Anne grew up always feeling on the outside-- outside her family, her peers, her species. She knew something was "wrong", but a diagnosis would not arrive until she was well into adulthood. Meanwhile she became an expert in studying the ways of people, of "operating in manual", consciously and methodically using the lessons she had learned to know what to do in social situations and how to pass as "normal". Unlike so many others with ASD, Anne was able to marry and have two children and even develop a secure loving attachment to her children-- something she herself never got to experience as a child growing up amidst severe neglect. Yet her years of careful observation and mimicry didn't fully insulate her from the emotional pain and alienation of ASD, which she shares in her story today.
BFTA on Instagram. @backfromtheabysspodcast
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/
Support the show
Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories | Psychotherapy, Psychopharmacology, and Psychedelics