Author: Ilana

I grew up only knowing about a bad leg and foot, so having an autism diagnosis is the biggest thing that’s happened to me. Since I found out about cerebral palsy, it has taken me an additional 9 years of research to understand all my presenting neurological symptoms and to find out those were Autism.

But with my Autism diagnosis brings understanding. It is the reason why I struggled, why I would continually start something and not finish it, and why over the years I was labelled for being lazy. It is also …

Now that I have had autism confirmed, I need to understand the whole autism thing. My writing and what I write are part of an autistic thinking brain. It’s taken me a lot of years to work that out.

The reason I struggle with anxiety and why I have autism, is because the frontal lobe and right parietal lobe, which are responsible for keeping my emotions, my perceptions and reasoning under control …

Since my autism diagnosis was confirmed on the 11th January, I have been thinking about my experiences more. I believe that with or without autism it is important we question our thinking around our experiences so that we have an understanding.

In a way I find it easy because I work with black and white scenarios. Something either works or it doesn’t, someone is kind or they’re not, they want to help me, or they don’t. The grey area is the area where …

It’s another back to back blog. Having just come away with a confirmed diagnosis for autism means I must now accept the diagnosis and live my life with a new thinking around my symptoms. It’s taken 9 years since the original cerebral palsy diagnosis for me to work everything out.

I suppose in a way I’m lucky, because my autism symptoms are mild. Over the years I have taught myself to adapt into my life, but it’s something I need to continue to do. When it comes to anxiety, new unfamiliar …

It frustrates the hell out of me to know that it was autism all along, particularly because a diagnosis as a child will have made my life easier.

Questions were being asked by my consultants and ignored. Autism is the reason I failed in school. It is also the reason I carried guilt for 25 years, because academically I felt I’d let myself down. For years those …