Kristen on Growing Up Black, Southern, Queer & AuDHD

Support Kristen at:

- https://theblackurbanist.com (where you can pre-order the Defying Gentrification Playbook!)

- https://theblackurbanist.substack.com/

- @blackurbanist and @kristpattern on socials

Help fund and sustain the Queer! AuDHD! BIPOC! book and podcast at https://rewilding.cc/book

Citations:

- Sabrina Strings, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia

- “That is how I learned that if I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.” Quote from Audre Lorde, (1982) “Learning from the 60s.”: https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/1982-audre-lorde-learning-60s/

In this episode:

00:54: Kristen (she/they) introduces all her intersections as a 39-year-old disabled Black feminist urbanist, North Carolinan, AuDHDer, and non-binary pansexual person facing the civil rights pullback right now

06:32: How she struggled to recognize her AuDHD as a Black Southerner until seeing her friend’s struggles with access and ableism and her partner’s own ADHD diagnosis

10:33: The obstacles Kristen faced in obtaining an AuDHD diagnosis due to systemic barriers in US healthcare and health insurance

14:44: Why Kristen believes an early diagnosis can become an extra layer of discrimination for Black American kids — and how both the freedom and structure of the college environment helped her thrive

17:34: When she noticed her first moments of autistic burnout and meltdown and how she connected them to her possibly autistic father’s misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder

18:49: How Kristen’s conservative, religious upbringing shaped the ways in which she viewed social and communication difficulties, mental health, and therapy in college

20:22: Their rough transition to the workplace with high stakes and arbitrary rules — and why they want to run their own business instead, especially in the still ongoing Covid pandemic

26:49: “Sometimes as Black folks, we don’t even get to get through the door [of the clinic]”

27:58: “ Everybody doesn't need to be working as much” — are we showing ourselves enough grace and empathy and honoring ourselves?

31:04: How can we work towards balancing everyone’s access needs?

32:31: The no. 1 thing Kristen would say to her younger self and other queer AuDHD BIPOC to hold onto who you are and feel seen

37:21: If we had a more neurodivergent-friendly world, would we have to resort to hating someone else to get what we need?

38:48: Kristen’s support needs wishlist and how you can support all of their creative work — including their upcoming book, “The Defying Gentrification Playbook”

Access the transcript in our upcoming book by pre-ordering here: https://rewilding.cc/book

#autistic #actuallyautistic #adhd #audhd #queeraudhdbipoc #audhdbipoc #qtibipoc #bipoc #neurodivergence #neurodiversity