AuDHD (Autism and ADHD) Resources

Précis

I’m compiling resources I’ve found helpful and instructive on the subject of Autism and ADHD or AuDHD. Each item comes with a gloss that highlights what was most germane to me, which, admittedly, isn’t necessarily what will be of most interest to you. Consider this a list of prompts that you can investigate further, as you try to investigate yourself and/or learn how to be an ally to your AuDHD colleagues, friends, family, or partner(s). This list will be continually updated.

Non-fiction Written Works

• Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking ed. Julia Bascom
  • A collection of autoethnographic and civil rights essays, drawn from the US neurodivergency movement and focused primarily on being Autistic.
• Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: The Power of Embracing our Hidden Neurodiversity
  • All the works mentioned here are helpful, but this is perhaps the most helpful. The title does sound cringe (i.e. the self-help genre integral to neoliberalism) but don’t judge a book by its cover — this is one of, if not the, most comprehensive examinations of the existential duress and practical consequences of ‘masking’ as an Autistic person. In great but accessible detail, it covers what being Autistic can mean, why Autistic people so commonly mask, how this masking happens, and how we can potentially shatter the masks that eat our faces. If you read one work in this list, it should be this one. Dr Price is an American social psychologist and professor.
• Nick Walker, Neuroqueer Heresies
  • Nick has had her finger on the pulse of neurodivergency since the early 1990s, helping to coin many of the neurodivergency movements’ key terms. This book is a great, handy edited collection of her essays but these can be readily (and freely!) found on her website too. Nick is an autistic, trans academic in the United States.
    • Honourable Mention: Toward a Neuroqueer Future: An Interview with Nick Walker | Autism in Adulthood (liebertpub.com).
• David Byrne, How Music Works
  • Not explicitly a work ‘about autism’ but written by an Autistic (David Byrne, former frontman of Talking Heads). I find the way Byrne writes about music to show one of the more beautiful aspects of monotropism.
• Jack Monroe, ‘Go, Greta. Autism is my superpower too’. (Go, Greta. Autism is my superpower too | Jack Monroe | The Guardian)
  • Personally, I’m not a big fan of ‘Autism = superpower’. It’s a damaging stereotype. And Jack Monroe is a less-than-admirable public figure. But I also accept that there’s different strokes for different folks and not all representation will be ‘perfect’. Perhaps this article is more meaningful and helpful to me in hindsight, as someone who has used Monroe’s recipes since undergraduate and didn’t realise Jack was AuDHD.
• Steve Silberman’s NeuroTribes.
• Rebecca Wood ed. Learning from Autistic Teachers: How to Be a Neurodiversity-Inclusive School.
  • Helpful for me as someone who tries to teach and wanting to hear from other autists in other areas of the education system.
• Tony Attwood, Asperger’s Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals
  • A book that forms part of the ‘medical model’ of disability. Not something I’d encourage viewing as authoritative, but useful for learning the language that this discourse uses which can be appropriated and recontextualised (terms such as alexithymia, for example, can be really helpful).
• My own writing, about Autism.
  • Diagnostic Digressions, or The Tyranny of the Imagined Normie. – No Gods, No Masters (nogodnomasters.blog)
  • ‘Lost my shape / Trying to act casual!’: Autism and HE. – No Gods, No Masters (nogodnomasters.blog)
• Laura Kate Dale, Uncomfortable Labels: My Life as a Gay Autistic Trans Woman
  • A useful, autoethnographic resource for thinking about the intersectionality of Autism, esp. in the context of transgender identity, sexuality, and mental health conditions.

Audio-Visual Works

• Chris Packham, Aspergers and Me,dir. Charlie Russell.
  • Helpful, especially in Packham’s description of his relationship with Higher Education and the joys of monotropism.
• Sarah Hendricx, ‘Girls and Women and Autism: What’s the Difference?’. (https://youtu.be/yKzWbDPisNk)
  • Something I’ve watched many times, as an Autistic person whose neurodivergence presents as more ‘female’. Hendricx, too, was ‘late diagnosed’ and discusses why and how women are often ‘missed’ and overlooked (i.e. the system is rigged, man!).
• Podcast: BBC, 1800 Seconds on Autism.
  • Particular episodes that I’ve found especially helpful: ‘Neurotypicals are baffling’, ‘I don’t know how much pain I am in’, ‘Fern Brady on her recent autism diagnosis’, and ‘What’s your bedtime routine’.

Communities

Discord: Narratives of Neurodiversity (https://t.co/N9lLJKY3O3)

• An online community of people interested in the relationship between neurodivergency and narratives. Neurotypicals with Autistic family, friends, and children, as well as neurominorities (such as Autists) are in this space – some of the folks are within academia, some are working ‘outside’ of academia, and some are doctoral researchers.