Autism - Divergent Lives, Originality and Unique Perspectives

Originality & Unique perspectives

I like to think we’re all doing something special every day, in lots of small yet simple ways. We navigate a world that often feels like it wasn’t designed for us. There are so many original and unique perspectives within the autistic community. However, for those of us who can live a life with little to no support, our lives are a paradox to others. Our divergent lives seem to hold two opposite truths simultaneously. We are able, but we have a disability - how can this be?

People find it difficult to understand a disability that gives ‘normal’ while still needing some help. A hidden disability that is so hidden, people are stumped as to what they should do about it. A disability that changes what it is and how it should be dealt with on an almost monthly basis. Experts debating, politicians and parents demanding. Someone has an opinion on it, how it came to be, what causes it, and what can cure it. 

Limited media representations lead to autistic people being seen in a particular way

There is still so much we don’t know about our divergent lives. Meanwhile, we must be completely helpless or otherwise remain silent. You can’t be disabled if you can’t see where it hurts. You’re just getting in the way of someone who really needs help, someone whose pain you can actually see in broad daylight. It’s difficult to see how you’re struggling if no one can spot it directly in front of them. Many neurotypical people don’t understand it, I don’t understand it, but I’m learning to be kinder to myself about it, as each day passes.

Divergent lives are often creative lives full of originality and unique perspectives

I focus on living the best life I can, no matter how limiting that might appear to someone else. A life worth living for me is to write, read, and work from home, and spend time with a somewhat smaller pool of friends and family I feel safe with. I value the company of animals in a way I wouldn’t have twenty years ago. Their gentle love and support pull me through dark times and stressful moments. 

I have built walls around me for my own survival, and yet I live a good life. While people look at an autistic person, they might see a solitary overthinker and an eccentric loner, I see potential. I have often seen it in myself, but it has been either snuffed out by life or blunted by lack of opportunity or the right circumstance. People see only what they want to see. They often believe stereotypes rather than looking beyond them. 

We’re harder to understand, granted, but with the right encouragement, we’re capable of so much more. Say the word autism and see how many immediately assume you’re good at maths or coding. It’s another one of those stereotypes that won’t go away.

Autistic stereotypes still prevail

When I said I was doing a coding course once, someone turned around and said that I’d be good at it because I was autistic, and that autistic people liked that sort of thing. It wasn’t said in malice or spite, although we get our fair share of that, but that’s what people have been exposed to in the media.

But I know so many more creative autistic people than tech geniuses that I’ve lost count. Painters, furniture makers, leatherworkers, illustrators, chocolatiers, writers, and bakers. And they’re good, so good that I don’t understand how they’re not famous or rich from it by now. 

But ask some of them what they want, and they will tell you they don’t want that. The majority I speak to are happy doing what they do without fanfare. They continue quietly, living a life they’ve carved out of necessity and survival, where they are still creating things, but in the comfort of their own homes or workshops. 

Original outside-the-box thinking and creativity worth celebrating

I’m secretly proud of them all, I cheer them on, and I buy from them. Life is harder when you’re autistic, but here they are doing the most amazing things. I encourage others to buy from them. You’re guaranteed quality and detail, pattern, and depth.

What do I do? I write because that’s all I’m any good at. I can’t do anything else. I write for clients, I write copy, content, and I write for myself, stories and confessions, and from memory, and for the cathartic experience of spilling it out on the page.

Inventors, writers, artists, who else have added colour and depth to the world? We are many. And it’s a kind of magic, really. We are magical people, no matter how difficult we might seem. 

***********************************************************

I’m currently open to working with clients needing brand story/strategy or content strategy. I also provide articles and web copy. Who do I work with? Businesses that do good, this includes nonprofits, assistive tech firms, and therapists. I’ll work with you wherever you are in the world as long as our time zone fits (GMT, EST, EUR, Central). Email me here for an informal chat if you’d like to work with me: gillianjonescopywriting@gmail.com, and you can take a look at my services here. Also, this - brand story