2 – What is your big “why” for advocating for autism inclusion in the workplace? Workplace inclusion is my niche becauseContinue reading “Autism month brain dump”
Livid experience of autism
This is about livid experience of autism. Lived experience, but the things we’re really angry about. People who preach “be kind”, then bully or mock people for being weird and different. People who think we’re shifty and dishonest due to eye contact differences, whether not holding eye contact because it’s uncomfortable, or holding it tooContinue reading “Livid experience of autism”
Another autistic blurt and more rumination
My last anecdote made quite an impact, and I’ve been asked for more. Here’s another classic “blurt” 🤦‍♀️ The CEO in a previous job used to like to take a group of employees out for tea and cake at a fancy restaurant (Harvey Nicols) when they reached ten years of service. When it was myContinue reading “Another autistic blurt and more rumination”
Autistic social gaffe
Social gaffes that haunt you, this one’s a corker. When I was 22 and 23, I had a fixed term contract job in HR for an organisation going through downsizing with a “voluntary redundancy” scheme. Many of my colleagues were at risk of redundancy, and some had been there many years and were sensitive aboutContinue reading “Autistic social gaffe”
My lived experience as a late-diagnosed autistic
Here is another extract from my talk for #NeurodiversityCelebrationWeek 2023, this one about my lived experience as a late-diagnosed #autistic woman. I was a loner and tomboy at school. Oh, I doodled a lot in lessons, and daydreamed, and often gazed out of the window. I had very intense interests, so there were some thingsContinue reading “My lived experience as a late-diagnosed autistic”
My autism diagnosis story
My autism diagnosis – how and why, and where did this lead me? I am often asked how and why I was diagnosed autistic, what is even the point later in life. Well, I was diagnosed aged 42 after struggling for decades, and not knowing why. In 2018, I took my eldest child Iggy, whoContinue reading “My autism diagnosis story”
Weird Pride Day 2023
Have you ever been told you’re weird? Do you identify as weird? You are invited to the third annual Weird Pride Day! Date: 4 March 2023Venue: International social media This is a day for people to embrace their weirdness, and reject the stigma associated with being weird, to publicly express pride in the things thatContinue reading “Weird Pride Day 2023”
Background on me
Having made it into Theo Smith’s list of Top 80 UK Neurodiversity Evangelists to follow, here is some background for my new followers. In 2018, I took my eldest child, who was 14 at the time, to see a psychiatrist about his extreme anxiety attacks. She listened and observed, then concluded that what he wasContinue reading “Background on me”
Ausome Charlie 