This week I talk about doubts about being autistic or ‘not autistic enough’, and how to find online autism support. I also give an update on my experience with Right to Choose.

I Am Not Calm | Amanda Nicholson | Substack

This week, I talk about some of my own and other people’s experiences of finding work while being openly autistic, and the way employers undervalue autistic people.

Waiting for my autism assessment and apparently, waiting to go on the waiting list!

This week, I talk about discovering the calming effects of classical music, and acceptable ways to stim at gigs without anyone noticing or caring.

Just in time for National Poetry Day on 2nd October, I’m joined by Andy N, Courtney Ward and Joe Tetley, who share their fantastic and thought-provoking poems.

This week, I talk about a few of my job applications where I wrongly thought my lived experiences would help, and an unpleasant experience that an autistic employee had when working for an organisation whose purpose it is to help autistic people.

I recently had an article published about bullying and autism. Having already had an article about masking published by Stylist, I knew that not everyone would be so understanding. So, I decided to avoid the comment section.

However, a few days later, I realised that if I’m trying to encourage more autistic people to speak out to (hopefully) build awareness and understanding, I need to stop hiding from things like this.

So, in this episode, I went through the comments and responded to some of them on this podcast. There were 172 in total, so it was impossible to address them all, but many were along the same lines anyway.

I felt like I had to say something, because nobody is pretending to be autistic and nobody self-diagnoses without doing a lot of research first.