Able and Disabled

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Anxiety, Stress, Mental Health Hey! I hope you've been well. Honestly, I've been finding the last couple of weeks very challenging; physically and emotionally. To anyone who has spent time with me recently this will not be a surprise. This first term has been tough and it has knocked me and it has tired me, and it is only now that I've started to show myself my kind of compassion that I have needed. Today I thought that I'd talk a little about my recent experiences with burnout, stress and mental health as an autistic person with mental health and physical health challenges, partially for awareness and partially to let anyone who is having a difficult time right now know that they are not alone and that it is okay to struggle. I have always been one to push myself and expect myself to be capable of doing more and more; in short I have never been very good at showing kindness to myself. I have always been heavily critical of myself and have always

Hey All! Something that a lot of people may not know about me is that I perform as a drag king at my university, essentially meaning that every couple of months or so I adorn a suit and mustache and lip sync to my heart's content. What I wanted to talk about today is the relationship between my performance and my autism and my anxiety and how being a drag king has helped me. I thought that now would be a good time to talk about this part of my life and how it intertwines with some of my struggles because I have a show tonight, so wish me luck! I perform as Lord Edwards at my university, a dapper and fabulous man who loves to dance and perform (often in purple glitter!) I don't know if I could say that Lord Edwards isn't autistic because ultimately he shares a lot of my quirkiness and eccentricity, parts of myself which may be difficult to separate from my autistic identity. This isn't to say that autism is my personality, but rather that the two can be difficult to