Home > Author > Jeannie Davide-Rivera
1 " I used to feel special, different and wonderful when I was very young, before the world showed me that everything I thought, said, or did was wrong. I lived in the blissfulness of youth without knowing how the world would not except me. "
― Jeannie Davide-Rivera , Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Autism
2 " Beyond being normal, our obsessions are positive, empowering and absolutely necessary. What some may view as obsessive, odd, weird, abnormal and troublesome is a necessary part of our happiness. Our interests allow us to decompress, calm down, focus our energy, and gives us a reason to be excited about life - a purpose. An absence of obsessive interest leaves me feeling alone in the darkness. "
3 " My colors ran all over the page, poured out of the lines and meshed together to form colors no one had yet recognized. I was different–unique, bold, strong, smart, and hard-headed. I was simply me. "
4 " Focusing on and sustaining life activities...jobs, budgets housekeeping etc. takes from me. It is an exhausting struggle; a desperate attempt to tread water while drowning. Life drains my well. Special interests fill it back up. I need that time, I need that filling, that relaxing, that decompressing, in order to accomplish other tasks in my life. "
5 " It is no wonder that I had tears of relief, to find out, finally, the truth - to discover an explanation, a diagnosis that explained not one or two of my symptoms or behaviours but ALL of them. Finally, someone saw me "
6 " I have Asperger's Syndrome. I am an Aspergirl, I am a mom, I am a wife, and I am an individual who sees things in a unique way. I am just like you, only different because I am me. "
7 " Writing is my form of communication. I may not call someone on the telephone; I cannot stand to talk on the phone. I may not visit, make play dates, or organize nights out with friends, but I will, if they are willing—write. I will write messages, emails, and chat online—it is the easiest, most honest way for me to communicate with the world. "
8 " This taught me two things: being smart didn't matter, and grades mattered even less because they did not reflect what you knew or what you did not. They only reflected your ability to follow other people's ways of doing things, even if those ways make no sense. "
9 " I had no one. No one to talk to, at least that is how I felt. No one to hold on to, or who would hold tightly back. No one to tell me everything was going to be alright. No one to say, yes, me too, I know how you feel - No one. "
10 " I fear depression - intensely. It is by far the most painful ailment I have ever faced. It is the thing that slammed into me, ran me over repeatedly, and then kicked me in the head when I was down. I struggled for change, for understanding, to figure out what was "wrong" with me - no one knew. Or at least, they didn't guess correctly. "
11 " The ability of an autistic person to focus so intently and completely on a topic of interest is a gift—one of their super-powers. Cultivate, encourage, and cherish these interests because in doing so you are cherishing the autistic person themselves. "
12 " Autistic children often show no real fears of danger despite obvious risks of harm. This may be easy to spot in a young child who bolts for the street at a moment’s notice, or plunges into water with no fear of its depth without being able to swim. But what does it look like in an older child, one on the cusp of adolescence? "
13 " I can focus for hours on end reading, writing, or playing poker. The rest of the world disappears; I can forget it exists. It calms me, and the stress melts away. When I'm focused on one of my interests, I lose track of time, forget to eat, and am annoyed at even the interruption of needing to use the bathroom. "
14 " Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors.” —Khaled Hosseini "
15 " But it wasn’t all right, it was never all right again. From that night on, every time I smelled my food before eating, which was every time I ate, in front of my father he smacked the food out of my hands yelling, “Just eat it! "
16 " an extent I excluded myself. When I didn’t understand the dynamics, couldn’t relate to the situation, or flat-out disagreed with their actions I withdrew, removed myself, and disappeared. "
17 " In 1974, 1 in 5,000 children were diagnosed with autism. When I began writing this book in 2012, that number was estimated at 1 in 88. In early 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released yet another statistic; 1 in 55 children are now diagnosed and identified as being on the autism spectrum. What has changed? Are there more autistic children being born now than ever before? Is there an epidemic? "
18 " that accompany this condition—the lack of theory of mind, executive dysfunction, and weak central coherence. There are also a host of other issues like sensory processing difficulties—being hyper or hypo sensitive to outside stimuli like to heat, cold, or pain. "
