Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

This is my new autism-spectrum bible.
So there I was, meeting with the autism specialist. This specialist, who I’d never met before, concluded within about 10 minutes of meeting me that I was on the autism spectrum, but he had me do a bunch of tests to be sure.At one point, he checked on me during the testing because I was taking forever. I told him I felt the questions were too vague and gave him an example: “Do you prefer the museum or the theater?” And I said to the doc, “Well, which museum is it? And is this a movie theater? If it’s a movie theater, what movies are playing? Is the museum full of dumb stuff I don’t care about or is it cool? How can I possibly make an accurate decision without this information??” And he laughed—and I laughed, because I knew it was funny that I kept getting hung up on this stuff. But also, apparently, needing details about a thing is a very HFASD thing to do.Every single test showed that I have high-functioning autism.Right before the end of our session, he told me to read this book. “It’ll change your life,” he said.He was not wrong. This book has changed my life. And that doctor, overall, has helped save my life.So, this book is a doctorate-of-psychology-autism-specialist recommended book. If you want to understand autism—truly understand it, not just what angry-moms-who-hate-their-kids, years of cruel bias perpetuated by organizations and scientists, and TV tell you about it, this is a really good place to start.That second picture shows all the dog-eared pages I put in this book, marking passages that meant a lot to me. That means this is a well loved book I plan to read again.Autism is simply another way of thinking, seeing, and processing the world. Folks who are considered “high functioning” on the spectrum are likely wildly under diagnosed, and hiding—or “masking”—trying to live in a world that is not very kind to them (speaking from experience, but Dr. Price also goes over this in great detail in the book). In this book, you learn that the autistic brain is physically different from the neurotypical brain, and how that happens, and what that means. Dr. Price gives advice on how to create an environment around yourself as an autistic person—which is also helpful to those who love someone who is autistic—that is better suited to what your brain needs, and gives advice on how to remove the mask and let go of neurotypical expectations.Wow. Seriously, I cannot rave about this book enough. When I finished it, I actually bought two more copies just to give away to people… honestly, I’m trying to make as many people read it as possible.It took me a while to finish it because I had to keep taking breaks, because it hit a lot of my trauma. I cried a few times. When you’re a neurodivergent person trying to live in a neurotypical world, that world will try its best to beat you into a box. To be honest, I learned years ago I would never fit into any box, and started “unmasking.” But this book was still so very empowering to me. It shows just how broad the spectrum is, and how important it is to our mental health that we take care of ourselves, embrace what we need to be at peace, and just let ourselves *be*.

Great read (if you can get past all the identity politics)
Was a great read. More identify politics than I care for but definitely eye opening and helped increase my understanding of autism and myself. Author is clearly very left leaning with left leaning ideas but sometimes makes good points. Definitely worth a read if you suspect you are autistic or neurodiverse or if u have loved ones that are. Definitely recommend!

I heard the saying “As neurodivergent, don’t listen too much of what alistics think would be right to you” before from other AuDHD people before and I think this book is a pretty good example.I’ve read a few books before about (“Asperger”) Autism, and they where mostly absolutely useless or insulting. Either it repeated overhauled compendiums of childhood autism, or was catered to other alistics. Often with nitpicking of certain behaviours, double standards and generalizations.Here I actually feel represented and heared. Its THE book that autistic people need to read if the want something that really helps them.Thanks to the Author for this book!

This book is more about the troubles in the LGBTQ+IA (alphabet pasta) community, touching sometimes on ASD.