Last summer, my son began having severe, unexplained panic attacks several times a day. At the time, my only framework for understanding his symptoms was the medical model of mental illness. I was introduced to this model in Peter Kramer’s Listening to Prozac, which I read after my sister’s first suicide attempt in the early 1990s. Since then, …
Free to Be… You and Me (Autistics Speaking Day edition)
My kids have become slightly obsessed lately with Free to Be… You and Me, the Ms. Foundation’s 1972 book / album / TV special. I have not discouraged this obsession because when I was a kid I liked these stories and songs for their own sake, without much conscious analysis of the message. Free to Be… You and …
How to call an asshole an asshole without being an asshole
Emily Willingham’s post last week got me thinking about drawing the line between sarcasm that stays within acceptable limits and language that is bigoted and oppressive; and my own not-entirely-successful efforts over the past year to root out some lingering ableist language from my vocabulary. A quick summary of the way-too-long post that follows: If the …
Some thoughts on the Self Advocate/Parent dialogues at TPGA
I have been following the Self Advocate/Parent dialogues hosted by the Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism over the last week (linked below) Dialogues Day One: Zoe Dialogues Day Two: Robert Rummel-Hudson Dialogues Day Three: Ari Ne’eman Dialogues Day Four: Zoe Dialogues Day Five: Robert Rummel-Hudson I have wanted to comment many times, but have been …