Content warning: mentions of self-harm, suicidal ideation, eating disorders and medical gaslighting

What happens when you go to a mental health professional who has zero information about what it means when you, their patient, may be autistic? 

For this episode I was joined by Rey Rissanen (pronouns: they/them). Together we will rant and tell you about the horrors of needing help with our mental health, and instead of getting it, getting misdiagnosed, gaslighted and harmed by misinformed mental health professionals, and how great it is to finally realize you’re autistic and to learn to self-advocate in the mental health setting.

Rey is an artist who creates beautiful crochet designs, including crochet stim toys and houseplants, and they’re also the one who came up with the idea for prepped.to, a platform for autistic folks to share locations’ sensory info and service instructions, and you can see their beautiful illustrations of their story on our blog. 

You can support Aut2Aut and its platform prepped.to on Betterplace and Gofundme, or buy our #ActuallyAutistic designs in our print-on-demand shop. 

Mentioned in this episode:

• Rey’s crochet designs: @rainbowrey.crafts and their art on Instagram
• Aut2Aut, the nonprofit I founded, providing free platforms and content by and for autistic people
• prepped.to is the website I created where autistic folks can upload and consult sensory info and service instructions about places, so folks can prep and script before going there
• How to support my nonprofit
• Theme music composed and produced by Lir Lutau Shahar (pronouns: he/fae/sea): YouTube, Soundcloud. For collaborations: [email protected] 
• Follow Dr. Gal Schkolnik on LinkedIn, Mastodon or Tumblr

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🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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