Abigail Joseph

“It’s no secret that kids with ASD can be aggressive, and people never understand that it’s not because they’re violent. It’s almost always because they’re intensely frustrated or can’t communicate what they want, but nobody ever sees it that way, and their judgment toward Mason only gets worse the older he gets. People used to be so sweet and kind to us. Back then, he was cute as a button, and his huge, half-terrified blue eyes melted your heart even if he was kicking or throwing things at you. All you wanted to do was help him feel better. But now? All that’s different. I see the way everyone looks at him. How they clutch their purses next to themselves when he comes close, like violence and stealing go hand in hand. Nobody’s kind, and they’re definitely not helpful. They turn their noses up at him like they smell something funny when he starts smacking his hands together or repeating the same sentence over and over again. People purposefully cross to the other side of the street when they see us coming. It makes me so angry and heartsick.”
― Lucinda Berry, Under Her Care

“You should worry about the kids who never want to be at home”
― Lucinda Berry, Under Her Care

“Kissing a stranger you'd never see again, kissing someone whose name you didn't even know, just to feel a little high in that moment. Just to feel the warmth of someone's skin on yours. Just, for a while, to feel purely alive. God. I wished I could do that. But the idea of trying to get with any of these people--no matter their gender--was, honestly, unnerving. It made me feel itchy. Shivery, maybe. It filled my stomach with a weird, horrible dread, and a warning siren went off in my brain. It felt like my antibodies were fighting it off.”
― Alice Oseman, Loveless

“People always think the scariest thing about sociopaths is that they don’t feel any empathy. That’s not it at all. The scariest thing about sociopaths is that they feel no empathy but are so good at pretending they do.”
― Lucinda Berry, Under Her Care