YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

I just wanted to add a little more about me. I am also all about everything autism. Not ABA therapy but living with someone with autism and spectrum related issues. And in April I'm going to get an additional certification in Obsessive Compulsive Behavior treatment, Exposure and Response Prevention.

Karen R Swanay, MS LMHC CAAP

Awesomeness. My little sister ("little."...she's an inch taller than me! Still think of her as my baby sister, can't believe she's 18, time flies!) is autistic. What's funny is I'm more stereotypically "autistic" than her (which I guess is being like Sheldon on BBT, though I don't agree with that stereotype at all), I'm introverted, socially awkward, a little nerdy, on the asexual spectrum, used to be picked on when I was little, don't like loud parties, flashing lights, or a lot of foods which gross me out (most fruit, cheese), and a lot of foods give me stomach aches including fried stuff, lactose, and gluten (why am I not skinny??). She's warm and cuddly despite her language delays, and although shy she's comfortable in her skin (also beautiful) and not a nerd at all, even though she's almost completely nonverbal she's cooler than me in a lot of ways such as style and music (she's a hipster), and even stranger, she LOVES ALL FOOD, and loves loud music, lasers d(Ihave chaperoned her at dry college dance parties with flashing lights and tons of people, and she's been grinning the whole time while I feel anxious), and tolerates cold/heat/discomfort far better. Sometimes I think our diagnoses were mixed up, then I remember that I have ADD and undiagnosed anxiety, and she can't talk/read/understand language that well, because to her it's probably a lot like speaking to her in a foreign language with kanji or sanskrit instead of roman phonetic charcters, and trying to get by despite not understanding much of the language at all.
Anyway, that's so cool.