Screams and Reflections - ND sharing & community

(383 Words, 3 Minutes)

I found out I “might be autistic” some time ago, and hyperfixated on learning about neurodivergent stuff for a couple of years. I have a bachelors in Psychology, but I learned (and unlearned) so god damn much from “the internet” - doctors often advise against that which I find ironic, because this may have literally saved my life.
In 2023 I started an Instagram page, wanting to start publicly (anonymously) share my own experiences. I posted a little, have so many ideas that I have yet to post, and October 7 happened, and - apologies for being a broken record here, but literally everything changed since then. I started to look at “being neurodivergent” more critically and politically (if that’s the right term), I met (online) thinkers on psych abolition and Mad Liberation (links in the “resources” section of this site!), and I learned a lot more about disability justice.

I do still have a lot of thoughts I want to share and I’m following other thinkers closely every day which creates more thoughts xx. One thing I found with this/these community(s) in particular - we have so much knowledge and we make so many discoveries, and we love sharing them. It’s this positive feedback loop and it’s genuinly beautiful to witness. The community sharing is not just useful but really powerful, empowering. It has helped me immensely and I do want to give back whatever I can, which is why I created an Instagram page in the first place.
(The online autistic community has/had many problems as well, and many people have had incredibly bad experiences!! This is in large part due to lack of intersectionality and good political analyses imho, but I won’t go into that in detail here)
I’m not really sure if I want to continue running that Instagram account right now - making asthetically pleasing graphics can be a lot on top of organising difficult-to-express thoughts that come and go quickly. So I’m still figuring out how to proceed there… No promises!

peer sharing/support circle

Another thing I want to do is a local sharing and support circle, potencially IRL.
When we come together, feel safe, and share with each other, understand each other, support each other, person to person human to human (rather than creating content), it’s incredible.
We have very little community and so little actually safe spaces, and they are currently dominated by a few subgroups of the ND community rather than enjoyed equally across the board.
Many of us only have online community and/or safe spaces, which, is a valid preference ofc if it’s purely by free choice! IRL is not better than online for everyone or all the time, and I don’t want to make assumptions or imply inherent superiority… but we do severly lack IRL community and spaces for anyone who may want them, especially where I live - the south east of Narrm. But I know we exist, we are here.

Again, I cannot possibly add this on my plate right now if I have to do it by myself. But I would love to collaborate with others and make this a reality. And just like my cooking project, I’m super happy to let it organically develop and take whatever shape it needs to.

My DMs and email are open for you!! ⬇