Another Comment about Being a Self-Diagnosed Autistic

 

I created this comment in response to a post by Retrophiliac on July 4, 2026 on the Meta Facebook platform.

I, too, have made my own jobs and careers centered around the accommodations no one could give me (or understand why they needed to or should have to) but me.

#Autism #selfRX 

In school, I was just the nerdy smart girl who cried too much. And not that no one cared exactly, but to get what everyone else wanted from me, I saw but could not yet name that too much was demanded of me because of the things that appeared to come easily to me.

My brain could compensate for my inability to see -- and I was told I faked failing the vision test. My brain could compensate for my dyslexia -- and I learned to read just as quickly upside down or in the mirror as regular text. So I COULDN'T be dyslexic, you see.

I didn't match "boy autism" of the 1980s. But Temple Grandin, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Dan Akroyd and I have a ton in common.

I saw a list of traits that matched what my teachers had been writing in reports about me since grade school when I was in an educational exceptionalities class in college. The list of traits referred to autism. That was in the late 1990s. But I wasn't supposed to say out loud that those traits had me nailed.

Shortly after college graduation, I got married and had a kid and my overload and my burnout hit so much harder because as a mom, there was no ability to run away and take care of myself. And still, I wasn't supposed to say what it was I was trying to run away from.

I got diagnosed with anxiety and asthma and prescribed steriods for the latter. I gained weight and I struggled but put on the bravest mask I could fake.

It took a pulmonary embolism, nearly 20 years later, in the thick of COVID (which I never personally tested positive for) to land me in the hospital for a week for me to realize the mask I had tried so hard to keep on had somehow slipped all the way off. The medical providers treating me diagnosed me with COVID despite all their known diagnostics saying NO. So either doctors and the medical community is capable of mistakes, or diagnostic tools are limited. And if that is true for COVID, why isn't is true for Autism?

Being able to see young(er) people like yourself self-advocating and building community has helped me immensely. That is why we are here. The same ableist people trying to slam you, me, us for existing are obviously hurting. But we are not the ones that hurt them. And it's one of the biggest cruelties OF OUR AUTISM that continues to challenge us to look for ways to help those hurting people to the potential erosion of our own boundaries.

There are so many closets I am not going back into for the comfort of some nameless, faceless individual coming at me from a random social media post.

Therefore, I hope you monetize the heck out of this page and can buy a steak (or delicacy of your choosing) with the proceeds from ill-conceived comments.

Using Books to Escape: a call to authors-in-progress

Books help people. 

Some people want their book to place them in a position of authority. 

Some use books to escape, and write books they can escape into or help others escape into. 

Other people write the stories they don’t want lost when they die. The stories they want their grandchildren to be able to pass down after they’re gone. 

When I moved to York 10 years ago, I’d written a few novellas and some kids books. I’d helped six kids from my home state of Arkansas publish their books to Amazon, and helped at least six more people get published during the nine months that I made Georgia my home. 

Six more young people got published during my time offering camps at Creative York and Rustic Cup and ironic. While I was writing the Mermaid’s Revenge series, an educator asked for my help with a community project that turned hundreds of York residents into people whose words were published in a book. And our second collaboration published over 2000 inspirational messages from people all around the world -- many my former ESL students from my time with Americorps. 

The community-based book led to an unlikely ghostwriting contract. The ghostwriting contract paid my way into being a Pubbed Penn of Pennwriters. Unfortunately, Pennwriters is an organization I have since left for excessive gatekeeping, volunteer exploitation, and hiding behind its non-profit status. Sometimes, I don’t play well with others. 

As an editor and publisher, I’m often overlooked because I don’t charge enough. People have been conditioned to believe that they get what they pay for, and it’s really easy to take advantage of good people. There is a short gap between taking advantage and abusing. Although no one can abuse a person professionally without some level of consent, most of us were raised to be grateful for abuse and to confuse abuse for service. Establishing boundaries has been really tough for me. 

But I have concluded that a kid doing their best work for their age and stage gets published. An adult phoning it in will not – not by me. I do not care how much money is thrown at me. And I don’t care if someone else uses AI even when and where I won’t. If that’s the route an author wants to go, I will wish them well as we pass each other by. 

Not everyone is a writer. But everyone has stories to tell and lessons to impart. And I can help bring those stories into the world. What I offer is the best book that is inside you gets to escape so you can help others use it to escape. 

You want to lead folks to financial freedom? Let’s do it. 

You want to help someone align their chakras or ease their birthing experience? Let’s go. 

You want the nerdy bunch of misfits to bind themselves in friendship, get betrayed at the worst possible time, and still survive? My bags are packed. 

Look. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. And the most confident among us shouldn’t be – you know what I’m saying? 

I’ve told people that they can think of their book as the modern lemonade stand. I’m not getting you your business license. I’m not setting up your stand for you or checking the city ordinances. I can’t guarantee you will even sell one cup. But I can guarantee that the recipe tastes the way you want it to. Your lemonade (story) may have more lemons (tragic events) than the seller across the street. Maybe the person next door puts more sugar in their lemonade than you do. Two streets over, they are selling lemonade AND candy bars that don’t melt in the sun. I can’t stop them, and you shouldn’t be focused on them. You should learn from them if you can. Collaborate if you can. Support each other if you can. Because tons of people sell their books on Amazon. Getting past that noise so you are seen and can start selling is HARD. 

If you just want to write a book for yourself, there’s not a thing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with wanting commercial success, either. 

I’ve been working in the background for the better part of ten years. Trying not to step on toes. Trying to make sure I was listening and learning more than I was talking. Trying to make sure my advice was trauma-informed, sensitive, and timely. But honestly? There has never been a better time for escape. 

There has never been a better time to see a need for something and want to be part of wherever it’s going. Even if you’re reading this and you’re not in York. With the internet, I have helped people in many states (and a few countries) to write books and become published authors. 

So if you’ve always wanted to write a book. If you want support without high pressure. If you want to take your time, there’s a good chance I’m your person. I won’t write your book for you, unless you are paying me to ghostwrite, but I will help smooth out the grammar and mechanics and plot holes so that you have a story YOU wrote and YOU are proud of. So contact me today for a free 30 minute consultation and let’s get ready to escape.