Reviews and Comments

While I have not had the chance to try any of these out, I feel I have more ideas about what the fuck to do when things suck. And that's the idea I suppose.

Harper's style is good for someone like me. It's conversational, funny, and unafraid to call bullshit. I don't want or need to be coddled, I need someone to tell me that I need to work on my shit, and maybe offer some suggestions for how I do that.

I'll be honest, I haven't been well. I get overwhelmed in crowds of more than 5, I cant handle bright lights and loud noises, and I spend more time alone than I ever have in my life. These things started getting worse than normal at the beginning of the year, so I thought I would do the smart thing and drop my unhealthy habits, like drinking. Lo and behold, several of those were actually the mechanisms I used to cope with things like crowds, loud noises, and bright lights.

So now here I am, physically healthier than I've been in years, running 5ks, not smoking, drinking, or anything else, and I am absolutely always on the verge of losing my shit.

Enter therapy. Enter some hard truths about myself being stirred up. Enter "you need coming skills." Enter this little book.

I'll be trying to retain what I read and applying what I learned. Maybe someday I'll be able to handle going to a show again.

Maybe I'll change my mind in the future about this review. Maybe I'll hate this book after I've learned more. But before this I knew very little about autism and had never read the experiences of an autistic person from their perspective. And this book was short and accessible and cleared up several misconceptions in my brain. I feel like, after reading this, I have a better idea of how much I don't know about autism, as well as a sort of foundation of knowledge to build on. The structure of a FAQ allowed me to open it up to read one question and one answer at a time. Sometimes I only had 5 minutes, but even then I could make a little progress between things.

Jumping back and forth between Harper and Biel was a little disorienting at times, but I appreciated getting both the perspective of a therapist AND an autistic person.

I have a lot of reading to do, and this was as good a place to start as any.