Reflections
Essays from Kristy Forbes exploring PDA, autistic experience, parenting, identity, care, systems and the ordinary moments that shape family life.
I am not my trauma
Sep 24, 2021
Yesterday, my youngest child came inside the house to tell me a bird had fallen from itās nest.
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As I neared the back fence, where all the neighbourhood birds gather in all of their breeds, colours, sounds and v
...Failed relationships & neurodivergence
Sep 11, 2021
Ahh, the wonderful weekend. I hope you're having a brilliant one so far.
This week, for something different, the team and I decided we'd share a conversation with community from my Facebook page this past week.
We touc...
It flows through my bloodlines
Aug 25, 2021
We are FIXATED on behaviour as a society. We hastily attach meaning and intention to it, and project our own biased (mis)understandings onto it, based on all that lies within US.
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For many of us, what ālies with...
I'd rather stab my eye than do this... (spoiler: it's group work)
Aug 13, 2021
I still cringe inside when remembering the moments I heard āOkay everyone, find a partnerā, or āSo weāre going to get into groups of threeā...
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No.
Nah, not doinā it.
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I would rather stab myself in t
...Iāll never āovercomeā my PDA neurobiology.
Aug 13, 2021
Iām often asked how, as a PDAer, I am able to overcome my need for control in parenting my own children with a PDA profile of autism.
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I donāt overcome it.
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Iāll never āovercomeā my neurobiology.
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This is Me.
Aug 13, 2021
I no longer paint my nails.
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I don't adorn myself with jewellery.
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I take my time responding to messages and I seldom answer my phone. I have a message bank.
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I say no to social invitations when I
...My Dreaming Life
Aug 13, 2021
*Trigger warning: Trauma nightmares, self-harm, police, psychiatric ward*
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My dreaming life.
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As I age, it becomes more intense; a beckoning for me to process what feels like insurmountable, unfatho
...I remember every single name, every single humiliation.
Aug 13, 2021
At fifteen years old, I left school midway through Year Nine and went into the workforce.
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I vehemently expressed that I would not return to school and with that, my mother said if I was not returning, I needed to get...
This is how I live most of my life now.
Aug 13, 2021
Today I put aside a few hours to revisit my plan for thriving autistically.
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Those drop-offs of the very things that support my wellbeing happen so subtly and quickly as time goes on that I donāt even notice.
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...Labels, labels, labels.
Aug 13, 2021
Trigger Warning: swearing, harsh words.
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I hear families often speak about their fear in "labelling" their children autistic, ADHD, among other neurodivergences because they worry their child will be judged,
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