iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

I recently started a practice to boost my therapy. Every morning I write plans for the day, affirmations, gratitudes. Every evening I write accomplishments, what did and didn’t go well. This makes each day more intentional and keeps the things I’m working on front of mind. #ActuallyAutistic ♾️

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Got my official diagnosis: Autism Spectrum Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s what I expected, but it was also jarring. Reading the report felt very othering. #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

Wow. “I am flawed. I am, in part, broken. Not by my autism, but by my insistence on fighting it and by the stresses it places on me. My being different from most people around me—and the years of living a life not meant for me—have taken their toll.” - Laura James, Odd Girl Out #ActuallyAutistic ♾️

Photo of passage in Laura James’ book, Odd Girl Out. Text reads:

I think of kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with powdered precious metals. The craft and the philosophy treat breakages and repairs as part of the history of any piece rather than as something to hide.
I am flawed. I am, in part, broken. Not by my autism, but by my insistence on fighting it and by the stresses it places on me. My being different from most people around me-and the years of living a life not meant for me-have taken their toll.
I look up pictures of kintsugi bowls. I see the gold cracks glistening and realize that without them many of the pieces filling the screen on my laptop would be dull and ordinary. If they had been invisibly mended, they would always be slightly inferior, a lesser version of what they once were.
Now, with their imperfections celebrated, they are somehow more. They are damaged, and that damage makes them beautiful.

Photo of a white and blue ceramic bowl that has been broken and put back together with visible gold lines where the cracks were.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Came home from a trip with a friend exhausted and down. My (new) therapist said I did well letting my friend be herself (filled with unending questions and childlike wonder), but I didn’t ask for what *I* needed (more quiet or alone time). Unmasking sounds easy, but it’s a bitch. #ActuallyAutistic ♾️

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

The very things we are trying to avoid, or control, wind up directing the course of our lives. As Carl Jung put it: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” - Alda Sigmundsdóttir open.substack.com/pub/aldasigm... #MentalHealth

open.substack.com

It's not about getting high. It's about getting real.

What if the healing power of psychedelics met the powers of destruction we are witnessing today?

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

I finished my 3rd and last assessment interview with grasp.org. I'll get the results in 6-8 weeks. I originally signed up to get an official diagnosis of my self-identified #ActuallyAutistic self. But they also offered testing for #ADHD, #OCD, and #PTSD, so I signed up for those as well.

grasp.org

GRASP

Visit the post for more.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

MIGDAS2 Q: When you're doing your favorite things, is it ever hard to stop and focus on something else? My A: Y would I stop n focus on something else? Is it because I'm interrupted? If so, then, yes, it's hard to stop n focus on something else, because I'm mad and/or irritated. #ActuallyAutistic

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The Daily Tism @thedailytism.com · 21/02/2025

Rescue worker Graeme Hart, 32, said: “He was looking a little thin, but otherwise he seemed in weirdly good spirits for someone who’d been isolated from society with seemingly no hope of return.”

thedailytism.com

Autistic man stranded on desert island asks rescue team for a couple more weeks

An autistic man who became stranded on a desert island after a shipwreck has asked the search and rescue team who found him if they wouldn’t mind fucking off again, reports have confirmed. Concerns h...

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auntyho.bsky.social @auntyho.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

I know things can be scary, but they’re counting on our despair, don’t give it to them. #Resist #Resistance #FascistsDontWin #TheRevolutionWillBeMemed

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Welp, I decided to get an official #ActuallyAutistic diagnosis. Had my first of 3 interviews today with GRASP, the Global and Regional Autism Spectrum Partnership. Very welcoming and open to whatever issues I do and don't have. 100% neurodivergent staff. ♾️ grasp.org

grasp.org

GRASP

Visit the post for more.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Excerpts from Steve Silberman's NeuroTribes: “… instead of investing millions of dollars a year to uncover the causes of autism in the future, we should be helping autistic people and their families live happier, healthier, more productive, and more secure lives in the present.” #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

"Neurotypical syndrome is a neurobiological disorder characterized by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity. There is no known cure." - #ActuallyAutistic Laura Tisoncik @webmuskie.bsky.social, in Steve Silberman's book, NeuroTribes. Love it!

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

I don't really understand anxiety. My therapist recommended I watch the movie Inside Out 2. So, I did. Anxiety played a major role. She was strong, and influential, and had a tendency to spin out of control. Honestly, I found it anxiety-inducing just to watch. Urgh. #ActuallyAutistic

The animation character named "Anxiety" from the movie Inside Out 2. A crazy-haired, bulging-eyed, grimace-faced creature.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Steve Silberman's book, NeuroTribes, describes how #ActuallyAutistic kids were clinically diagnosed in the west in the early 1900s. It’s fascinating, informative, and tragic. The missed opportunities and misguided theories driven by the egos of a few investigators fills me with rage and sorrow.

Image of book cover. Text reads:

NeuroTribes
The Legacy of Autism
and the Future of Neurodiversity

STEVE SILBERMAN

Forward by Oliver Sacks

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The Autistic Coach | Mati (he/they) @theautisticcoach.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

You don’t owe anyone an explanation for being autistic. It’s your identity and your journey, and you get to decide who, when, and how to share it - if at all. Many people will feel entitled to details about your life, but their ableist curiosity never outweighs your boundaries.

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Meidas Sassy™ 🐬 @filosia.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Hi friends 🦋 We're in for a rough ride, that's abundantly clear. However, with all the doom & gloom out there, please: ✨ remain resilient ✨ embrace your authenticity & values ✨ stay informed! ✨ celebrate small victories ✨ help/support others! ✨ don't let anyone divide us! #UnitedBlue 💙🫂

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Random anecdote from Steve Silberman's book NeuroTribes hits home, "... the fathers and grandfathers of children with autism were more likely to be engineers." My grandfather, father, and mother were all engineers. Hmmmm. ♾️ #ActuallyAutistic ("The valley" in the full quote is Silicon Valley, CA.)

Photo of excerpt from Steve Silberman's book, NeuroTribes. Text reads:

Attraction between people with similar genetic traits is called assortative mating. In 1997, cognitive psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen found that the fathers and grandfathers of children with autism were more likely to be engineers. Could assortative mating between men and women carrying the genes for autism be responsible for the rising number of diagnoses in the Valley?

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

I once signed up to help adults learn to read. Part of our training aimed to make us volunteers experience the discomfort of being illiterate. We were asked to read aloud from a piece of paper with mirror image writing on it. No one could do it, except me. I thought it was easy. #ActuallyAutistic

Mirror image of the back of Temple Grandin's book, Thinking in Pictures. The text reads:

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is a gifted animal scientist who has designed one-third of all the livestock-handling facilities in the United States. She also lectures widely on autism—because Temple Grandin is autistic, a woman who thinks, feels, and experiences, the world in ways that are incomprehensible to the rest of us. In this unprecedented book, Grandin delivers a report from the country of autism. Writing from the dual perspectives of a scientist and an autistic person, she tells us how that country is experienced by its inhabitants and how she managed to breach its boundaries to function in the outside world. What emerges in Thinking in Pictures is the document of an extraordinary human being, one who, in gracefully and lucidly bridging the gulf between her condition and our own, sheds light on the riddle of our common identity.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

"... the behavioral inflexibility seen in autism may result from genes that diminish forgetting." "... benefits of forgetting: creativity, self-reinvention, mental clarity, big-idea thinking, forgiveness, the updating of knowledge, and the reduction of post-traumatic stress." #ActuallyAutistic

Screen shot of linked New Yorker article. Text reads:

In a book titled “Forgetting: The Benefits of Not Remembering,” the Columbia neurologist Scott A. Small suggests that the behavioral inflexibility seen in autism may result from genes that diminish forgetting. In a review paper, “The Many Faces of Forgetting: Toward a Constructive View of Forgetting in Everyday Life,” the psychologists Jonathan Fawcett and Justin Hulbert list other documented benefits of forgetting: creativity, self-reinvention, mental clarity, big-idea thinking, forgiveness, the updating of knowledge, and the reduction of post-traumatic stress.

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Louise Ting @neuro-observant.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

#BIPOC voices are often missing from autistic spaces, so here is a BIPOC starter pack! 😊 go.bsky.app/TtXfpAt #racialequality #antiracism The image of autism as “only white boys” leads to underdiagnosis, discrimination & isolation for many Our autistic community is much more diverse than that! ❤️

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The Daily Tism @thedailytism.com · 15/01/2025

“It’s a relief to know, to be honest. I’ve always felt like something about me was different. When I see other cats slow blinking at their humans, I’m like, what are you doing? Turns out they were trying to avoid prolonged eye contact.” thedailytism.com/scientists-d...

thedailytism.com

Scientists discover first cat without autism

Scientists believe they have finally discovered the world's first neurotypical cat, a new study has revealed. Quiche, three, is a remarkably non-jumpy, non-erratic British shorthair who adores firewor...

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Alone with my husband, I compliment him on something. He asks me why I never do that in front of other people. What? He says he compliments me in front of others all the time. I know. I hate that. It's so embarrassing. I just want to crawl into a hole. He is shocked. #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Before I retired, I got a temporary promotion working for my boss' boss. He told me that I needed to work on my "presence". He said no one noticed when I walked into a room. I thought about that a lot. It was a powerful observation. I didn't address it. I couldn't. It felt like ... not me at all.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

You never know where Autistics will show up! The Dec. 2024 issue of Trout Unlimited's magazine, "Trout" has an article about an autistic man who hires a fishing guide to flyfish for trout in Idaho. Both guys did a great job of talking through needs and expectations beforehand. #ActuallyAutistic

Photo of the beginning of the article. Text:

Hearts Wide Open
Autistic angling and the guide experience
BY RUSSELL JAMES
A long trail of orange BNSF Railway cars thundered along the southern bank of the wide Kootenai River in the eastern side of Idaho's panhandle. Vibrations traveled from the rails into the water, and I felt them through the soles of my Chacos and the seat of the drift boat. My hands shook, dripping wet. My breath had gone shallow, and I noticed it hitching: An electrical current at the nape of my neck spread along the neuro pathways throughout my body. It was not a comfortable feeling; but I couldn't stop smiling. My guide, Aaron Gordon of Long Drift Outfitters, whooped, and we slapped hands. I was still catching my breath when I felt an ache set into my forearm, the result of an aggressive fight with a wild, fat rainbow.

I'm autistic, and let's start by dispensing with the "Rain Man" comparisons.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

My therapist says I have anxiety. This was a revelation to me. But I can see she's right. I'm absolutely TENSE inside most of the time. Tho I don't show it. Might my anxiety stem from my effort to mask my autism? If so, then unmasking might (eventually) reduce my anxiety! #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

My therapist recommended some mindfulness exercises to calm my persistent sense of urgency. (Urgency!) So now, when I take my dogs for a walk in the woods, I'll stop in the middle and go super slow motion for 25 yards or so. #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

My husband is trying to understand my recent #ActuallyAutistic diagnosis. Yesterday I was telling him how I've always felt weird. Always KNOWN I was weird. ALWAYS. "You don't seem weird to me, and I met you in your 30s." My 30s?!?! By then I'd been masking for 30 years. I was a pro.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

I was pretty down yesterday. Told my therapist I was tired of the roller coaster ride. Why am I making such a big deal out of this #ActuallyAutistic diagnosis? I'm the SAME PERSON. She said it IS a big deal. It's ground shifting. It's validation after a lifetime of not. And I'm coping well. OK ♾️

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Late-diagnosed, adult-diagnosed #ActuallyAutistic people are so accustomed to being masked, their true selves are invisible *even to themselves*. See excerpt from Clara Törnvall's book, The Autists.

Highlighted text reads: "Yet the autistic woman is not masking with the intention of being deceitful. Her true self is invisible even to her own person. She is masking to fit in, and doing so unconsciously. Often, she doesn't even understand that she has been camouflaging herself until she gets her diagnosis. Before that, she thinks her struggle is everyone else's, too. At least, that's what it was like for me."

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Years ago, my husband and I made all our funeral arrangements, including getting a gravestone. He got a crucifix by his name. For symmetry, I needed a symbol, too. I chose infinity, for my love of math. TODAY I learned that INFINITY is the symbol used for AUTISM. Mind blown! #ActuallyAutistic ♾️

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

Have you ever considered the sharing of your #ActuallyAutistic diagnosis as a public service? Check out this interesting perspective on unmasking by writer @andykopsa.bsky.social. Thread.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Thnx for the grins, @orion-kelly.bsky.social. I was catching up on your #ActuallyAutistic YouTube posts, and LITERALLY laughed out loud several times. Love the bit on unwritten rules, “What do you mean say hello and goodbye to people? What the hell? What are you, ROYALTY?!” youtu.be/CA3IxuL9S1Q?...

youtu.be

20 MORE Autistic Traits in Adults You Never Knew Existed!

YouTube video by Orion Kelly - That Autistic Guy

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

I went to a conference last spring. 1st session was a field trip. I climbed onto a school bus with 40 strangers and died a slow death. The anticipatory energy. The cacophony of everyone talking. Ack! When we got back, I packed my bags, checked out 2 nights early, and drove home. #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Getting my hair cut is fraught with challenges. I rejected 4 places before finding one I liked. #ActuallyAutistic The owner was too nice in one. When she learned that I fly fish, she gave me some flies she had tied by hand. I couldn’t go back. It’s hard to explain. Unwelcome obligation?

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Elsa Williams @pidgewilliams.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

It’s been up five days and The Daily Tism News sketch show has hit 15k views!! Share it with everybody (though maybe not your six-year-old autistic nephew) youtu.be/BX9aTj27xTA?...

youtu.be

The Daily Tism - news by and for autistic people

YouTube video by Turtle Canyon Comedy

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Hit a rough patch yesterday. Went to get an auto insurance quote. The agent was nice, accommodating, helpful, but also chatty, bubbly, incessant. I descended into exasperation. Ugh. I managed to pull myself out. And be nice. Smile. Laugh. Then I fell apart driving home. #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Clashing with peers #ActuallyAutistic New school, 7th grade, I’m in an 8th grade algebra class because math makes sense to me. Follow the rules. Solve the puzzle. Super fun. I know all the answers. I raise my hand … a LOT. 50 eyes burn into me. I stop raising my hand.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

My husband, John, is a long-talking, non-linear thinker. I am brief and linear. When he goes in all directions while telling a story, it’s a Herculean effort on my part to stay with him. I feel like I’m holding on to a thread for dear life. And I’m annoyed, irritated, impatient. #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Initially, I didn’t think I had any of the characteristic Autistic “special interests”. But maybe I did/do. I was obsessed with the statistics of NFL kickers for a couple years. Eventually I had to quit because it was consuming me. Then I resisted getting sucked into other ones. #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

I have 2 autistic cousins I learned about when I was a little kid. “I have 2 cousins I’ve never met?!?” My Mom said they didn’t talk and were institutionalized. “Why?” “Because if you open the door, they just run. They don’t come back.” Like wild animals, I thought, enviously. #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

A lovely quote that hit home for me: “Dad said God made mothers so that every child has a best friend.”- Deborah Jackson Taffa in Whiskey Tender. I had an especially hard time making and keeping friends as a kid, and my mom’s support and encouragement surely eased my suffering. #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Discovering my autism is a roller coaster ride. Last week I began to long for a stuffed Pooh Bear I had as a kid. Hugs!! I threw him out 10 years ago when I was helping my parents downsize. I hadn't seen him in 30 years - it never occurred to me that I'd want him again. Agony. #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Last week, my husband, John, had minor surgery at a hospital we'd never been to before. We registered and entered the waiting room, me first. I was filled with discomfort. Later that day, I read in "Unmasking Autism" how Autistics can be thrown by new environments. ... #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

“Wait, that was an Autism thing?” Such a great line. ‘Learning in adulthood that you [are Autistic ] ... can involve mourning, rage, embarrassment, and dozens upon dozens of "wait, that was an Autism thing?" revelations.’ - Devon Price in Unmasking Autism #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Visit 2&3: I tell my therapist about my Autistic test results. She is not surprised. She asks me to reflect on what I value. I say I find people confusing and share some negative experiences. She points out that those examples indicate my desire to connect with people. Really??? #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

In "The Electricity of Every Living Thing," Katherine May self-identifies as Autistic after taking 3 online tests: Autism Spectrum Quotient, Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale, and Aspie Quiz. I took the same 3 tests. Results? Autistic. Autistic. 50% probability Autistic. Yowza.

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Visit 1: I told my therapist I wondered if I was Autistic. She recommended Katherine May's "The Electricity of Every Living Thing." So much of her story resonated with me. "It seems to me now that it's not that I fail to manage the simplest challenges, but that I pass too well." #ActuallyAutistic

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Charlie's Journey @charlies-journey.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Visit 1: I told my therapist about my growing introversion and reactivity. She said it sounded like I wanted to move toward flexibility. That hit me hard. I reacted strongly (no surprise), laughing, "I could be FLEXIBLE?!?" Later, I reflected, if flexibility felt so foreign, then I must be rigid.

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