This article was co-authored between David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin Trigger Warning: Some of the research quoted in this article contains person-first language or references to aspergers. While the authors do not agree with the use of such language, we must access the research and statistics available to us. We are also aware that some of the research cites Simon Baron-Cohen, unfortunately it is almost impossible to avoid him when writing this kind of article. There are also detailed discussions of various traumatic experiences including mentions of suicide, addiction, and mental health issues. This website houses extensive writing on the […]
This article was co-authored between David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin Trigger Warning: This article contains discussion of systemic abuse and trauma inflicted by professionals. Some of the research cited contains person-first language and other problematic or ableist language. There is also discussion of sexism and racism. The first part of this series looked at the trauma that Autistic people experience on a daily basis from birth, perhaps even before birth. We did this so we could start to paint a picture of why so many Autistic people experience what would be considered “poor outcomes”. In this next part of the […]
This article was co-authored between David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin Trigger Warning: This article contains discussion and examples of ableism and discrimination against Autistic and disabled people. Mentions the R-Slur. When you’re first confronted with the word “ableism”, it seems a bit abstract and unreal. This is because it is so ingrained into our society and psyche that it has become a normalised and accepted part of every day life. Regardless of your position and privilege (or lack thereof). Unfortunately, for countless disabled people, ableism represents a very real threat to not only their daily lives, but their right to […]
This article was co-authored between David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin Trigger Warning: This article contains mentions of systemic mistreatment in the mental health setting, traumatisation, references to pathologizing theories and language, mention of cultural ignorance, and discussion of mental health conditions inlcuding cluster B diagnosis and misdiagnosis. It seems to be common knowledge in the Autistic community that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) by and large does not work for Autistic people. Lets dig a little deeper. The fundamental issue with CBT and other similar therapies is that they were designed around the predominant (or neurotypical) neurotype (Kelly and Farahar; 2021). […]
This article was co-authored by David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin Trigger Warning: This article contains strong language and discussions of fabricated or induced illness, ableism, discrimination, bigotry, child abuse, medical abuse, systemic abuse, institutionalised bullying. Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) is defined by a set of “alerting signs”, written in guidance produced by the Royal College of Paediatrics. From the horses mouth itself- “FII is a clinical situation in which a child is, or is very likely to be, harmed due to parent(s) behaviour and action, carried out in order to convince doctors that the child’s state of physical and/or […]
This article was co-authored between David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin Trigger Warning: Injustice, mental health, systemic oppression, minority stress, fabricated and induced illness, stigma. “The state creates the rules and dictates the processes to be followed: processes that fragment, silo, and compartmentalise, and in doing so, generate the complexity that is the root cause of clustered injustice.” Clements, L. (2020) As disabled people not only do we have to consider how our disability affects us inday to day life, but we also have to consider the amount of ‘life admin’ that we encounter daily. Policies, procedures, and legal processes are […]
This article was co-authored by David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin Trigger Warning: Injustice, professionals, Autistic suffering, mentions of theory of mind, weak central coherence, and older autism theory. We often sit and have conversations about our work. We never cease to be astounded at the lack of basic autism knowledge out in the world. We’re not talking about Theory of Mind or Weak Central Coherence. You would think after so many years in advocacy we would have become desensitised to it by now. Unfortunately, every day we attend social care meetings, school meetings, meetings with clinical commissioning groups, etc, who […]
This article was co-authored by David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin The NHS defines the role of social care as being; “…about providing physical, emotional and social support to help people live their lives.” This sounds like a wonderful, albeit vague, concept. Perhaps it would help to look more closely at the law associated with social care. Let’s go back to 1970 and look at the Chronically Sick and disabled Persons Act. For the purpose of simplicity, let’s take a snapshot of what they are supposed to provide for disabled children according to this legislation: “(a)the provision of practical assistance for […]
What does it take to support Autistic people in a professional context? David and Tanya explore the concept of neurodivergence competency and invite you to join in the conversation.
This article was co-authored by Tanya Adkin and David Gray-Hammond The literature around Autistic burnout is in it’s infancy with regards to academic papers, most of what exists comes from lived experience and blogs written by Autistic people themselves. The first academic paper on Autistic burnout was written by Raymaker et al (2020). This paper describes Autistic burnout as: “Autistic burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic life stress and a mismatch of expectations and abilities without adequate supports. It is characterized by pervasive, long-term (typically 3+ months) exhaustion, loss of function, and reduced tolerance to stimulus.” Raymaker […]
This article was co-authored by David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin This article includes exerts from interviews conducted by David, all interviewee’s gave their permission for quotes to be used. Tanya has demand avoided weighing in on this topic for quite some time. Not for no good reason. Tanya has felt torn with this topic and the potential outcome of the petition that has been circulating and included in David’s previous articles on CAMHS. This petition has been signed by nearly 190,000 people as we type this. The number is climbing. The petition shines a light on the routine refusal of […]
This article was co-authored by Tanya Adkin and David Gray-Hammond Monotropism is a theory of autism. It is used interchangeably as a theory and also a trait that describes a style of attention. It suggests that Autistic people tend to have singular but highly detailed tunnels of attention, as opposed to spreading their attentional resources across multiple subjects (Murray, Lesser & Lawson, 2005). It has succeeded where other theories have failed by offering an explanation for every element of Autistic experience. In this sense monotropism is the only universal theory of autism. One could consider it the “engine” of Autistic […]
TW: Discusses Challenging Behaviour, Disordered Eating, Sex and Related Activities, Self-Injury, and Victimisation
Recently David posted an infographic about interoceptive stimming. This proved to be a very popular topic and we felt it necessary to expand on this more via this series. In our experience working directly with Autistic individuals experiencing various levels of distress and crisis, what is often conceptualised as "behavioural" can be attributed to interoceptive self-stimulation.
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