Autistic Enough

Before I say a word on this topic, I want to specify that I do not speak for everyone on the spectrum. These are my personal perspectives, and while I hope that they'll provide insight for some, they're not intended to represent the views of anyone but myself. Within the autism community -- as anywhere else -- I've seen a lot of polarized views on religion. When the topic comes up, there are more than enough comments condemning anyone willing to believe something unproven by logic; I've even seen comments stating that you can't be religious if you're "really autistic," because apparently the autistic preference for logic precludes the possibility of any of us ever believing in or engaging with anything unproven. At the other extreme, for some, religion can become a special interest. The latter was my experience, which had both pros and cons -- largely depending on how I approached it. I'd like to speak a little to the experience of religion on th...

Hello all. My name is Emily, I'm 26 years old, and I'm an autistic woman. I'm also a PhD student studying Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience. It seems like I spend an excessive amount of my time commenting on autism forums, so I decided to put all my thoughts in one place for those who may want to find them. Sometimes I'll share my personal experiences, sometimes I'll share anecdotes I've encountered in autism forums/communities, sometimes I'll share what I know of the current research, and sometimes I'll do some combination of the above. You'll have to forgive me for a bit of a sloppy start; there's so much to say and I've never been good at being concise, so instead I'm going to try to share it all and hope that I can be organized enough to still make sense. So, I mentioned that I'm an autistic woman. Let's focus on that. Autism is so misunderstood in so many ways, but I'm lucky enough (sorry, that's sarcasm) to com...