One of my friends is a youth worker and mentor in a local special provision school and she asked me to discuss the topic of meltdowns and shutdowns. They are almost buzzwords within autism and the autistic community. What are these phenomena? Both of them describe an occurance where the individual is overloaded with information and stimuli with differing reactions to the overload. A meltdown is a loss of behavioural control to an overwhelming situation1, as described by NAS. I think this is one of the briefer descriptions of this phenomena I have found, hence why I reference NAS as this is clear and to the point. Ways in which meltdowns can manifest themselves may include: anger or violence exhibited in a verbal or physical manner, crying, shaking and ‘refusal’ to comply. This list is not exhaustive I add, these are merely from experiences I have had. These are different to tantrums, which are goal based. A shutdown is pretty much what it is describing: shutting down. This is a retrac…

It’s taken me a while to write this piece as I feel I need to get the exact words to describe quite abstract ideas. When I used to write essays I pretty much constantly had a thesaurus open as my vocabulary when trying to explain non concrete things is pants and repetitive. I’m sure I’m not alone in this…
I guess I have been asked: how does it feel to be autistic?
In all honesty I don’t know the answer to that question. I feel like me if I’m quite honest. I know no different. It’s a bit of a peculiar question as it’s a bit like asking someone a question of ‘how it feels to be something’ when they have only experience of that one thing you are asking about. It’s a shame that we cannot insert something similar to an SD card to film how others perceive the world. I think that would be so fascinating from a being nosey point of view. The filming however would miss out on the most crucial part of being human: feelings, moods and how our bodies experience them. It also depends with that ques…

Liebe Leserinnen, lieber Leser, As mentioned in the previous post, here is the talk I prepared to share with new university students as part of autism orientation week at my local university. I have slightly edited it for this blog post, breaking down some terms and explaining maybe why I have suggested certain things. I will place these additions in italic. This is targeted at young adults first moving away from home for the first time. Some may have never been away from their parents and home environment before while others may have. They will all have a diagnosis of autism/Asperger's, social anxiety or a suspected diagnosis or one or both. It may be also beneficial to bear in mind that this is more directed at students with Asperger's or who are quite 'high functioning' in terms of autism. Change and transitions are hard for everybody, but the difficulty is compounded the these individuals mentioned above. Worries regarding change in environment (noise in the block a…

My name is Krysia (pronounced kri-shah). You can see my picture in my icon from when I lived in Berlin. I am a 25 year old masters student of Autism Studies. I graduated in 2014 with a First in French and German. I also happen to have a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome. I enjoy learning about the history of my local area, am completely animal-mad and shop vintage.

So why write this blog? 
Well firstly I blame one of my second cousins, who is a social worker and asked if I did when I was sharing some resources with her. Secondly it's a nice thing to do but thirdly (and probably most importantly) because it is a place I can draw everything that I am working on into one place and create a place for learning, sharing and encouragement. 
As I previously mentioned I am a masters student at my local university, I am going to be volunteering as part of their Autism Orientation week they are running in student services through talking to the new incoming students about my experience at…