A tale of two trips to the mountains
Last December, my wife and I took a trip to the rural town of Montville on the Blackall Range in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. It was a cabin in the woods type of getaway that we had been looking forward to for several months. I…
The enduring benefits of slowness (and how it’s helping me through Autistic burnout)
When I was younger, one of my favourite books was Slowness by Czech-French novelist Milan Kundera. At the time, I was aged in my 20s and living life ‘slowly’: single, engaged in part-time, casual employment, hanging out with friends. Unfortunately for me, as the years…
I do my best work between the sheets: An Autism sleep tale
I know how the title of this article sounds. But can you blame me? I’m half asleep. Again! That’s despite me turning the lights out just after nine because I was so tired from the night, and day, before. I fell asleep quickly, like I…
Life before, during, and hopefully after, Autistic burnout
As I wrote in a story for Reframing Autism, at the beginning of 2022 it felt as though I had hit a wall – a huge, 10-metre-thick concrete wall infused with tungsten. We had just celebrated Christmas and New Year’s and the prospect of embarking…
Inward opening toilet doors are a germaphobe’s nightmare
Before I discovered I’m Autistic, I thought that maybe I was OCD (the idea of being Autistic didn’t even exist!). That’s because I like everything in its place, I’m very clean, and I wash my hands – a lot. More than 20 times a day…
Autism and the relentless need for control
During the past week, I realised something about myself that isn’t easy to admit. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that I’ve known about it for a while but tried to ignore it. Or, even better than that, is that I’m only now at…