Abby Normal
I’m working on an essay about autism1. Mine, yes but to the degree it helps propel the deeper narrative: why are so many girls not properly diagnosed? How do so many of us make it into adulthood before getting a diagnosis?
Exactly why did it take almost five decades and an actual factual grief driven nervous breakdown2 (for. real.).
I don’t think I’m giving away the plot here to say: it’s the menfolk who have written the rules about lady bits, physical and mental health, I’m talking all the way back to that asshole Hippocrates, privatized medical systems and rampant ableism.
Anyway.
I’ve been reading about how markedness has skewed screening for autism in girls (assigned female at birth for this particular article), neurodiverse vs. medical model, and the history of how we got to Here from There in the autism dx biz.
I was reading an article (published in a fancy psych journal) about Idiosyncratic Phrasing as one alternative to the typical idea of autistics being unable to communicate. This struck me: Idiosyncratic Phrasing. What does that mean?
According to the article I was reading in this journal it means using a so-called “normal” turn of phrase in an “abnormal” way.
I shut my computer. Miffed. I wasn’t angry, just disgusting at reading another article about how something I do all the time (so-called idocyncratic phrasing) “abnormal”.
It’s a feature not a flaw.
But, the thing is? Idiosyncratic Phrasing as something clinicians should consider when assessing girls for autism is progress.
Stay tuned.
This essay I wrote for the New York Times was in a fit of apparent optimism about my dead dad - the reality is that was a brief (very) Calm Before The Fucking Storm.