228 Results in Strategies

The work-life balance: how to achieve it

Working or studying full time exhausts me to the point where I am not normally able to do much else during evenings and weekends. I know that a lot of neurotypical people say their work is tiring but I observe that most neurotypical people can still have a 'life' during evenings and weekends. This is in comparison to autistic people. I have read so many autistic people's experiences of work and education and how it completely exhausts them or leads to burnout. 'Free time' ends up being 'recovery time' and relationships, hobbies and 'life' suffer.

5 ways to be more assertive

Assertiveness means being able to stand up for yourself in situations where you feel uncomfortable or under threat in some way. As a person with ASD, a lot of situations make me feel uncomfortable! I haven't however always been able to be assertive in order to properly manage the situation. Unfortunately I have suffered being around people I didn't want to be around, doing activities I didn't want to do, experiencing little 'internal' meltdowns as my stress levels built up and having no way to cope until I got home.

The steep learning curve

Do you remember the first time you were able to ride your bicycle without stabilisers? Or the first time you could read? Do you remember the feeling inside your stomach of joy and satisfaction? And then what happened thereafter? That skill was mastered and you were able to carry on with it forever. The process of learning anything technical, to me, looks like the beginning of a mountain to climb. At the start there is a massive, very steep incline, then there is a summit to get over, and then afterwards it flattens out.

One skill you need for a less overwhelming life

Ever since I learned the skill of being able to prioritise, life for me has become so much less overwhelming. To prioritise means to determine the order for dealing with a series of tasks according to their relative importance. To be a successful prioritiser means executing the tasks in that order. I realise why a lot of autistic people may have trouble prioritising. The fundamental answer is that prioritising is a skill controlled by executive function, which is an area of difficulty in people who are autistic.

5 amazing ways to manage deadlines

Deadlines are vital for everything that is important because they facilitate people actually getting things done. Without a deadline, tasks can just get left or forgotten about. I love deadlines and I have them for every single thing that I do, however, if not carefully managed, they can cause me to feel very stressed. One… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to…

How to cope with overwhelming thoughts

Some autistic people have a great number of thoughts all the time throughout the day. In fact, they can have so many thoughts that they feel completely consumed by them. I thought I would write an article about the different types of thoughts that a person may have and how they could sort and manage them, and ultimately de-clutter their mind!

Food crazes and autism

Eating can be another challenge that comes from having autism. One of the challenges that I personally have is having a craze about particular foods. This means that I eat the same thing for a long period of time. The positives of being like this are that 1) I always know what I'm going to eat and 2) it's easier to manage my money. But there are some drawbacks as well:

5 ways to cope with disappointment

I wonder whether disappointment is a feeling that autistic people more commonly experience. The reason I say that is because when someone is disappointed it is usually because a situation has not occurred in the way they had expected. This is perceived as an unplanned change or that what was predicted did not happen. Here are my top 5 ways to handle disappointment.

If I didn’t mask, I wouldn’t speak

I don't like the idea of masking because no one should have to hide who they really are. Individuality should be loved and accepted. But masking is also a means of being able to interact, and often, if a person did not mask, they would not be able to interact at all.

How to cope when you can’t do the things you love

Nobody likes it when they have to stop doing something they love doing for a reason outside their control. For example, having to stop exercising because you have an injury or being unable to sew because you have arthritis. Or what about no longer being able to do something because you physically moved away? These experiences are upsetting and perhaps even more upsetting for people on the autistic spectrum.