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No, autism isn’t caused by the MMR or any other vaccine. Despite many (neurotypical) parents noticing changes to their autistic children’s expected behaviour paths at around 12-15 months – exactly the time that they receive their MMR. In fact, current studies suggest between 61-91% heritability and therefore a very strong genetic component. My mother has…

The following are all sensitivities that I noticed and attempted to mitigate before I realised I had high levels of autistic traits: Light: I wear dark sunglasses from May to September as bright sunlight has always triggered headaches. Sound: I wear special swimmers’ earplugs while showering otherwise I get terrible headaches. I always listen to…

One of my many annoying habits is asking my husband if he still loves me or does he want to throw me away yet. I’d always assumed it was just because I’m massively insecure and needy (and indeed I may well be), but sometimes it borders on being mindless repetition, almost like a verbal tic…

I’ve just left a Zoom conference on Student Mental Health. It was all too triggering for me. I can’t deal with people making dumb allegations about ‘student experience’ that bear no relation to my lived reality. So I’m going to overshare and vent and get it all out here. Buckle up. This post comes with…

When I told my husband I thought I might be autistic at the start of 2021 he told me to not be so ridiculous because I couldn’t possibly be autistic because I had plenty of empathy. (Don’t worry, we will get to this lack of public understanding about the differences between sociopathic narcissism and autism…

Apparently nobody likes the way their voice sounds. But there’s another reason I always cringe on hearing my voice and like to claim I have a voice for print. My accent is terribly posh. So much so that’s often remarked upon by others. And sadly, I don’t have the background to justify it so I…

One of the traits associated with autism is a tendency to take things that other people say literally, which leads to much confusion, embarrassment and humiliation. Hence most of my teachers thought me a dunce for not deducing their implicit but unspoken communication, although at least not all of them thought me wilfully disobedient for…