By Ron Sandison “By understanding our emotions we are able to express and share them and this prevents us from being overwhelmed and controlled by them.” Ron Sandison Many people with Autism have difficulty expressing and sharing their emotions. Instead of managing our emotional level, we allow emot…

By Ron Sandison I enjoyed reading Carolyn Stern’s insightful book . Autism causes me to experience difficulty expressing my emotions and Carolyn’s book has taught me to use emotions for my advantage as a leader. In leadership positions I often felt anxiety in small group settings. Learning to expre…

“A meltdown is a highjack of our emotions.” Ron Sandison By Ron Sandison Most neurotypicals pay little attention to their sensory processing. When you feel cold, you put on a sweater. When music is too loud, you turn down the volume. For me and many other people with autism, our senses provide unrel…

I am a blossoming flower. By Angela Chapes My childhood had many challenges and I wasn’t the happiest person. I wasn’t always kind or nice. Fortunately, I had great influences in my life like my mom and my grandmother. They had such sunshiny personalities; I have worked to become that way too, by e…

Autistic Emotions Happy, sadness, envy, fear, and surprise— 6 emotions, 6 logics, all misunderstood. Smile, tears, growl, grimace, whimper, and jaw dropping— 6 actions, 6 expressions, all human. Comedy, tragedy, revenge, rival, horror, and plot twist— 6 encounters, 6 experiences, all stories. Y…

By Clare Smith What makes us human? Autistic people already know that one of the enduring myths about us is that we don’t do empathy. That we don’t get how others are feeling. That we don’t even get how we’re feeling. But loads of us can. In fact, many of us have no filter for emotions, so we’re h…

By Alice Farion It’s going to be ok. I’m going to be ok. It’s just 8 hours. I’m going to be normal. But I’m not. I am faking it, I am not ok. I am not normal. Everyday, I play an act. I have been an actress my whole life. I am a researcher too. Everyday, I observe other people, list facts, organise …

Nine-year-old Thomais wrote and illustrated her own book, “The Story Of Thomias” (www.autismhappykingdom.com), proving that a little girl on the autism spectrum can express deep emotions. Yadira, Thomais’ mom and Thomais want to show other children with autism that they are not alone and can e…

Hillary Krzywkowski is looking for interesting emotional selfies and photographs for an art project. She wants faces expressing emotions such as shock, surprise, anger, rage, irritation, sadness, contentment, jealousy, critical, excited, elated, proud, teasing, annoying, silly, enjoyment. “Faces: My…

Hi, I’m Max. I am a 25-year old man with Asperger’s Syndrome from Los Angeles. I loved drawing ever since I was little, and was first inspired after watching Disney films as a child. When I was in high school, I started developing an interest in Web Design. I then went to school at C…

Hi, I’m Max. I am a 25-year old man with Asperger’s Syndrome from Los Angeles. I loved drawing ever since I was little, and was first inspired after watching Disney films as a child. When I was in high school, I started developing an interest in Web Design. I then went to school at C…

By Parasuram Ramamoorthi, Ph.D. To understand role play means you know the difference between natural behavior and acting behavior. In the case of young adults with ASD, we teach acting behavior through role playing, and through this we teach what is socially acceptable natural behavior. Western the…

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…