The AQ-Test on Facebook

Even though I haven’t seen it on Facebook myself, I heard from several sources that the Autism Spectrum Quotient test (AQ-test) is now there inbetween quizzes such as “Which Spongebob character are you?” and “What color should you due your hair?”. The AQ-test, developed by Simon Baron-Cohen, is used as a screening instrument in the [...]

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PTSD in People with Intellectual Disabilities

When searching for studies on post-traumatic symptoms, I came across an interesting paper on PTSD among individuals with an intellectual disability (ID. This study is the first systematic review of prevalence, assessment and treatment of PTSD in people with ID. There are several reasons why people with intellectual disabilities are more susceptible to PTSD than [...]

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Exploring Dissociation: What Does “Mid-Continuum” Mean?

I identify as mid-continuum multiple. Many readers have commented and E-mailed me asking what “mid-continuum” means. Put simply, mid-continuum – also known as median in the natural multiple community – refers to being inbertween singlet and multiple. It could mean that the insiders are obviously parts of the host. In my case, however, it means [...]

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Where Are the Autism Severity Criteria?

Harold L. Doherty of Facing Autism in New Brunswick poses the question of what autism severity criteria are being tested in field trials for DSM-V. Indeed, the DSM-V website has, ever since it started posting proposed criteria, including severity criteria for various disorders, told people interested in autim severity to check back soon. That was [...]

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Prospective Study Finds Increased Psychopathology among Persons Sexually Abused as Children

When reading the study I’m going to review here, one would almost say “Oh, duh!”: it is logical and common sense that childhood sexual abuse (CSA) leads to psychiatric disorders. What is new about this study, however, is that it is prospective rather than retrospective. The presence of abuse was ascertained using a forensic medical [...]

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Family Environment Predicts Outcome in Women Physically Abused as Children

I started reading research articles again. In the most recent issue of Child Abuse & Neglect appeared an interesting article on the variables influencing adult outcome for women who experienced childhood physical abuse (CPA). The authors interviewed 290 women living in a community in the northeastern U.S., who had lived for at least ten years [...]

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Speak Up on Shutdown

There’s a campaign on November 1 called “Communication Shutdown”. The idea is for people to shut down their Facebook and Twitter for a day as to get an idea of what it is like to have the communication difficulties autistics experience. I am wary of disability simulations in general, but this one is particularly bad. [...]

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Exploring Dissociation: “Time Shifting”

“Time is not a linear flow, as we think it is, into past, present, and future. Time is an indivisible whole, a great pool in which all events are eternally embodied and still have their meaningful flash of supernormal or extra-sensory perception, and a glimpse of something that happened long ago in our linear time.” [...]

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Blog Carnival of Mental Health, Anyone?

It never ceases to amaze me how many active and beautiful mental health blogs are around. That got me thinking already a while ago about a blog carnival of mental health (or mental illness if you want). A blog carnival takes the following: An organizer. Being that it’s my idea, I would love to take [...]

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What Is Empowered Multiplicity?

Some so-called empowered mutiples claim empowerment based on the fact that they don’t have a diagnosis, don’t see a therapist, or don’t experience post-traumatic symptoms, or not in a way that limits their functioning. I consider all these assertions ableist and psychophobic. In fact, empowerment can mean pursuing treatment for severe symptoms. If people have [...]

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