Blog - Autism Chrysalis

Person sitting at a desk with an open book. They are putting two pencils to their head and looking at the person in front of them.

Self-Reg

Why Trying Harder Backfires

After trying a range of activities to see how each made your body feel, did you notice anything unexpected? Did some that you associate with relaxing not actually have that relaxing effect? Here’s why.

Person in a grey shirt, sitting on a grey couch, staring forward.

Autism

A Challenging Behavior Vanishes

I have long maintained that behavior is a symptom. A recent revelation in my own life led to my own challenging behavior instantly vanishing, once I got to the root of the issue.

Child laying on the floor in front of a load of Lego pieces scattered about. The child is staring at the camera.

Autism

Recognizing Stress is Complicated When You Can’t Tell What Your Body Feels

How do you figure out where your kid’s stress is coming from, when they aren’t even sure of what they are feeling?

Child, with long blond hair, jumping in a pink and blue themed bedroom.

Self-Reg

Stimming and Autistic Stress

Stimming is both a physical expression of stress—either bad stress or good stress—and it’s a way to help us calm down.

An adult and a child sitting in wooden chairs and looking at a orange post-it note they are both holding.

ABA

The Worst Testimonial I’ve Ever Read

We want to raise kids to be independent, but when they’re fighting you at every turn, it’s so easy to succumb to the seduction of a child who’ll just do what you tell them.

Screenshot of a scene from Big Bang Theory, with Penny swatting and Bernadette getting up from a chair.

Self-Advocacy

A Lesson from the Big Bang Theory

Penny tries to help Bernadette go into labor, but Bernadette gets stuck and what happens next it’s so reminiscent of my life.

Close-up on a microphone in front of a blurred out crowd.

Society

On Non-Autistic People Speaking for the Autism Community

I’m so glad you want to help spread autism acceptance. The best way you can help us is, as much as possible, to raise up our voices.

Yong person in a tie dye shirt, flexing their arms.

Acceptance

An Alternative to Labels

Labels and diagnoses have their use, but they also have some significant downsides. What if there were an alternative?

Boy in a school cafeteria, sitting in a line of other kids, looking at the sandwich he is eating.

Acceptance

On Trying to be Normal

I tried for so long to be normal. And it drove me nuts and burned me out multiple times. It’s not only an unreachable goal, bit it turns out it’s not really the goal that I thought it was, after all.