Mental Health
I was happy to see that Autistic Inclusive Meets have restarted the #ShowUsYourMeds campaign. Campaigns like this are essential in normalising the life-saving medication that so many of us rely on day-to-day. Stigma surrounding the use of medication, in particular for the treatment of mental health issues, is still widely
Neurodiversity
This article was co-authored between David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin Trigger Warning: Some of the research quoted in this article contains person-first language or references to aspergers. While the authors do not agree with the use of such language, we must access the research and statistics available to us. We
Autism
For the better part of a century now, addiction has been treated largely as a matter of criminal justice, with some focus on medical treatment. Unfortunately this approach leaves a considerable amount out of the discussion. Addiction is a complex matter, with a lot of it coming down to socio-economic
Addiction
As an Autistic person, I prefer things to be black and white, yes or no, good or bad. This made life all-the-more complicated when I was embarking on my journey into addiction recovery. Recovery from addiction is a world of grey areas. This monochromatic world however, is dominated by people
Addiction
As I have said before, I truly believe that addiction is the result of unmet support needs. This can be an incredibly complex field, but today I am going to take take brief dive into the experiences that led to my addiction. My first major trauma was age 7. My
Addiction
I have spoken extensively about my struggles with addiction and psychosis. I have talked about what it was like to be in that headspace. I have talked about what it was like to enter recovery. What I haven't spoken much about is my headspace 5 years on. Addiction
Autism
I have learned a great deal about myself through self-reflection over the last 5 years of sobriety, but one lesson was considerably difficult to learn. I like to think of myself as a friendly and generally happy and fun person to be around, but the truth is that I need
Addiction
I have written before about the barriers to accessing substance use services when you are both autistic, and an addict; today I'm going to approach from a different angle. In this post, I will be talking about a few things that such services can do to increase accessibility,
Autism
Today (7th April 2021) I have been sober from drug and alcohol addiction for five years. In that time I have faced many challenges and learnt many lessons. In this piece, I hope to share some of those lessons with you. 1. Not everything will be perfect once you get
Addiction
I remember some years ago when the drug known as "spice" was sweeping through my country. Not only were the tabloids having a field day, and not only were people filming addicts on the street under the influence, I was using it. It was a relatively common sight
Addiction
As previously discussed, the moral model of addiction, in which addiction is seen as a moral failing, is inadequate for our understanding of addiction and formulating a means to approach it. Despite this, the moral model of addiction remains prolific throughout multiple cultures globally. Why is this? In my opinion,
Addiction
Those of us who have been through, or are currently in active addiction, know all too well that very few people trust us in the early days of recovery. To an extent it's justified. We cheat, lie, and steal to meet the requirements of our addiction. But what