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  • Getting Diagnosed with ADHD

    Getting Diagnosed with ADHD
    2025/09/22

    I got the results of my ADHD evaluation today and wanted to share it. The additional diagnosis will affect my content a bit going forward because I’m going to be focusing on both Autism and ADHD—mostly in regard to writing but I’ll probably talk about how it overlaps some of my other interests as well.

    I will still be sharing my fiction and nonfiction writing, including book excerpts, creative writing and metaphysical posts.

    I was told that I have ADHD with high impulsivity which explains a lot. To me, this was interesting because I felt that autism didn’t really explain everything I’ve been dealing with, particularly in regard to my creative projects. More on this in the video!

    Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

    🔊UPDATE: I did go ahead and rename the podcast. It’s now Writing On The Spectrum. You can listen on Substack, Spotify or most popular podcast apps. Not sure about the channel art but this is what I have for now 👇 The pic is about three years old. My hair is a little longer and I’m wearing my old glasses, but it’s the only fairly recent pic I have with a microphone.



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barbaragraver.substack.com
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    7 分
  • Writing about Difficult Experiences in My Autism Memoir

    Writing about Difficult Experiences in My Autism Memoir
    2025/09/07

    What is the difference between memoir and autobiography? What is the actual point of sharing our experience? What happens when that experience is difficult or dark?

    This episode of the podcast talks about all of these questions but mostly focuses on my experience with difficult material. So I wanted to answer the first couple of questions, below, in text format.

    Subscribe to my newsletter: barbaragraver.substack.com

    Memoir vs. Autobiography

    An autobiography and a memoir are not the same thing.

    An autobiography focuses on a person’s entire life. Memoir covers a slice of life in a topical way. While that slice can span decades, it should reflect the memoir’s overarching topic or theme. What doesn’t reflect the theme is extraneous.

    For me, this was the first sticking point (more about that in the podcast), because even though I was writing an autism memoir, I found it impossible to talk about autism in isolation.

    Knowing what did and didn’t relate to the autism theme was tricky. In some instances (like trauma) the relationship was clear, in others (like supernatural experience) it was not.

    I had trouble figuring out what was relevant and what wasn’t, so I just decided to write the thing.

    Then I got stuck again.

    Sharing Our Experience

    According to NYT’s journalist and memoirist, Marion Roach, there’s a reason why we share our personal experience in memoir. And that reason isn’t catharsis or getting even with people or even making sense of things.

    It’s illustrating a point.

    In memoir our life experience, per Roach, is an anecdote that helps explain the theme. While I’m not sure I agree with that completely, there is no doubt that Roach knows how to make her life experience work that way.

    Roach’s book The Memoir Project contains some lovely examples of transcendence in writing. There is reason she is successful.

    It’s worth stressing, however, that Roach isn’t an amateur and while writing examples of the type that she shares in The Memoir Project that can illustrate a point than also make us feel a little outclassed.

    My writing is sloppy, compared to someone who writes for the NYT, but I do find meaning through doing it. I feel that has worth, even when—or probably especially when—it’s difficult.

    Whether or not, I can produce a readable memoir remains to be seen.

    For more on this topic, please check out the podcast! It is a separate thing, not a rehash of what you just read :)

    Listen to my Sharing Our Story podcast here: https://barbaragraver.substack.com/p/sharing-our-autism-story-ep-6-7fb



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barbaragraver.substack.com
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    14 分
  • Moving My Podcast and Gaining Focus

    Moving My Podcast and Gaining Focus
    2025/08/01

    Why Autistic POV is leaving podbean and how it relates to autism and increased focus. While the podcast will now be hosted on Substack at barbaragraver.substack.com it will still be syndicated to Apple, Spotify, and elsewhere under the name Autistic POV. You just might have to look for new episodes as the old Autistic POV won't be update.


    Or simply join me on substack!


    I hope to see you there and thank you so much for listening.


    NOTE: If you see various episodes of the podcast please look for the logo with the rainy day rainy day rainbow background (instead of the purple one)! You can see the new logo below.



    • Listen to the NEW Autistic POV (and all the old episodes) on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/show/3Ot2c01IU5MfpEoIvvPDde

    • Listen on Apple at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autistic-pov/id1828995708

    • Listen on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b0a4f4bf-4711-4d63-8cf4-6035db7a4c50/autistic-pov

    • Listen on Audible here: https://www.audible.com/podcast/Autistic-POV/B0D9ZRFH73?source_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

    • Or check out my Substack Autistic POV podcast page to listen for free at: https://barbaragraver.substack.com/s/autistic-pov-podcast


    Here is the new logo!





    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barbaragraver.substack.com
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    8 分
  • Monotropism: A Theory of Autism

    Monotropism: A Theory of Autism
    2025/07/05

    This is the intro to a new series where I’ll be exploring a theory of autism called monotropism. I found out about the monotropic model of autism a few days ago and have just begun to learn about it.

    I don't know a lot as of yet (aside from my own lived experience as a person who definitely is monotropic) but I am intrigued and want to learn more. I'll be talking about it today and again in a future post.

    If you like my content, please follow the podcast!

    For more on monotropism, please visit monotropism.org and / or follow the podcast and we explore this topic.

    Check out my blog Writing On The Spectrum here: BarbaraGraver.substack.com

    ______

    Autistic POV theme music by the Caffeine Creek Band



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barbaragraver.substack.com
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    13 分
  • My Autistic Traits: Difference Not Deficit!

    My Autistic Traits: Difference Not Deficit!
    2025/06/01
    In the episode I share how I rated my own autistic traits on a 1-10 scale and how I'm learning to think in terms of "difference, not deficit." Check out the blog post on charting my autistic traits here: https://barbaragraver.substack.com/p/charting-my-autistic-traitsCheck out my blog Writing On The Spectrum here: BarbaraGraver.substack.comIf you like my content, please follow the podcast!Full transcript below. If you need closed captioning (or the transcript is cut off), please listen via the podbean app or at AutisticPOV.com (https://www.autisticpov.com/).Episode 13 Transcript Welcome to Autistic POV. My name is Barbara Graver and I started this podcast to share a bit of my journey as a late diagnosed autistic. Hi everybody, this is Barbara Graver. Thank you for joining me today on Autistic POV. Today I wanted to talk a little bit about autistic characteristics and I'm going to0:32be doing this through the lens of the characteristics I've identified in myself. I just try to steer away from speaking for other people because there's such a a wide range of experience and abilities in autism that I feel whenever I try to speak for anyone else, I always feel like I'm getting it wrong.0:57So this is purely from my perspective. The disclaimer is these traits are not necessarily going to present the way they aren't going to present the same way across the spectrum as they present in me because we're all different. So I talked a little bit during my autism and psychic ability series,1:19I talked a little bit about the idea of a linear spectrum, a spectrum from high to low, as is suggested by the DSM-5. And I talked about why I have problems with that. I think ranking across the board is problematic, although I do think autism is a constellation of traits.1:39And I do think it could be useful to do specific individual ranking in terms of trait by trait. I think that's helpful. It gives you a better picture of yourself and what your abilities and what your challenges might be. Ranking people as a whole, to me, I feel that's a little problematic for various reasons,2:01such as the many different comorbidities, apraxia, for example, anxiety. all kinds of comorbidities come into play, as well as inherent differences like talents and abilities and intellect. It's just there's so much at play that I think ranking from low to high is problematic. And it's also,2:26it causes people to fall into a way of thinking that I don't feel is very helpful. I don't think it's helpful to to think of people as more or less autistic or more or less challenged or more or less worthwhile. I don't think that's a good way to think.2:44And I think when you're ranking individuals from low to high, you're always going to kind of suggest that or lead people into that kind of thinking, which I don't like. So I did discuss this before, but I just wanted to put it out there kind of as a disclaimer.2:59So what I did, and I have a blog post on this that I'll link to. What I did for myself was I looked at the DSM-5. I don't like the DSM-5. I don't like that it calls autism a disorder. I don't like that it ranks people.3:14But I do think it does a fair job of describing observable traits in autistics. I don't find it totally useless, even though I have issues with it. So what I kind of did is I took the traits that were listed in the DSM-5 and sort of adapted them to better reflect me.3:35And I used those traits to come up with categories for myself. And I made various charts and put them in my blog, which people seem to like. I'll link to that. And the chart showed my different characteristics. And this is not an idea that's specific to me.3:57You could see a lot of people will be looking at autism in this way. It's a spectrum, but it's not a linear spectrum. It's more of like a radial spectrum, which I think is interesting. You know, it's kind of interesting in terms of dimensionality.4:11We think of a spectrum as high to low, and technically that's what it is. But that's a linear 2D kind of dimensionality, where if you want to think of it more 3D, kind of as a radial sort of thing, you could do that too. So what I did is I came up with 10 categories.4:31One of my things had 10 categories. One had 12 because it just worked better for the type of charts I used. But the categories I used were hypersensitivity, hyposensitivity, hyper fixations, special interests, nonverbal communication. I don't like that word nonverbal, but I didn't know what else to use.4:54Some people will call it social cues, but I find that confusing too. But that's basically your ability. It should probably be called non-speaking communication, your ability to communicate and to read cues without speaking. Conversation. I use conversation. So instead of Expressive communication. I just kind of lumped conversation together. Relationships, transitions, echolalia, repetitive motor, and pattern recognition.5:28And then I rated myself. in each of these categories. And I think ...
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    20 分
  • 4 Issues with the Telepathy Tapes Podcast

    4 Issues with the Telepathy Tapes Podcast
    2025/05/06

    In this episode, I talk about 4 possible issues with the Telepathy Tapes podcast AND share a great resource for further reading. I hope I've offered a more nuanced look at the Telepathy Tapes podcast in this episode (which is the 3rd in what has become my Autism and Psychic Abilities series) than I did in my previous episodes!

    The resource I mentioned in the podcast is:

    SarahCook.substack.com/p/for-the-birds-radical-empathy

    This is an excellent article and a really good Substack to follow.

    You can also follow my Substack if you're so inclined at:

    BarbaraGraver.substack.com

    If you like my content, please follow the podcast!

    _________

    Autistic POV theme music by the Caffeine Creek Band



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barbaragraver.substack.com
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    12 分
  • Autism Traits, Psychic Ability & the Telepathy Tapes

    Autism Traits, Psychic Ability & the Telepathy Tapes
    2025/04/04

    Is there a relationship between autistic traits and psychic ability?

    Join me for a discussion of how autistic traits like hyper-sensitivity, hyper-connectivity and pattern recognition might relate to psychic abilities.

    The blog post and autism trait charts I mentioned in the video can be found on my blog at:

    Charting My Autistic Traits

    Barbara Graver May 9

    A Constellation of Traits | A Constellation of Traits | To me, the idea of a linear autism spectrum was always a little confusing. Recently however while talking about varying degrees of psychic ability in the autistic...

    Read full story

    Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

    Theme music by the Caffeine Creek Band



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barbaragraver.substack.com
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    17 分
  • Autism, Psychic Experience & the Telepathy Tapes Podcast

    Autism, Psychic Experience & the Telepathy Tapes Podcast
    2025/03/01

    Is there a relationship between autism and psychic experience?

    A connection between autism and telepathy has been reported by the families of some nonverbal autistic people. As a late-diagnosed autistic this interests me because intuition has been a guiding force in my life.

    Like all many areas of parapsychology, more research is needed, but I think it’s a topic worth discussing.

    In this episode I talk about my own person experience, what other people have to say, the idea of psychic ability as a spectrum trait and a bit about parapsychology (from what I have learned at the Rhine Institute).

    This is my first time talking about this topic, I’m going to be talking about it more in the next couple of podcasts!

    Resources for this episode include:

    * Autism and the God Connection by William Stillman

    * The Telepathy Tapes Podcast (

    https://thetelepathytapes.com/

    * The Rhine Institute (https://www.rhineonline.org/what-is-parapsychology)

    * Dr. Diane Hennacy/Powell (https://drdianehennacy.com/telepathy/)

    * Psychology Today article on the Telepathy Tapes by Jeff Tarant PhD (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/choosing-your-meditation-style/202503/science-skepticism-and-the-telepathy-tapes)

    Dr. Hennacy/Powell's Response to Jonathan Jarry (https://thetelepathytapes.com/dr-powell-defense)

    Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

    Theme music by the Caffeine Creek Band



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barbaragraver.substack.com
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    16 分