I have such a mixed feeling about this book, its been both eye opening and confusing, clearly important whilst at the same time not going far enough.
I loved the acknowledgement of the issue being with the idea of what is "normal" and actually as humans we are all reacting to the wold around us.
Also loved the discourse about all the different labels and their overlapping of diagnosis and how medicalised the language is, which fells detached from the human condition.
I also liked the acceptance of different triggers meaning sometimes people will react in different ways at different times.
I had a visceral reaction to the term "highly sensitive person"/"sensitivity" throughout and I never quite managed to take away my societal assumptions imposed by the patriarchal world. I identified with much of what was said and walk away with more questions.
I struggled to connect to the idea that a diagnosis helps navigate the world better, but feel like you're still having to navigate a world that doesn't allow for you.
I love the idea that we need to be considering these things in the built world, and can quite imagine how schools are absolutely setting any kids with any sort of diversity up to fail from day one. But isn't that just how the patriarchy sets us all up in life to keep itself alive?
There were a few things which felt like maybe a difference with US systems, like Occupational Therapists, I may be wrong, but I don't think they exist outside of hospitals?? May just be an NHS thing, or just that the OTs I know are all hospital based, but their job is to help recovery, but maybe I should be looking for an OT to help me find my triggers!
Its amazing how sad it and out of date it felt to read about the amazing community builder twitter is and the hope for AI to be used to build inclusion. *sigh*
Anyway, all that said, I am really glad I read this and hope to absorb some of it and maybe come back to some of the ideas and delve a bit deeper. I love how every time the author talked about the generic client she used she/her pronouns, its amazing how even in a book focused on women, it still made me smile that it had she default :)
I loved the acknowledgement of the issue being with the idea of what is "normal" and actually as humans we are all reacting to the wold around us.
Also loved the discourse about all the different labels and their overlapping of diagnosis and how medicalised the language is, which fells detached from the human condition.
I also liked the acceptance of different triggers meaning sometimes people will react in different ways at different times.
I had a visceral reaction to the term "highly sensitive person"/"sensitivity" throughout and I never quite managed to take away my societal assumptions imposed by the patriarchal world. I identified with much of what was said and walk away with more questions.
I struggled to connect to the idea that a diagnosis helps navigate the world better, but feel like you're still having to navigate a world that doesn't allow for you.
I love the idea that we need to be considering these things in the built world, and can quite imagine how schools are absolutely setting any kids with any sort of diversity up to fail from day one. But isn't that just how the patriarchy sets us all up in life to keep itself alive?
There were a few things which felt like maybe a difference with US systems, like Occupational Therapists, I may be wrong, but I don't think they exist outside of hospitals?? May just be an NHS thing, or just that the OTs I know are all hospital based, but their job is to help recovery, but maybe I should be looking for an OT to help me find my triggers!
Its amazing how sad it and out of date it felt to read about the amazing community builder twitter is and the hope for AI to be used to build inclusion. *sigh*
Anyway, all that said, I am really glad I read this and hope to absorb some of it and maybe come back to some of the ideas and delve a bit deeper. I love how every time the author talked about the generic client she used she/her pronouns, its amazing how even in a book focused on women, it still made me smile that it had she default :)