Devon Price > Quotes

“Refusing to perform neurotypicality is a revolutionary act of disability justice. It's also a radical act of self-love.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“If a person’s behavior doesn’t make sense to you, it is because you are missing a part of their context. It’s that simple.”
― Devon Price

“Though masking is incredibly taxing and causes us a lot of existential turmoil, it’s rewarded and facilitated by neurotypical people. Masking makes Autistic people easier to “deal” with. It renders us compliant and quiet. It also traps us. Once you’ve proven yourself capable of suffering in silence, neurotypical people tend to expect you’ll be able to do it forever, no matter the cost. Being a well-behaved Autistic person puts us in a real double bind and forces many of us to keep masking for far longer (and far more pervasively) than we want to.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“We live in a world where hard work is rewarded and having needs and limitations is seen as a source of shame. It's no wonder so many of us are constantly overexerting ourselves, saying yes out of fear of how we'll be perceived for saying no.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Most of us are haunted by the sense there's something "wrong" or "missing" in our lives--that we're sacrificing far more of ourselves than other people in order to get by and receiving far less in return.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Interestingly, adults are only shamed for having an obsessive interest if that interest is a bit too “strange,” and doesn’t come with the opportunity to rack up a lot of achievements or make a lot of money. People who routinely complete eighty-hour workweeks aren’t penalized for being obsessive or hyperfixated; they’re celebrated for their diligence. If an adult fills their evenings after work learning to code or creating jewelry that they sell on Etsy, they’re seen as enterprising. But if someone instead devotes their free time to something that gives them pleasure but doesn’t financially benefit anyone, it’s seen as frivolous or embarrassing, even selfish. In this instance, it’s clear that the punishing rules imposed on Autistic children reflect a much broader societal issue: pleasure and nonproductive, playful time are not valued, and when someone is passionate about the “wrong” things, that passion is discouraged because it presents a distraction from work and other “respectable” responsibilities.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“We have to keep other people at arm's length, because letting them see our hyperfixations, meltdowns, obsessions, and outbursts could mean losing their respect. But locking ourselves away means we can't ever be fully loved.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Therapy that is focused on battling “irrational beliefs,” such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), doesn’t work as well on Autistic people as it does on neurotypicals.[72] One reason for that is many of the fears and inhibitions of Autistic people are often entirely reasonable, and rooted in a lifetime of painful experiences. We tend to be pretty rational people, and many of us are already inclined to analyze our thoughts and feelings very closely (sometimes excessively so). Autistics don’t need cognitive behavioral training to help us not be ruled by our emotions. In fact, most of us have been browbeaten into ignoring our feelings too much.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“The Laziness Lie is a deep-seated, culturally held belief system that leads many of us to believe the following: Deep down I’m lazy and worthless. I must work incredibly hard, all the time, to overcome my inner laziness. My worth is earned through my productivity. Work is the center of life. Anyone who isn’t accomplished and driven is immoral.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“People with so-called “female Autism” may be able to make eye contact, carry on a conversation, or hide their tics and sensory sensitivities. They might spend the first few decades of their lives with no idea they’re Autistic at all, believing instead that they’re just shy, or highly sensitive.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“We are not “differently abled”—we are disabled, robbed of empowerment and agency in a world that is not built for us. “Differently abled,” “handi-capable,” and similar euphemisms were created in the 1980s by the abled parents of disabled children, who wished to minimize their children’s marginalized status. These terms were popularized further by politicians[76] who similarly felt uncomfortable acknowledging disabled people’s actual experiences of oppression.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Much of what we call maturity is a silly pantomime of independence and unfeeling, not a real quality of unbreakable strength.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“What non-Autistic folks often don’t realize is that Autistic people experience intense sensory input as if it were physical pain.[6”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Research shows that most Autistic people have a reduced sense of the body’s warning signals, or interoception.[31] Most of us tend to feel like our bodies are not really our own, and struggle to draw connections between the external world and how we feel inside.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“I had always been overwhelmed by loud sounds and bright lights. I got inexplicably angry in crowds; laughter and chatter could make me blow up with rage. When I got too stressed out or became overcome with sadness, I found it hard to speak.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“It’s neurotypicals who categorized autism as a social disorder.” Autistic people don’t actually lack communication skills, or a drive to connect. We aren’t doomed to forever feel lonely and broken. We can step out of the soul-crushing cycle of reaching for neurotypical acceptance and being rejected despite our best efforts. Instead, we can support and uplift one another, and create our own neurodiverse world where everyone—including neurotypicals—is welcome.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Recovery is predicated on aligning your life with your values, and you aren’t going to be able to align anything until you know who you are.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Many masked Autistics are sent to gifted education as children, instead of being referred to disability services.[18] Our apparent high intelligence puts us in a double bind: we are expected to accomplish great things to justify our oddness, and because we possess an enviable, socially prized quality, it’s assumed we need less help than other people, not more.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“When you lose power over your own life, you don’t have much reason to stay energized and motivated.15 So, you protect yourself emotionally by checking out and giving up.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“The Laziness Lie has three main tenets. They are: Your worth is your productivity. You cannot trust your own feelings and limits. There is always more you could be doing.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“If you're entitled to moments of rest, of imperfection, of laziness and sloth, then so are homeless people, and people with depression, and people who are addicted to drugs. If your life has value no matter how productive you are, so does every other human life.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“One of the major ways abled society dehumanizes the disabled is by calling our maturity into question. “Adults” are supposed to be independent, though of course no person actually is. We all rely on the hard work and social-emotional support of dozens of people every single day. You’re only seen as less adult, and supposedly less of a person,[3] if you need help in ways that disrupt the illusions of self-sufficiency.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Work is the center of life. Anyone who isn’t accomplished and driven is immoral. The Laziness Lie is the source of the guilty feeling that we are not “doing enough”; it’s also the force that compels us to work ourselves to sickness.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“I found that by advocating for our right to be “lazy,” we can carve out space in our lives for play, relaxation, and recovery. I also discovered the immense relief that comes when we cease tying our self-image to how many items we check off our to-do lists.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Wasting time" is a basic human need.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Masking also obscures the fact that the world is massively inaccessible to us. If allistics (non-Autistics) never hear our needs voiced, and never see our struggle, they have no reason to adapt to include us. We must demand the treatment we deserve, and cease living to placate those who have overlooked us.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Therapy that is focused on battling “irrational beliefs,” such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), doesn’t work as well on Autistic people as it does on neurotypicals. One reason for that is many of the fears and inhibitions of Autistic people are often entirely reasonable, and rooted in a lifetime of painful experiences. We tend to be pretty rational people, and many of us are already inclined to analyze our thoughts and feelings very closely (sometimes excessively so). Autistics don’t need cognitive behavioral training to help us not be ruled by our emotions. In fact, most of us have been browbeaten into ignoring our feelings too much.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“The concepts of “work-life” balance and “burnout” just don’t always translate to Autistic people’s schedules in the ways neurotypicals might expect.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Almost every Autistic person I spoke to has found that in order to build a life that suits them, they’ve had to learn to let certain unfair expectations go, and withdraw from activities that don’t matter to them. It’s scary to allow ourselves to disappoint other people, but it can be radical and liberating, too. Admitting what we can’t do means confronting the fact we have a disability, and therefore we occupy a marginalized position in society—but it also is an essential part of finally figuring out what assistance we need, and which ways of living are best for us.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“The label neurodiverse includes everyone from people with ADHD, to Down Syndrome, to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, to Borderline Personality Disorder. It also includes people with brain injuries or strokes, people who have been labeled “low intelligence,” and people who lack any formal diagnosis, but have been pathologized as “crazy” or “incompetent” throughout their lives. As Singer rightly observed, neurodiversity isn’t actually about having a specific, catalogued “defect” that the psychiatric establishment has an explanation for. It’s about being different in a way others struggle to understand or refuse to accept.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity