@hannu_ikonen (I am a fan of the ‘flip a coin/roll some dice and if I don’t feel happy with the result, I have my answer’ school of no-bad-options decisions.)
On mornings like this when I’m melancholy and feeling lonely (and this question of whether I’m allowed to know myself as autistic and use this language for myself and be in the community rather than just advocating for the community as an outsider… this question is having me feel like I’ll always be lonely). Anyway, on mornings like this I feel a bit sad and uncertain about everything. And I just want to know the right answer.
I am thinking about autism this morning. Every self-assessment I’ve taken since I was a teenager scores ‘yep, that’s you’. (I have taken a LOT of self-assessments. Every few years I’ll go through a whole bunch, just to confirm.) But I don’t have a formal diagnosis. And even though I would never require a formal diagnosis from anyone else, I have still, for decades, struggled to know whether I’m ‘allowed’ to understand myself in this way or speak about myself as #autistic.
I’m Tiffany (they/them). Queer, non-binary, non-monogamous, disabled step-parent, living in lots of liminal spaces. Narrative therapist and do some community work, right now working on projects related to supporting trans lives, feeling climate anguish, being disabled in an ableist world. White settler on Treaty 7 land. Still masking, covid is still happening. Profile is a selfie of a white non-binary person with grey hair. Background image is a Canada goose facing away, on top of a building.