Treasurer – Director
The Treasurer is a director of NeuroDiverse Self Advocacy Partnership CIC (NDSA) and shares responsibility with the rest of the board for the governance of the organisation.
IT Director and digital leader
Voluntary role If building a secure digital infrastructure for an exciting peer to peer support project which could make a huge difference to thousands of people excites you, talk to us. You could be located anywhere in UK as this is a remote opportunity. What will you be doing? You would need to be able …
Elastigirl: The Autistic Zebra
I have lived with the symptoms of EDS my entire life, with joint pain and symptoms of POTS appearing when I was a toddler, although being so small I was unable to adequately express what I was experiencing. Having lived with a certain degree of chronic pain and fatigue my entire life, and being unable to remember a time when I did not live in agony, I assumed it was a completely normal part of the human experience and I was simply lazy and weak for being unable to push through like everyone else did.
Flow Unlocked: an interim reflection
Dr Georgia Pavloopoulou is an autism researcher specialising in family research and autistic mental health. She uses community based participatory methodologies[1] guided by the lifeworld of the participant [2]. Her recent study on the impact of COVID19 on family members of autistic people[3], showed how lacking society’s understanding is of #autistic lives and the wider autistic community. We have co-established FlowUnlocked to address this urgent issue.
Living for the HEATWAVE!
I went round to give my boyfriend a hand with some DIY this morning and he invited me in for a natter, as he wasn’t ready to start yet. So 10 minutes in, I begin getting twitchy. Why? I’m looking out of the window at a gorgeous blue sky. I can feel the heat through …
My Attitude to Autism
“It would have been so easy,” Mum says, “just to say ‘oh, she’s Autie’, on so many occasions.” We’re talking about how Mum and Dad have pushed me through the years, not to be normal, but so I would do better on my own. We shared the same attitude towards parents who prefer to shelter …
Worn Out
“Have a cup of tea.” Says a helpful voice, carefully placing a cardboard mug next to me on the grass floor. It’s the third festival I’ve been to with my Dad, by this time we have worked up a routine of starting our day in the comedy tent, theatre in the afternoon, then finding some …
The Autistic Senses of Self and Agency.
This essay is an exploration of how the autistic senses of agency and self are diminished by various mechanisms, and how this diminution leads to the psychological problems of anxiety and panic disorders and PTSD experienced by many in the autistic community. !What are the senses of agency and self? Can we break them down …
Normal
Normal is a state of equilibrium. I know this because of how much my life has changed just in the past two years - and how much it is set to change in the next five. I have a place to study at university in September, finishing my job in August, from university I plan to go into teaching - but who knows what state of 'normal' I will be in then.
Since going into lockdown, there hasn't been a new 'normal' for me to stick to. Of course every week day has pretty much been the same, I have been surrounded by the same people and the same things - there is some consistency in my everyday experiences. But there is a questioning sensation in the back of my mind which is asking what this sort of 'normal' is, will it stay this way forever? What will happen once we go back to mingling with other people?
I miss the Bustle
Here is the situation, I am not able to leave my house to work. That is the simple problem living in this situation.... Now, this is the longest I've gone without leaving the village. The trains can be heard rustling through the village, walks around the train line reveal the empty carriages. And I want that bustle again. The busy-ness of everyday life. This made up my normal.