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Libby Banks

@libbyiscomplex.bsky.social
2.3K followers 3.5K following 257 posts

Autistic therapist/writer/thinker. She/They. POTS/hEDS/MCAS. Bisexual goofball. Developer of Contextual Systems Therapy. Happily partnered to my AuDHD dreamboat. www.libbyiscomplex.com

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Reposted by Libby Banks
Does It Have Pockets @doesithavepockets.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
"The following is not a record of what I found." What do we destroy that we cannot see? Don't miss this tremendous new hermit crab #fiction from @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social | www.doesithavepockets.com/fiction/libb...
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
My piece RE: autistic grief is up at the @autisticadvocacy.org blog!
autisticadvocacy.org
Autistic Grief: You’re Not Doing It Wrong
Written by Libby Banks for ASAN. This piece is for the autistic people who have been told, by themselves or others, that they are grieving incorrectly.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
This is probably my favorite thing I have ever written, and I am SO happy it found a home at HAD.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
I signed the contract for my first book, Navigating a Hostile Mental Health Care System: The Contextual Systems Therapy Field Guide, today. It will include 12 original interventions for neurodivergent practitioners and clients navigating a mental health system that pathologizes survival.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Updated pinned post! Leftist/elder millennial/autistic/chronically ill/practitioner-researcher/writer. Writing and other current projects: www.libbyiscomplex.com.
Person smiling at a diner table, wearing a green sundress and silver pendant necklace, short silver hair, holding a phone.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
RE: autistic pattern recognition, abuse, and narratives around that comfort, confuse, and distort. CW: Intimate partner violence/abuse, sexual assault (statistical mention, not depicted), coercive control, gaslighting, body dysmorphic disorder, trauma.
libbyiscomplex.com
The Signs Were Deliberately Obscured
Autistic people, along with other disabled people, experience significantly higher rates of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, financial exploitation, emotional abuse, and coercive control tha...
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Piece up at @hfr.bsky.social! heavyfeatherreview.org/2026/03/12/u...
heavyfeatherreview.org
Haunted Passages Short Fiction Hybrid: “The Cartographer of Unobservable Roads” by Libby Banks
A PEDESTRIAN GUIDE TO THE ALTERNATIVE ROUTE SYSTEM Seventh Edition (Revised) Compiled by: Dr. Rachel Wallace, Urban GeographerPublisher: Small Compass PressPrice: Free ROUTE 1: THE GRIEF-FOLD …
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Reposted by Libby Banks
Cole Beauchamp 🏳️‍🌈 📖 @nomad-sw18.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Powerful CNF by @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social on Venus de Milo, disability & recognising wholeness. "No limbs to perform emotional labor. No hands to comply. Just pure, uncompromising presence. Liberation looks like letting go of what the system demands you carry." wordgathering.com/vol19/issue2...
wordgathering.com
Libby Banks – Wordgathering
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
My student loans got forgiven through Public Service Loan Forgiveness today, and I'm beyond happy and in a little shock.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
My piece "What Venus de Milo Taught Me About ‘Broken’ Bodies" is up at @wordgathering.bsky.social. Thrilled to be in this issue - go check out the whole Winter 2025-2026 edition!
wordgathering.com
Libby Banks – Wordgathering
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Have a new piece that will be up tomorrow in the new issue of @wordgathering.bsky.social - truly honored and VERY excited!
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
A piece about dissociation, autistic masking, and their interplay.
libbyiscomplex.com
Thrown Under a Fire Blanket
RE: autistic masking and dissociation
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Y'all, within two weeks I'm going to go from living in a house with eleven other people (and nine dogs) to one with one other person (my partner) and three dogs. The relief is PALPABLE.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/pacing-as-... - wrote about pacing and dynamic disabilities and scarcity mindsets.
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Reposted by Libby Banks
Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
That entire Halftime special was a celebration of community, love, music, diversity and Puerto Rico and very deliberate middle finger to colonization and white supremacy.
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Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
New for @teenvogue.com (!) The young immigrant women workers of Lawrence won the 1912 Bread and Roses strike because of solidarity—which is also exactly how the people of Minnesota built the durable and inspiring resistance network we all saw on January 23, 2026. www.teenvogue.com/story/from-m...
teenvogue.com
From Minneapolis to “Bread and Roses,” Workers Have Always Fought Back
Times and conditions may change, but the struggle between labor and capital continues.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 24/01/2026
I attempted to go to an ICE patrol training here in LA this morning and they had to turn most of us away because of capacity issues and even as I was leaving I saw a ton more folks showing up so that’s how well their attempts to scare everyone away are going, even in the face of murder
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Ricky Davila @therickydavila.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
ICE are Gestapo. ICE are domestic terrorists. ICE are criminals serving a criminal. ICE are empowered abusers. ICE are cold blooded murderers.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
2 years ago today, I published this RE: how my haunting dog helps me ground.
open.substack.com
Grounding with Mabel: Lessons from a Grumpy Little Dog
Grounding prescriptions crumble under PDA’s gravity.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
I wrote about Piranesi and dissociative architecture.
libbyiscomplex.com
The House I Already Knew: Reading Piranesi as Dissociative Architecture
Note: This essay discusses Piranesi’s central mystery and transformation.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
I wrote about how my self-acceptance affected my marriage for the blog today.
libbyiscomplex.com
Crumbs Before Vows
He was washing dishes, his shoulders moving in a rhythm that I had always read as concentration.
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Reposted by Libby Banks
Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Make it viral.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/still-i-be... - a piece about therapy, being a therapist, and the complexity of working in "helping professions" that are built on harm and care.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/when-self-... - wrote about self-fairness and self-compassion.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Watching It’s a Wonderful Life, everyone’s favorite holiday movie about a monopolist landlord’s Christmas being made worse by radical mutual aid. (Genuinely adore this film - one of my mildest takes.)
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
CW: parental loss. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my dad's death, and as sometimes happens with hard anniversaries, my body knew before my brain did. Resharing this piece about what he meant to me and how loss changed me in ways expected and unexpected. www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/the-timing...
libbyiscomplex.com
The Quiet That Wasn't Vigilance
Filed under: grief logic and cellular loyalty.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/cinderella... New piece discussing power, tactical intelligence, and survival.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Very excited/honored/thrilled to have a piece up at Disappointed Housewife today - this is my first-ever lit mag publication.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
This is hard to share. Relocated to New Mexico from Texas 6mo ago for Wyatt’s food truck/safety/need for more familial support, Houston house still unsold despite $50k price drop. Old mortgage + new business + medical costs = underwater. Raising $6k to sustain until house sells. gofund.me/6b47f89ff
gofund.me
Donate to Help Libby & Wyatt Stay Afloat During Transition, organized by Libby Banks
What happened: Six months ago, we made a big move: we relocated to New M… Libby Banks needs your support for Help Libby & Wyatt Stay Afloat During Transition
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Reposted by Libby Banks
dr. thrasher, an american writer in ex(archia)(xile) @thrasherxy.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Watching disabled people around the world mourn Alice is a reminder of the good aspect of the internet. 30 years ago, few people outside of SF would ever have known Alice existed. I never would have met her. The internet connected us all. Let’s honor Alice’s memory by using that power and community.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Alice Wong was one of the most effective people challenging the Whiteness of disability communities and its many flaws, but who believed fiercely in us as a community, in disabled people as oracles. Alice brought so much to so many of us, it’s hard to measure the kind of gratitude I have for that.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
I think the Elyse Myers thing is a vivid example RE: norms that are about power differentials/preventing structural harm are not “arbitrary neurotypical etiquette.” Autism does not preclude responsibility and power.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
The Disability Visibility Project taught me so much about disability as culture, community, and resistance and that although I have access needs that will exist in any society I am in, the violence against those needs is socially constructed. Grateful for Alice Wong's advocacy - it changed my life.
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Reposted by Libby Banks
Elea Chang @elea.fyi · 15/11/2025
I don’t want to formulate words yet, but my friend Alice Wong, @sfdirewolf.bsky.social of the Disability Visibility Project, has passed. Here are the words she left behind: www.instagram.com/p/DREMDNBjnq...
instagram.com
Alice Wong on Instagram: "ID: Yellow background with black text "This is Alice's friend Sandy Ho, posting. Per Alice's wishes, this message is being shared at the time of her passing. Hi everyone, it ...
423 likes, 73 comments - alicatsamurai on November 14, 2025: "ID: Yellow background with black text "This is Alice's friend Sandy Ho, posting. Per Alice's wishes, this message is being shared at the t...
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Helen Rottier @helenrottier.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
I’m heartsick to hear that the incomparable Alice Wong has passed. Her loss will be felt keenly, by many, and for a long time. She is a force, a generous leader and storyteller, and an oracle for disabled futures. Much love to Alice and to all our crip kin and comrades. ❤️‍🩹
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Yesterday, I was thinking about my life online as a autistic psychotherapist. In my 5 years of sharing my thinking publicly, I've gone from "how I try to navigate a ableist system ethically" to "let's dismantle the mental health industrial complex and reimagine better together." Growth remains wild.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Wrote about body dysmorphic disorder and its global impact on my visual processing (among other things). CWs: body dysmorphic disorder, visual processing dysfunction, mental health misdiagnosis.
libbyiscomplex.com
The Kenneth Effect: When Your Brain Sees Everyone Wrong
Content warnings: Body dysmorphic disorder, visual processing dysfunction, mental health misdiagnosis
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
New essay about pathological demand avoidance/pervasive drive for autonomy and friendship. www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/comet-frie...
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Wrote about autistic masking as dissociation today. www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/thrown-und...
libbyiscomplex.com
Thrown Under a Fire Blanket
I.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Wrote about disenfranchised grief, disability, and neurodivergence today.
libbyiscomplex.com
The Futures We Never Got to Mourn
CW: Childlessness, chronic illness, trauma
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
3.5 months into writing essays/flash seriously, Smokelong Fitness gave me what I didn't know I needed: community that understands compression and takes craft seriously. Really grateful for this community workshop as someone who is geographically + professionally isolated.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
I spent years labeling myself as "anxiously attached" until someone showed up consistently - then I ran. Turns out disorganized attachment can be a brilliant shape-shifter. www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/the-attach...
libbyiscomplex.com
The Attachment Style That Hid from Me
Why I Couldn't Recognize My Own Avoidance
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Reposted by Libby Banks
Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
US farmers are saying they "just need temporary help, until things get better." Here's the thing. US farm exports- which are mostly soy- CANNOT get better. Other countries expanded their soy industries to fill China's demand. We've walled ourselves out of the global market, folks. This is it.
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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Here's the killer follow up question: Why?
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
New piece on autistic pattern recognition, demand avoidance, and why some of us loop through every moral angle before choosing because we understand the cost of getting it wrong. www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/its-not-in...
libbyiscomplex.com
It's Not Indecision, It's Devotion
The worst place to have a crisis of morality is the candy aisle at 10:30 PM.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
In Agatha All Along, Lilia lives out of temporal order. Wrote about temporal displacement, gestalt integration, and permission to exist non-linearly. (CW: dissociation. Spoilers for Agatha All Along.) www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/living-lif...
libbyiscomplex.com
Living Life Out of Order: What Lilia Calderu Teaches Us About Dissociation and Integration
Content warning: This essay discusses dissociation and dissociative experiences through the lens of a fictional character.
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Stimpunks Foundation @stimpunks.org · 22/09/2025
Queer and neurodivergent people are biological facts. We are stable parts of the human genome. “Human cognitive diversity exists for a reason; our differences are the genius – and the conscience – of our species.” —Carol Black, A Thousand Rivers stimpunks.org/philosophy/b...
stimpunks.org
Behold the Spectrum
Queer and neurodivergent people are biological facts.We are stable parts of the human genome.If you believe in a Maker, Maker built us in.Look to Maker and behold the Spectrum!If you don’t subscribe…
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
RE: when chronic misattunement harms your internal scaffolding for connection/the double empathy problem and its aftermath. www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/the-cost-o...
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
My body knew I couldn't fully heal while my father lived. This isn't about blame; it's about how nervous systems wait for safety. A meditation on love, timing, and becoming who you always were. CW: parental death, grief. www.libbyiscomplex.com/p/the-timing...
libbyiscomplex.com
The Quiet That Wasn't Vigilance
Filed under: grief logic and cellular loyalty.
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Libby Banks @libbyiscomplex.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
For years I performed "writing voice" - translating thoughts into prose. Trauma recovery gave me something unexpected: the capacity to externalize cognition more accurately. My writing sounds like my thinking now, and I think part of that is increased authenticity as a result of safety.
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