# Disability and Traveling **By Charlotte aka The Spectrum Girl** Recently I left home to go on a health journey to Thailand in order to get away from the freezing cold temperatures of Norway and the increase of chronic pain connected with it. In addition to being autistic/ADHD, I have hyper mobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which is a connective tissue disorder that affects my collagen which is in the ligaments and joints in the body. The biggest hint is already in the word 'connective tissue', so literally everything that keeps my body together is affected. I have good days and very bad days, but it can still be hard to express my level of pain even on my worst days because it's not something that you can really see but something only I can feel. # Autism & Focus | The Time Break Theory **By Daniel M. Jones aka The Aspie World** Many Autistic people have major issues when it comes down to focus and concentration. This is mainly down to a co-occurring ADHD diagnosis, where there is a conflict between the autism brain and the ADHD brain. With Autism, the brain wants to hyperfocus on a specific topic or task and really get submerged into it. With ADHD, the brain wants to switch from task to task and be distracted constantly. So how do we achieve actual focus and concentration within Autism and ADHD? There are many medications that can help with this of course, however I do happen to test different hacks to try and see what works and what doesn’t. I have here the best of the ones I have tried that actually work and I hope this helps you!! # Navigating College as an Undiagnosed Autistic **By Charlotte aka The Spectrum Girl** It feels strange to look at pictures of me from my graduation. I spent my life thinking that there was something wrong with me because I didn't fit in anywhere. Getting a formal education felt like one thing that could change this outlook on myself, and I believed so strongly that getting a University degree would fix everything and that I would find somewhere to fit in when I finally had one. I believed a university degree would make me get accepted for who I was and be recognized for my skills. My story of how I got a formal education and a career whilst being an undiagnosed Autistic is a bumpy one. I don't have a GED so how do I have a Bachelors Degree in graphic design? # Two Autistic People Flapping their Fists at ... **By Archer Rosenkrantz** When I was a kid, stimming was something that I had to hide. Stimming is repetitive motions that are often associated with autism. It’s a self soothing mechanism that autistic people use to self regulate and calm themselves down. When I was in kindergarten my parents started to worry about my constant repetitive motions and sounds that didn’t seem to stop. They took me to a doctor and that doctor diagnosed me with a tic disorder. Even though I exhibited many signs of autism I still went undiagnosed for a very long time. I was labeled by tons of other diagnoses to explain my behaviors. This isn’t unusual, because I was assigned female at birth. People assigned female at birth are criminally underdiagnosed when it comes to autism. Autism used to be thought of as a boy’s disease. Anyways, I was taught that my stimming was something that was wrong with me. It also seemed to bother those around me. I learned that the best way for me to fit in was to stop swimming. # 3 Essential Autistic Self-Employed Tips! **By Daniel M. Jones aka The Aspie World** I was asked in January 2020 to brief the EU parliament in France on the current state of autistic employment. Let me say that I did just that and what I told them shocked them. I started by telling the story of a friend of mine called Anna, an autistic female from the UK. Anna wanted to find employment and applied for numerous jobs in the midlands of the UK, out of which she was accepted by 5 employers. Once Anna started each one of these jobs and disclosed to them that she was on the autism spectrum, she eventually was “let go” from the company as the work had “dried up”. # Autistic **By Taylor W.** I’ll be honest with you: I’m having a very hard time putting words together these days. Actually, I’m having a hard time doing a lot of things. It sort of feels like I’m wading through this…soul-sucking fog, one that’s left me disconnected, achy, irritable, et cetera et cetera. Lots of fun things. I made rice in a rice cooker earlier today and it felt like a serious victory. And really, in these times of constant stress and uncertainty, me feeling this way probably shouldn’t come as a surprise – I think a lot of people are in the same boat. But I’m also acutely aware of how familiar this feeling is. It’s followed me in one form or another for most of my life.