Your Autistic Life

Your Autistic Life: The Ruminations of an Autistic Man

This is my blog. I masked my autism for the first 50 years of my life. I discovered in March 2023 that I am, in fact, autistic. Prior to this time, my life was mostly okay, but did not make much sense overall. Since my self-diagnosis, my life makes much more sense.

If you don’t know where to start on this site, this page has the articles you should read first.

Premium articles can be found here, besides appearing in the other sections.

Editorials:

  • You Don’t Understand Free Speech

    I know my title is provocative. It is intentional. The law is one of my interests. At the same time, I’m not a lawyer. I’m merely better informed than the average American. Let me be clear that I’m going to talk about the right of free speech embodied in the Bill of Rights of the…

  • Invisible Minorities Are Vocal About Their Identities With Good Reason

    It is because the majority tends to forget that these invisible minorities exist. I recently came across a “bash the vegan” joke that got me thinking about the issue at hand here. I’m paraphrasing, but the joke was: The toughest part of being a vegan is keeping it to yourself. I think there are several…

  • On The Importance Of Teaching Neurodivergence

    In my view, it would allow us to handle better the friction that occurs when meshing different communication styles. As I was writing about the sources of friction between my ex-wife and I, it occurred to me that knowing about neurodivergence would have been extremely useful to us. It is unclear whether it would have…

Latest Articles:

  • The Death Of A Dream

    We’ve sold the marital house, and with that a dream died. We recently sold the house in which my ex-wife and I lived for seven or eight years. I left earlier, she left later, hence the seven or eight year figure. It was the second house we owned together. Truth be told, our dream died…

  • Was Autism A Factor In My Divorce?

    No, and yes. It is a complicated question for which both answers are correct. I’ve always maintained that my autism wasn’t the cause of my divorce. This is true, insofar as neither of us knew that I was autistic. That’s something I realized after the divorce. However, I’m still engaging in The Great Reflection. As…

  • Janette Bertrand, The Lady Who Listened

    Janette Bertrand knew how to listen to those who were cast aside by society. I’m pretty sure she’d be fine with me calling her by her first name. So let me tell you about Janette. She was a big name on TV when I was growing up in Québec. She had one project after another.…

  • Sleep Disorders

    I used to be able to sleep just fine, but I lost that ability with age. Sleep disorders are common among autistic people. The fact that I progressively lost the ability to sleep normally is one of the reasons I think that I was starting to lose the ability to mask prior to my cancer,…

  • I Like Repetition

    There are multiple ways in which repetition is a feature of my life. Society tells us that repetition is a bad thing. Then again, society is dominated by neurotypical people. I’m neurodivergent, autistic, and thus my relationship with repetition is more complex than what society tells us. My choice of clothing shows a desire for…

  • Stimming

    I’ve stimmed all my life, but its manifestation has changed over time. As I reflect on earlier episodes in my life, I realize that a lot of the symptoms associated with autism were present in me, but masked. I’ve stimmed way before my cancer weakened my ability to mask, but I did not know what…

Latest Videos From My YouTube Channel:

  • The Prophecy

    Finn is showing an old book to Alice. It contains a prophecy. https://youtu.be/if4022JgmiE

  • Interesting Secretions

    This is what happens when you stand too close to someone… like, right under their nose. https://youtu.be/WmDAf_E1smo

  • Hand Dancing: Cutting The Carrot

    I stim to music by hand dancing. This is another form of hand dancing. I call this one cutting the carrot. https://youtu.be/Pe0NE-aEIJY

Latest Music:

  • Stimming Is Life 015

    Yes music! In need to talk about the Route 66 song. Unfortunately, the electroswing mix that I picked does not exist on Spotify. I had to replace it with Nat King Cole’s version, which I love. This song is a good illustration of the fact that I think ads can be cute, even if I…

  • Stimming Is Life 14

    More music to stim to. Things of note… I believe this is a first in our series. The songwriter of Your Woman, Jyoti Mishra (@Jyoti) is in the fediverse! Do say hi, especially if you like the song! Danger Mouse is very present in this playlist. He’s a member Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells. No,…

  • Stimming Is Life’s 80’s 001

    I know I’ve had a few oldies in my playlists previously, but this is the first time I have an entire playlist of oldies. I asked YouTube for Lube, and then it figured that I just wanted to listen to oldies. I just rolled with it.