Ausitm symbol by meAnother year, another Autistic Pride Day. It’s now been three years since my diagnosis. How has my life changed?

In the fundamentals of what my life entails, not really much at all. But in my self-understanding, and recognizing autistic traits in myself and others, quite a lot.

Last fall, I had been working quite a lot of hours in a job that was stressful to me. I kept breaking out in rashes, getting more frequent migraines, and occasionally losing the ability to speak. Literally. At first, I thought it was just normal stress and being so busy. But then we figured out that it was autistic burnout. I managed to cut back my working hours, and recovered—most of the way—fairly quickly. After a couple of months, maybe. But I still haven’t fully recovered to the point where I feel like my true self. Though, if I’m being honest, I haven’t felt like 100% my true self in a long while. I’m working on recapturing that, but I’m still figuring it all out.

This update isn’t as long as previous ones (and I missed last year’s entirely, thanks to “OMG I’m going to die because COVID!”), but I wanted to get something up to celebrate this day.

Hi. I’m Jenny, and I’m autistic. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.