Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn't let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly, and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become "an autistic success story," how the process almost ruined her life and how she is now trying to recover.

Growing up undiagnosed in small-town Ontario in the eighties and nineties, Kurchak realized early that she was somehow different from her peers. She discovered an effective strategy to fend off bullying: she consciously altered nearly everything about herself -- from her personality to her body language. She forced herself to wear the denim jeans that felt like being enclosed in a sandpaper iron maiden. Every day, she dragged herself through the door with an elevated pulse and a churning stomach, nearly crumbling under the effort of the performance. By the time she was finally diagnosed with autism at twenty-seven, she struggled with depression and anxiety largely caused by the same strategy she had mastered precisely. She came to wonder, were all those years of intensely pretending to be someone else really worth it?

Tackling everything from autism parenting culture to love, sex, alcohol, obsessions and professional pillow fighting, Kurchak's enlightening memoir challenges stereotypes and preconceptions about autism and considers what might really make the lives of autistic people healthier, happier and more fulfilling.

• We started tracking this book on December 29, 2022.
• This book was £5.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 43 times in the past 811 days.
• The current price of this book is £6.85 last checked 11 hours ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is £6.44.
• The lowest price to date was £5.99 last reached on January 30, 2024.
• This book has been £5.99 3 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was £8.03 last reached on March 24, 2024.
• This book has been £8.03 3 times since we started tracking it.

• Biography & True AccountsWomen

• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 232 Pages
• File Size: 47 KB