Mental Health Archives - Spectrum Women

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It’s Not A Personality Problem by Mary P. Donahue, Ph.D.

January 8, 2021 Spectrum Women

Recently I was asked to sit in on a meeting between an autistic parent and the managers of her child’s home mental health support team. The parent was having trouble communicating her concerns to the in-home supports. It had become frustrating for both mom and team, and services had ceased. Mom wanted to continue finding ways to help her son and also had to have information from the managers to help her process what had happened. Though considered a neurotypical person, I am fortunate to have some ability to translate between the neuro-typical and autism worlds. So I went. Holy […]

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It’s Here, and It’s Real: Emotional Pain in the Body by Mary P. Donahue, Ph.D.

April 26, 2020 Spectrum Women

In my experience working with autism and trauma, I’ve noticed a large number of autistic people who report physical pain that’s there “for no reason.” They haven’t over-exercised, moved furniture, or otherwise knowingly taxed the physical body. So, know this: physical pain can also result from strong emotional stress. It’s a real thing. Taking a few minutes to consider the miracle that is the body, physical pain resulting from over-taxing the brain makes sense; high stress creates high anxiety, and over time, that can cause tightened muscles, constrained blood flow, increased heart rate, and joint pain, among other things. Such […]

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Unmet Needs During the Pandemic By Lisa Morgan M.Ed. CAS

April 11, 2020 Spectrum Women

**Content warning: Suicide Crisis supports for the autism community are sparse. Autistic people need support specific to their way of thinking and understanding the world. This often differs from the type of support available for the general public. Thankfully, there is an existing research study published in Molecular Autism that we, autistic people, can use to help ourselves now, in real time, as we need it during the pandemic. This research can help guide us in how we can take care of ourselves and our loved ones as we experience the unexpected changes in the world. The immediate changes we […]

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Be Mindful, Be Present, Be You: How to Handle Crisis Anxiety – Becca Lory Hector, CAS, BCCS

March 21, 2020 Spectrum Women

With the world around us a chaotic mess, it is getting harder and harder to avoid becoming a giant, swirling, ball of anxiety. The current pandemic has disrupted our lives and the world as we know it is on hold for the foreseeable future. It has interrupted routines, forced schools to close, and sent many of us to work from home or not at all. It feels as though the rug has been pulled out from under our proverbial feet. If you are feeling a growing sense of dread, you are far from alone. Most of us are feeling overwhelmed […]

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How Meditation Has Helped Me by Anlor Davin

January 18, 2019 Spectrum Women

First of all, I want to state that I am privileged and my basic survival needs are covered. Nowadays, and for the past ten years or so, I can make ends meet. I am, by the standards of most “civilized countries” (not in all domains…), rather poor. I am disabled, often invisibly, due to my autism. I live with my partner in a one bedroom rented apartment; we do not have a car, and I qualify for many low-income programs, but I am relatively healthy and I have quality health coverage and my health. This in turn means I have […]

Arts

Anxiety and Autism Art by Dr Holly Priddis

December 21, 2018 Spectrum Women

I have always loved to create since I was quite young. I dreamt of being a writer and loved immersing myself in fantasy plot-lines, tapping furiously on my old school typewriter, or drawing abstract images on my art pad as a teen. In my early twenties once I became a mother I did not have much time to be creative while raising our 4 children, and slowly all my creative outlets slipped neglected to the wayside. However, over the past year, rediscovering art has been a saviour to me. On and off over my life I have experienced anxiety, however […]

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My Gratitude List by Jen Elcheson

December 17, 2018 Spectrum Women

Recently, I was talking with a friend I had not spoken to in a while. As I updated her on all the current happenings in my life, we both came to the realization that I have much to be grateful for right now and should write something about gratitude; so when things get bumpy, I will have something to fall back on. Also, as my autism diagnosis/professional identification turns 20 this year, it could not be a better time to do this! There is a lot of talk around gratitude in popular culture, social media memes, and psychology right now […]

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Living with Suicide Ideation by Lisa Morgan

December 3, 2018 Spectrum Women

*** Trigger Warning – the article is about suicide ideation. *** I’m sitting alone. I can hear the clock ticking. I can hear cars out on the road. I’m physically alone, which usually is ok, but not tonight. Tonight it’s difficult because I’m also emotionally alone. I feel no connection to another person. The aloneness is palpable. How can I feel so utterly alone in a world with billions of people? My thoughts are with me though. My unwanted, intrusive thoughts about suicide are plentiful in my mind. Where did they come from? How can I get them to go […]

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THE INVISIBLE PRICE OF ACCOMMODATION — Renata Jurkevythz

October 22, 2018 Spectrum Women

Every accommodation provided for a person with a disability, be it physical or mental, visible or invisible, is usually perceived as something they are getting “for free”. Something is being facilitated for them in a way it wouldn’t for a person without said disability. Supposedly, it is understood that it is not an advantage, but a way to make things less difficult, or simply possible, for someone already struggling with things that are taken for granted by others. Supposedly, of course. Therein lies the first problem disabled people face and that also originates the second one, the title of this […]

Health

AASET: Standing up for the Change in Health Care Futures for Autistic Women

October 20, 2018 Spectrum Women

Autistic Adults and other Stakeholders Engage Together (AASET) is a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute engagement project that aims to create a group of community stakeholders and researchers. Our group has anticipated in developing a common agenda to address the most pressing issues facing autistic adults. In that process, the project asked stakeholders how, when, and why they would want to be engaged in research. In this project, we have learned that one very important priority is to address the needs of hundreds of thousands of women on the autism spectrum, often who have gone undiagnosed until adulthood. These women responded […]