The Changeling - Neurodivergency Pride Canvas Bag

“The Changeling” mythos describes fairies coming in the night and stealing away a baby, replacing it with a ‘changeling’ - a look-alike baby with fae origins. One modern interpretation of “The Changeling” mythos believes that this tale originated from families who noticed their child was displaying traits of neurodivergency or other disabilities, such as ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, or the Autism Spectrum. Families of old would rid themselves of their ‘changeling child’. Today, we’re much more knowledgable when it comes to born conditions. This canvas bag is hand screen-printed, showing fairies delivering a human infant with divine ceremony. Instead of dreading neurodivergent children as some sort of 'curse’, “The Changeling” tote encourages the celebration of children with ADHD, cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities, the autism spectrum, and more. Our existence as disabled people is beautiful!

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- Fae

“If autism isn’t caused by environmental factors and is natural why didn’t we ever see it in the past?”

We did, except it wasn’t called autism it was called “Little Jonathan is a r*tarded halfwit who bangs his head on things and can’t speak so we’re taking him into the middle of the cold dark forest and leaving him there to die.”

Or “little Jonathan doesn’t talk but does a good job herding the sheep, contributes to the community in his own way, and is, all around, a decent guy.” That happened a lot, too, especially before the 19th century.

Or, backing up FURTHER

and lots of people think this very likely,

“Oh little Sionnat has obviously been taken by the fairies and they’ve left us a Changeling Child who knows too much, and asks strange questions, and uses words she shouldn’t know, and watches everything with her big dark eyes, clearly a Fairy Child and not a Human Like Us.”

The Myth of the Changeling child, a human baby apparently replaced at a young age by a toddler who “suddenly” acts “strange and fey” is an almost textbook depiction of autistic children.

To this day, “autism warrior mommies” talk about autism “stealing” their “sweet normal child” and have this idea of “getting their real baby back” which (in the face of modern science)  indicates how the human psyche actually does deal with finding out their kid acts unlike what they expected.

Given this evidence, and how common we now know autism actually is, the Changeling myth is almost definitely the result of people’s confusion at the development of autistic children.

Weirdly enough, that legend is now comforting to me.

I think it’s worth noting that many like me, who are diagnosed with ASD now, would probably have been seen as just a bit odd in centuries past. I’m only a little bit autistic; I can pass for neurotypical for short periods if I work really hard at it. I have a lack of talent in social situations, and I’m prone to sensory overload or you might notice me stimming.

But here’s the thing: life is louder, brighter and more intense and confusing than it has ever been. I live on the edge of London and I rarely go into the centre of town because it’s too overwhelming. If I went back in time and lived on a farm somewhere, would anyone even notice there was anything odd about me? No police sirens, no crowded streets that go on for miles and miles, no flickery electric lights. Working on a farm has a clear routine. I’d be a badass at spinning cloth or churning butter because I find endless repetition soothing rather than boring.

I’m not trying to romanticise the past because I know it was hard, dirty work with a constant risk of premature death. I don’t actually want to be a 16th century farmer! What I’m saying is that disability exists in the context of the environment. Our environment isn’t making people autistic in the sense of some chemical causing brain damage. But we have created a modern environment which is hostile to autistic people in many ways, which effectively makes us more disabled. When you make people more disabled, you start to see more people struggling, failing at school because they’re overwhelmed, freaking out at the sound of electric hand dryers and so on. And suddenly it looks like there’s millions more autistic people than existed before.

“…disability exists in the context of the environment.”

Reblog for disability commentary.

That last paragraph is absolutely important.

Dyscalculia and ADHD: A View From the Inside by David Howard:

“Dyscalculia doesn’t mean you’re just bad at math. It isn’t something that you can be educated out of. Nor is it a learning disability that makes you unable to do math. For people with dyscalculia, math is conceptualized differently. When, eventually, I learned rules or tricks for doing math (like the “finger trick” to quickly do problems with the 9s times table), I was able to perform math tasks well enough to pass my classes. But I still don’t understand why math works.

Dyscalculia can be mistaken for attention deficit/hyperactive disorder, and is often associated with it. About 20% of people with ADHD also have dyscalculia, as I do. Dyscalculia and its effects can be made worse by ADHD. ADHD makes it hard to work on something that isn’t interesting to you, and believe me, when you have dyscalculia, math is certainly not interesting.”

Read the full post at Disability in Kidlit.

About Executive Dysfunction; for neurotypical people

Friends, family members and loved ones of learning disabled and mentally ill people need to have a working knowledge of what Executive Dysfunction is, and respect the fact that it is a prominent feature of that person’s psychology and life.

Executive Dysfunction is best known as a symptom of autism and ADHD, but it also features in depression, anxiety disorders schizophrenia, OCD (which by the way is also an anxiety disorder), personality disorders; etc, a whole myriad of mental illnesses and disabilities can result in executive dysfunction.

Years ago when I was like 14 and had recently learned of my autism diagnosis, I watched a youtube interview between autistic people, and an autistic woman said something along these lines:

When she said that I related so much, because constantly throughout my whole life I have wanted and needed to do things with my wanting and needing being akin to my spurring an extremely stubborn horse who refuses to move. For the first time I learned that I wasn’t just “lazy”, I had a condition that prevented me from doing things as easily as other people can, but unfortunately it took me years since then to understand that.

Imagine that you are a horserider, but your horse is entirely unwilling to move even if you want to move. You dig in your heels, you raise the reins, but the horse refuses to respond. Your wants and needs are the rider, and your executive functions (the parts of your mind responsible for getting things done) are the horse.

I think it’s incredibly dangerous for neurotypical loved ones to not understand, or be aware of, or respect executive dysfunction. Neurotypical can assume that we are just being lazy, careless, selfish or difficult, when in reality we want to do the thing but our brains prevent us from consistently and reliably doing the thing. That misinterpretation can lead to toxic behavior and resentment on the part of the loved one, which will harm us emotionally and do us a lot of damage gradually over time. That damage can take the form of internal self-criticism, complicating executive dysfunction even further and making it worse.

edited for easier reading!

I think about this a lot, because I have to.  In my own life, as a parent who struggles with executive dysfunction and yet has to teach a child basic life skills, it’s important to know my blind spots and learn to function around them.  He’s watching me and learning from my example, so I have to do my best to explain what I can’t always do, and try to do it anyway.

Executive function is such a fundamental and yet hidden trait.  It is in charge of reasoning, flexibility, problem solving, planning, and execution/prioritization of necessary steps in any action.

Each task is never one task.  Take changing the lightbulb - from beginning to end, it’s a series of steps that must be put in proper order:

That’s not even all of them, but it’s a good enough summary for now.  There are hidden stumbling blocks in every single step. 

On and on and on.  Each step requires problem solving, prioritization, and reasoning.  These are the hidden processes that go on in our minds every single moment of every day.  Difficult tasks build up, compounding the problem of completing others, until each action requires ten more before you can solve the minor problem you started with.  Changing a light bulb ends in a night of doing your taxes.  Doing the dishes ends in standing in the dish soap aisle at the grocery story for a half hour trying to figure out which soap to buy for the dishwasher.

When a simple action requires the same effort from you as the most complex, abstract problem-solving…. to put it mildly, you’re fucked.  Every day tasks require exhausting mental gymnastics.

So, be kind to the person who can’t seem to change a light bulb.  There’s a lot that can stand in the way.

this is such a good addition to my post

Important info!

Exactly the > not changing it because I haven’t figured out what to do with the old one.

Did you know that you can actually write a horror WITHOUT vilifying mentally ill people and perpetuating harmful misinterpretations of mental illness and related disorders? Wild, I know

15 people with Down syndrome tell a mom what kind of life her child will have.

France has banned this video and the smiles of people with Down Syndrome (x) so I’m reblogging this again. 

From the news article:

hey friends this is your reminder that shitty political opinions are not caused by brain disability, mental illness, autism, low IQ, or low “intelligence”

shitty political opinions are caused by having shitty values, which have nothing to do with any disabilities or illnesses

don’t use brain disabilities as an argument for why a political opinion sucks, this and every other neurologically disabled and mentally ill person with non-shitty opinions will thank you <3

thank u, have a safe U.S. election day

Things I never knew about depression until I finally had a doctor explain the disease to me

Depression can manifest as irrational anger.

My complete and total inability to keep anything clean or tidy for any amount of time is a symptom of my depression. I may never be able to do this. It’s important that I remember that and forgive myself when I clean something out (like my car) and it ends up trashed within a week.

Depression IS A DISABILITY. Requiring accommodations is okay.

Medications don’t make you better, they don’t cure your depression. They serve as an aid. Their purpose is to help you get to everyone else’s minimal level of functioning.

Depression can cycle through periods of inactivity. This doesn’t mean it’s gone away.

The reason I don’t feel like other people understand me is because … well … other people DON’T understand me. They can’t. They don’t have my disability.

Paranoia is par for the course.

Depression can and will interfere with your physical mobility. Forgive yourself when you can’t physically do something.

It’s entirely possible that I may never be able to live by myself. I can’t take care of myself. I need help to do it. And that’s okay.

“Imagine if someone said that you weren’t really physically disabled.”

They do.

“Imagine if someone said that your inability to walk is in your head.”

They do.

“Imagine if your doctors didn’t believe you about your physical disability.”

They do.

“Imagine if people said that you don’t really need things like your wheelchair.”

THEY DO!

“Imagine if people treated people with physical disabilities like they treated people with mental disabilities.”

THEY DO!

STOP TRYING TO ERASE THE OBSTACLES FACED BY PEOPLE WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES JUST TO MAKE A POINT ABOUT MENTAL ONES!

Disneyland and Walt Disney World now have guidebooks for guests with cognitive disabilities (such as autism). They include the above charts of what to expect at each attraction (strong smells, loud noises, restraint types used, duration, and more), lists of quiet areas for when you need down time, and answers to frequently asked questions, among other tips.

They are available to download in PDF format: Disneyland | Walt Disney World

If you don’t want to download a PDF (or prefer to click the download link on Disney’s site directly), here are their pages for Services for Guests with Cognitive Disabilities: Disneyland | Walt Disney World

This is awesome.