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Lived experience, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2024
Two practitioners studied ADHD at university and found their own through social media
In short
At the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Sydney, two neurodivergent practitioners described recognising themselves through online content after formal study had not, while the facilitator, Dr Judy Tang, voiced caution about what circulates online.
Read it instead, 5 minutesThe transcript
The story
One of the practitioners on the first Sydney panel of the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium had studied the subject formally, with a psychology honours degree that covered autism and ADHD and an honours thesis on the brain activity of adults with ADHD. The panellist told the audience that the realisation of being autistic and having ADHD came only after following a lived experience educator and recognising themselves in that content.
That content, the panellist said, made it possible to reread parts of a personal history. Things once attributed to depression or anxiety began to look like sensory difficulties and challenges in social situations. “this part of me always felt different, but I didn’t have the language as to how.” The panellist accepted that more information circulating online means some of it will be inaccurate, but said it was important that the subject was becoming mainstream, so that the generation growing up now, and people in their 30s and 40s, could say they are autistic and understand themselves.
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Sources the story draws on
- TikTok and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Cross-Sectional Study of Social Media Content Quality (opens in a new tab), The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (SAGE), vol. 67, no. 12, pp. 899 to 906
- The Reach and Accuracy of Information on Autism on TikTok (opens in a new tab), Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (Springer); PubMed record
- Autism in Australia, 2022 (opens in a new tab), Australian Bureau of Statistics
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