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Educator: Allison Davies talks about her life with autism. Image: provided.
Former actress Hannah Gadsby joked that she never thought she could live with anyone.
Then, at age 36, she learned that she was living with autism and realized that there was a diagnosis.
Allison Davies, an award-winning neurological music therapist, was also diagnosed at 36 and may be related to Gadsby.
Previously, the doctors had told her that she was not autistic because she was married and able to socialize, it seemed, but like other girls with autism undiagnosed, Davies was good at pretending.
All her life, she put on a mask and waved a storm to cover her inner turmoil.
"When you spend years believing that you're not doing your place, that you're lazy, selfish and stupid, and a fake … then you suddenly realize that you're autistic and it's fantastic and negative thoughts and shame begin to disappear, "39-year-old Ms. Davies said.
Sensing It: Allison says that sensory overload is the most difficult thing to handle in the world. Image: provided.
She remembers the torture when she was a child when her school uniform touched her legs and thought she would die if she ate squishy food.
Some people talk about the autism epidemic and overdiagnosis and Ms. Davies wants to challenge people's thinking.
"People are under-diagnosed, if at all," she said.
"When it comes to autism rates, all we know is that the statistics are wrong." The more we understand neurodiversity, the more we recognize that many people live with autism , obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder.
Music Magic: Maple with Allison Davies, neurological music therapist for her mother. Image: provided.
"Formerly considered" an infant behavioral disorder affecting boys ", we now know that autism is genetic, non-gender specific and that it is neurological in nature, that is, to say that it's about the personality of many people and not about an illness that needs to be repaired or altered.Never advocate changing a child or making it look like another, that's Is always helping a child to function at best.
"Autism is a condition of the spectrum, but despite the common perception, the spectrum is not linear, with low operation at one end and high operation at the other. colors, a circle that contains the spectrum of every color imaginable – for an autistic person any color on the wheel can be too active or too active, which can lead to non-verbalism, excessive empathy , an inability to cope with sensory stimuli, high levels of concentration, anxiety, shine, high IQ and more.
Family ties: Allison and her husband Leighton Burr, with their two children, Chester and Maple. Image: provided.
"With our increased understanding of neurology and our acceptance of increasingly accepted neuro-diversity, it is important to revisit our personal perception of autism so that we can fully accept and understand the experience of autism. autistic "more than you can imagine" living in our community. "
The mother of two said that many women like her had discovered that they were autistic throughout the process of diagnosing a child.
His daughter Maple, 5, is autistic.
"It comes from filling out forms, checklists and checkboxes to say" yes, my child does, but not everyone does it? "Said Ms. Davies.
Success: Ms. Davies received the AMP Tomorrow Maker Award for her contribution to Australian families. Last year, she was third in the AusMumpreneur Making the Difference and Women Will Change the World awards. Image: provided.
"… some generations have never been identified, and they may have been alcoholics or the eccentric uncle who was a hermit unable to function comfortably in society and who was being avoided. people, but we still do not understand autism … the best way to understand it is to listen to autistic voices. "
Davies said by telling his story on the world stage with such humor and emotion that Gadsby resonated with people in a much more meaningful way than overloading them with information and facts.
Davies finds that it's about her life with autism, and the sensory processing disorder always makes her anxious and vulnerable.
If autism was a relief, it was also a surprise, as she had spent years with autistic people and thought she knew everything about it, but she would never have guessed it. she was autistic.
"My diagnosis changed my life, it was completely transformative," Ms. Davies said.
"After my kids, my life was a lot harder, which was automatically supposed to be postnatal depression, but I knew it was something else.
"I was not able to function because of the noise and unpredictability of all this, and the things I had done so far to manage my life and that allowed me to function could not happen anymore because I had young children. "
She became nonverbal for a while.
"I could not get myself a cup of tea," said Davies.
"I could not drive in my city, I was coming to an intersection and I had no idea what direction to take.
"The discovery of my autism identity helped me to clarify how to support myself and better understand my life." I had always felt that something was wrong with me. me and, all of a sudden, it made sense. "
With her knowledge of autism, she changed her lifestyle to support herself. She wore earbuds and applied day-to-day anxiety management strategies.
"My collapses, which, before I thought, were explosions filled with psychic depression, I could recognize when they would arrive and how I would feel after and be able to support myself, and my husband was able to support me", a- she declared.
Allison's life with autism
"This is also the time when I stopped working with children so much because working in music therapy with children is a noisy job."
She focused on working more online.
"Online, I did not have all the time people in front of me, and I did not have to look in. Before I thought of everyone, I had pain and it was Was normal, but now I understood why I did it, "she said. I said.
In 2016, she developed Brain = behaviors a two-day workshop to give teachers, parents and caregivers an overview of their child's brain function and strategies to help children function to the best of their ability.
She did a national tour and now it's an online course that has involved thousands of people in nine countries.
She is about to go on a national children's anxiety conference tour with renowned author and guru Maggie Dent.
Ms. Davies said that the place where she finds it talkative and talking face to face with clumsiness on stage or at a conference is a nice place.
"Many autistic people are on stage and are public figures because they are naturally excellent actors."
Music has always been huge in his life.
She grew up with that at home and she was good at it.
"Music brought me peace when I could not understand things or think straight, and the outside world seemed confused as if I did not speak the language, but the music had a meaning in my head," he said. she said.
As a music therapist working with patients with dementia, traumatic brain injury, juvenile detention, and so many other areas, she saw how music, creativity, and movement helped people in their lives. Flourish while nothing else succeeded them.
Her advice to parents is something that worries her the most.
"You can be the changemaker in your child's life."
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