28 years ago, my mother reacted with disgust when I told her that I wanted to leave her Australian and Italian-Australian doctors for an Asian doctor. I had some people claim that the fact that many Asian people go to Asian doctors rather than Anglo-Australian or European-Australian doctors is racism…

As I sit up here, watching life on the silver screen, I see that my sister was as dysregulated as I would have been when my servant was away for two nights. Amazingly, though, when the others were away, my sister spent most of her time lying beside a shirt…

If you live in my native Australia, you may have heard the soft Brogue voice of Dr. Norman Swan talking about bowel cancer screening programs by the Lions, which involve you taking part of a sample and sending it away for a faecal blood occult test. Other countries around the…

The memory is still with me. It was Sunday, December 15, 1991, and quite a hot day. I was about to turn 17. I had done some things for my parents and in the afternoon, my mother gave me a haircut and I had a shave and shower and wanted…

I was reading a story by a fellow autistic about how his son five year old son pressed himself up against a small girl, because he was overstimulated and the small girl cried. My fellow autistic wanted to take his son down to the police station and have the police…

Last Christmas, my sister-in-law mentioned loneliness and I told her that I didn’t really get lonely, as I have my tribe (my autistic tribe). She said, “But I’m talking about your biological family.” For some people, the loss of their grandparents means they see less of their extended family, but…

A friend of mine wrote about how their experience at school caused them to have a meltdown because a teacher asked a question about what makes a good friend, and it brought back to me my experiences in Year Five at school with a teacher who should have applied for…

Something wasn’t right with me but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I had recently turned 16, and I would wake up feeling nauseous and would vomit at certain times. My mother thought that I had developed an eating disorder as I went to great lengths to hide…

As the clock strikes twelve tonight, the month of April comes to an end. With it, comes an end to Autism Awareness Month. Tonight, I was blocked by a man with an autistic son, and I say, “Okay, sometimes friendships aren’t meant to last as you see that you don’t…