I’d like to talk about fears for the neurodiverse individual which can affect functioning and how theses fears could originate.
Vance (2020) describes uncertainty as a significant stressor for an autistic person. She states that “Knowing what to expect, or why things happen, and being prepared for what makes them stressful gives the autistic person the self-agency and self-determination to troubleshoot their own struggles and how to fix them.”
As an autistic person I can certainly concur with this insightful observation and the sense of uncertainty which is of course anxiety-provoking for most of the population. The fight or flight has an endocrine bodily response to threat which biologically enables defensive action to prevent harm (Fink 2007). However, the context of the response is something that Vance cites as important to understanding why an autistic person may be seen to respond out of context to the apparent threat. Sensory perception and intensity represents a significant difference for autistic individuals, compared to non-autistic . Perception can not be seen by others, only the apparent responses. Vance describes that the context is the key to understanding why reactions may occur and behaviours misunderstood.
When such instances of feeling fear and a subsequent response occurs, the autistic individual is traumatised and if a similar situation is a possibility the sense of fear can create further reactions.
So how is this related to the creativity side of things?
Sonia Boue (2016), an autistic artist and champion of changing access to funding and other opportunities for neurodiverse creatives, describes the trauma and how it can affect us when barriers are presented.
“If neurodiverse artists must contort themselves thus to conform to basic requirements for funding applications (among the entire gamut of vital tasks for the arts professional) we face a complex set of hurdles. We must contort successfully (we must know the shape we have to fit) and we must do so consistently throughout a long a complex form. This is called passing. We must sustain such efforts over time – our processing is often affected by ND (or just different/slower because we are working against ourselves). We risk psychological pain (due to re-living trauma of past contortions). We risk physical effects of contortion (I have anecdotal evidence that ND artists can become unwell through the process of application) such is the strain on us.” (Boue 2016).
Finding my voice, and being heard is a challenge and I get very tired processing not only my diagnosis, but what I may need to overcome past trauma, especially in Education. Sometimes I feel I am working against myself but I continue to fight. I continue to take risks to change things, for the better, to inform others and raise some awareness. My next step is entering the Spectrum Awards 2022, for the hell of it.
https://www.thespectrumartaward.com/about
References
Boue, S. (2016) ‘The performing monkey. – a-n The Artists Information Company’, Barcelona in a Bag, 12 April. Available at: https://www.a-n.co.uk/blogs/barcelona-in-a-bag/post/52446260/ (Accessed: 19 June 2021).
Fink, G. (ed.) (2007) Encyclopedia of stress. 2nd ed. Amsterdam ; Boston: Academic Press.
Vance, T. (2020) Why Autistic Kids and Adults Develop Intense Fears and Phobias, NeuroClastic. Available at: https://neuroclastic.com/2020/12/05/why-autistic-kids-develop-intense-fears-and-phobias/ (Accessed: 19 June 2021).
Exploration of Life as a Neurodiverse Creative 