By Joel Ashton-Fogle Duel Diagnosis No, this is not a miss-spelling! For every day is a battle; a combat between symptoms, treatments for them, side-effects of the treatments and subsequent treatments to alleviate the side-effects, leading to more side-effects and more treatments. And so it goes o…

By Ikea “Syance” Wilson I would like to say something about the R-word. Not only do I think it is offensive, I also believe this word could tear people down inside mentally and emotionally. We often use this word in order to express frustration to one another. However, this is not an ac…

By Morgan Giosa What do I think of when I think of the phrase “outside the box”? I think of a desire – be it intentionally or not – to go against the grain in a creative process which might deviate from conventionally acceptable norms. I think of the painting technique my art…

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. The Art of Autism is focusing on blogs of those who have a dual-diagnosis. By Jacqueline Lee At the beginning of January, I started two government internships concurrently. The first internship was a paid one which essentially laid me off once they were done – w…

Dually diagnosed with autism and Down syndrome, Dana Anderson has found her voice through art. Dana Anderson is a 25-year-old emerging artist who paints with acrylics on canvas and boards. Instead of conspicuously or deliberately altering or representing a subject, Dana’s color, texture, line, and f…

I often imagine words in fancy fonts swirling out of my mouth only to fall on the floor unheard. So many misconceptions about selective mutism exist. By Kimberly Gerry-Tucker Like many people who have been diagnosed autistic (in my case Aspergers), I have an overlapping condition: Selective Mutism. …

May is Mental Health Month. The Art of Autism throughout May would like to focus on stories about those with dual diagnoses. By Jeanette Purkis I have a diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Condition and atypical schizophrenia. In my 42 years I have accessed a large number of publicly and privately funde…

How Autistic people experience the world is still not well understood by many mental health clinicians. As many Autistic adults – and particularly women – are undiagnosed, mental health clinicians may assume they communicate and behave like a non-Autistic person would in the same situati…

What I’m learning from Kevin’s DBT classes. By Debra Muzikar The first Wednesday of each month at 4:00 PM Kurt and I drive to El Cajon and pick up Kevin. We take Kevin out to dinner at his favorite little Mexican restaurant in University Heights. After our meal we walk to an office build…

Picking up a paint brush does not mean I’m super human. I’m not an alien hybrid nor am I a gift from God. I’m not special and I’m not a saint. I am a person. We are all people and no one can speak for everyone. By April Dawn Griffin There are 200 million Autistics alive today…