Life Through the Lens of Autism Archives

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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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Today by Lisa Morgan M.Ed. CAS

March 31, 2020 Spectrum Women

My alarm goes off. As my mind transitions from sleeping to waking up, I wonder what day it is. Oh, yeah, it’s today. It’s always today now. There’s no schedule to discern one day from the next anymore. It’s the spring of 2020 and the whole world changed just a couple of weeks ago. Then, I start to remember. This today is going to be a great day! Things are really going to get exciting! I had decided the night before to shake things up a bit and have my coffee in the living room by the window instead of […]

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The Carnival by Lisa Morgan M.Ed CAS

March 7, 2020 Spectrum Women

When I was a kid I went to a carnival. It was one of those small town carnivals celebrating summer with music, craft tables, the smell of fried food, and games to play for a stuffed animal. This carnival had a cake walk. It’s a game like musical chairs where people walk around an area until the music stops. If you happened to stop in front of a cake, you got to keep it. All the cakes were homemade and delicious! But, I digress. It wasn’t a time for cake then as you will see as my story progresses. So, […]

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Life Through the Lens of Autism: Defining Success by Lisa Morgan

August 10, 2019 Spectrum Women

I have never really known how to define success. For me, it has always seemed connected to how I’m feeling and subjective to circumstances. Along with being diagnosed as autistic later in life, come holes in my general knowledge of life. Ideas and concepts I probably would have learned if I was included in the social life of school and society while growing up. I’m gradually filling in the holes of my knowledge, such as defining success. For example… the other day, a program manager came to my home to introduce a new support person to help a family member. […]

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Laughter Means Something was Funny By Lisa Morgan

June 29, 2019 Spectrum Women

‘Laughing all the way to the bank’… I tried it once, but only made it halfway. My sides hurt, I was holding onto the steering wheel with one hand and wiping the tears of laughter out of my eyes with the other hand. I’m lucky I even made it to the bank! Ok, yes, I like to have fun with idioms sometimes. I do have a point to this, I really do. I was just reading an article* from a Scientific American (SA) blog called, “Autism: More than Meets the Eye”. Haha! I just pictured someone named ‘Morethan’ meeting someone […]

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Life Through the Lens of Autism: Condition? What Condition? by Lisa Morgan

May 28, 2019 Spectrum Women

I don’t have a condition, do you? I’m an autistic adult and I keep reading about my “condition”, wondering if “they” know something about myself that I’ve missed. I think I’m the expert at knowing me. Now, I read that I have a condition. Honestly, it’s insulting, demeaning, and offensive to me, but to be fair, I’m going to take an objective look at my life to see if I can find this condition “they” are talking about. Ok, so as far as I know, I’m in working condition for the most part. I mean, I am well beyond the […]

Life Through the Lens of Autism

What Masking is Not…

February 6, 2019 Spectrum Women

by Lisa Morgan There’s been a lot of discussion these days about masks, why autistic people use them, and how bad they are for us. Let’s take a look at what masking is not, and how good it is for us to take them off. Masking is not being someone we aren’t because we don’t like who we are, it’s being someone we aren’t because other people don’t like who we are. While trying to fit into a culture that feels foreign and uncomfortable – many autistic people, me included, were willing to hide our true selves to belong. It’s […]

Life Through the Lens of Autism

Lost – With a Map

January 6, 2019 Spectrum Women

Introducing… Life Through the Lens of Autism, a new monthly column for Spectrum Women’s magazine for all women on the spectrum. Written from the unique point of view of a spectrum woman who started life after college as a computer science engineer back in the 80’s, a single parent, mother of four (2 biological, 2 adopted from China), teacher of students with special needs, enjoys cats of all ages, survivor of suicide loss, author, advocate, speaker, loves purple, and one who doesn’t take life too seriously because… why? The column will be an excerpt of autistic life, a bit sarcastic, […]