Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Unmasking Autism: The Power of Embracing Our Hidden Neurodiversity by Devon Price

32 reviews

returningb00kworm's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Racism, Alcoholism, and Eating disorder

zombiezami's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Bullying, Ableism, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Chronic illness, Confinement, Medical content, Sexism, Torture, Transphobia, Colonisation, Mental illness, Biphobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Racism, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Classism, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Colonisation, Sexual harassment, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Vomit, Cursing, Domestic abuse, and Police brutality

d3vilsw0lf's review against another edition

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

After recently finding out I am autistic this has been an invaluable resource for me to better my understanding of the hidden disability I've been living with my entire life. 
Dr Price is very direct in the points he makes and uses interviews with other autistic people and studies that have been conductied to show how individualistic the disability can be, as well as how many parts of the disability overlap a wider group of people. The exercises are informative and, for me, eye-opening on how autism looks like in day-to-day lives. I'm very glad I found this book.
The only criticism I have is that I did have to pause multiple times as I read through the book due to things clicking into place from my past being down to undiagnosed autism, however I fully understand that is my experience reading the book with my life experience so is not a guarantee for everyone reading the book.
Thank you Dr Price for writing this book and being able to show me that autism isn't just a disability but far more than a label.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Transphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Ableism, Gaslighting, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Eating disorder, and Homophobia

The content warnings are more things discussed around the topic of autism and can be signs of trauma from being undiagnosed autistic and a neurotypical world

sevensableyes's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.0

A good book, definitely reccomend for people questioning. Easy to read and process. I'll definitely need to look into more books about autism, but I think this was a good starting point.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, and Addiction

jenny_librarian's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

A very interesting book about being autistic and learning to unmask and accept yourself.

Seeking an autism diagnosis as an adult is extremely difficult. Most people who don’t realize they are autistic before adulthood have low support needs, and have been masking all their life. It makes it incredibly hard then to figure out which parts of you are the mask and which are your true self. Despite the numerous green sticky notes I used when relating to autistic traits mentioned, I gaslighted myself throughout the whole thing, figuring that since I didn’t have it “that bad”, I must be appropriating an identity that wasn’t mine.

This book was illuminating on some points, but should definitely be used as part of a larger research if you think you are on the spectrum. It did include BIPOC and queer perspectives as well as those from people with other disabilities, something that not enough books and research do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Eating disorder, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Classism, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Racism, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Infertility, Suicide, and Slavery

sarahna's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Police brutality, Addiction, Mental illness, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug use, and Ableism

moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

informative reflective

5.0

This was such an incredible book! Written by an autistic trans social psychologist, this focused on high masking autistic experiences. He begins by talking about who is more likely to mask/less likely to be diagnosed as a child, what traits get overlooked, issues with how autism is "treated". Then, he goes into what masking can look like, how we might decide to unmask, and ending with what we need to do as a society to make it a safe place for people to live unmasked. I really loved that he talks so much about the social - not just ableism and stigma, but also aspects of racism, impact of poverty, and transphobia, among other things. 

This can be useful for anyone looking to understand the autistic experience, but it's written more specifically for neurodivergent people (especially for autistics, but but he talks about the fact that other ND folks can experience masking as well). I've looked a lot into autism over the years - especially the experiences of those diagnosed as an adult. Even still, there were so many things that he described and connected that made so much more sense. It's another book that I wish I'd had years ago, but am very grateful to have have it now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Racism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Ableism

Moderate: Eating disorder, Child abuse, Classism, and Police brutality

Minor: Fatphobia and Transphobia

lettuce_read's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Ableism, Eating disorder, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

crybabybea's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Addiction, Bullying, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

dakotaa_jpg's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This book is very useful as a person who just got an ADHD dx that suspects im likely also autistic. Ive read quite a few books on ADHD but this is a good entry book for Autism imo. The author uses really accessible language and easily connectable anecdotes that make it feel especially helpful in trying to gather more information to advocate for oneself as a masked autistic person as well as potentially trying to push for a formal dx. I listened to the audiobook, which felt very well paced.

The only thing I didnt like (as a Black reader) was the author's clear attempt to accomodate racial differences while being bogged down by their likely subconcious biases. I felt like they did an excellent job talking about masking as a gender minority/trans person (which tracks bc thats their experiences) but their inability to specify whiteness in certain phrases (saying "girls and PoC" instead of "white girls and PoC erases WoC and others them; as well as talking about how autistic people get trapped in far right spaces when its primarily white autistic people), as well as a lack of discussion on how one might safely unmask as a racial minority (although it was brought up that it is unsafe, and explained that if society changes this will be alleviated, there were no personal solutions to alleviating the stress it causes), and how Black autistics and other autistics of color might find community in autistic spaces that are dominated by white people.

Obviously I understand that the author likely didnt consider these things and wouldntve thought to, but in a book by clearly well researched/well read academic, with a lot of anecdotes from people of different racial minorities in the Autistic community I found it weird that there were no resources offered or mention of the author's own shortcomings in this area. Im also acknowledging that these couldve been addressed in the print copy, but in the audiobook there was nothing.

Something that I found confusing was the way that the ADHD/Autism comorbitity was defined. The author mentions that there is an insanely high comorbitity rate for these disabilities, but then doesnt explain how that might present and even goes on to describe the differences in the way that these brains work (ie: the autistic brain does xyz while the adhd brain does the opposite). Im confused why the comorbitity was brought up if there wasnt going to be a discussion on what that comorbitity looks like. Especially in a book about people who likely would've gotten ignored about having one or both of these disabilities. I thought that section was unhelpful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Eating disorder, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts