These are some of the research questions I concluded that I've not found answers for - these are dissertation ideas, not grant applications - in a field I've struggled to find much institutional appetite for, that being Neurodiversity Psychology. I write them here on the chance that changes: a university willing to take them on, an organisation willing to fund them.
Rejection sensitive dysphoria looks a lot like complex PTSD, yet nobody has put the two side by side. Animal studies show the brain unlearns fear through a small burst of dopamine when an expected bad thing doesn't happen. I think that burst...
Continue readingMore people are being diagnosed autistic as adults, and about two in five autistic people are ADHD too. Is the ADHD part of why the autism diagnosis came so late? In children, the answer looks like yes. In adults, nobody has checked....
Continue readingIn the lab, competition seems to suit autistic people quite well. Outside it, autistic adults are thin on the ground wherever life is openly competitive. I used to think we just cared about fairness. Then I realised I'd been carrying two opposite...
Continue readingAdults are now diagnosed autistic or ADHD in their thirties, forties and fifties - and by then, most have a partner. A late diagnosis lands in a relationship that was built for years without it. Does the relationship change after that? As...
Continue readingWeight-loss drugs like semaglutide work by changing how the body senses hunger and fullness. Many autistic people sense hunger and fullness differently. So does the drug work differently for us - better, worse, or just strangely?
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