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From Autistic Realms to More Realms: Exploring Other Ways of Being
By Helen Edgar, Autistic Realms
At the heart of everything I do is a belief that lived experience and Autistic lives matter.
What if support for Autistic children began with listening to Autistic people?
That was the the question I had in mind when I first created Autistic Realms in 2022. I wanted it to be a space that I wish had existed many years ago when I was first trying to understand and support my own children, myself and the families I worked with as a teacher.
As an Autistic parent and someone who’s lived through cycles of burnout and the barriers that come with being misunderstood, I wanted to build a space that speaks from within the experience. A space that affirms our way of being and helps parents, carers, professionals, and young Autistic people themselves feel less alone.
What Is Autistic Realms? A Practical, Neuro-Affirming Support Hub
Autistic Realms is where I share grounded, neuro-affirming support for families, educators, and allies to support Autistic people, especially those facing barriers to education, burnout and systemic misattunement.
It’s mainly a family-focused space rooted in lived experience, academic research, community wisdom, and the need for real support that respects Autistic minds and bodies.
Topics I regularly explore:
- Monotropism, deep focus, and flow
- Autistic burnout
- Supporting children who are experiencing barriers to education
- Sensory processing and interoception differences
- Autistic communication, play, masking, and identity
- Neuro-affirming reading lists and community signposting resources
Explore My E‑Books
Over the past few years, I’ve created a growing library of over 20 practical, neuro-affirming eBooks and 100s of infographics, mostly focused on supporting Autistic young people and their families.
Many are completely free to download, covering topics such as sensory processing and managing transitions, low-demand parenting, support for executive functioning difficulties, and finding out about the theory of monotropism.
Browse the full eBook collection here
These guides are ideal for sharing with schools, therapists, and support networks—or simply for finding your own sense of understanding and validation.
Step Through the Portal Into More Realms
There’s also another thread woven through everything I do and love….
A slower, stranger space for art, literature, poetry, philosophical unravellings, and deep neuroqueering ways of becoming.
Which is why I have now created More Realms, a companion site for creative flow, theoretical and philosophical exploration, and the more sensory relational side of neurodivergence.
More Realms is where I draw on my background and love of Literature and Art alongside lived experience and neuroqueer ways of sense-making, to explore ideas through poetry, story, image, and more-than-human connection. Rooted in neuroqueering, posthuman thought, and ethodivergent sensory relationality, this space will host reflective writing, collaborative projects, and community-rooted explorations of art, literature, and alternative ways of becoming.
It’s a space to spiral, stretch, and reimagine, where words tangle with moss and metaphor, and where Autistic and disabled creativity is not marginal, but central.
I am hoping that More Realms will help me keep Autistic Realms clear and accessible for those seeking practical support, while also honouring my own creative process and flow.
More Realms is for you if you’re curious about:
- Neuroqueering time
- Mad studies
- Posthumanist ideas
- Deleuzean inspired philosophy
- Poetics, liminality, and more-than-human belonging
- Creative storytelling from the margins
- Nature, rhythm, and spiralling attention
More Realms is a space of becoming, for those who long to wander deeper—into the wild edges of thought, where nature invites pause, neuroqueer ideas take root, and sensory worlds unfold.
A place to linger.
To meander through tangled textures.
To drift in spiral time.
To create our own maps.
Curious?
You’re warmly invited through the portal.
Hope to see you there!
Latest Posts
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Autistic Burnout – Supporting Young People At Home & School
Autistic burnout in young people is real—and recovery starts with understanding. This post offers neuroaffirming ways to spot the signs, reduce demands, and truly support. 💛 #AutisticBurnout #Neuroaffirming #Monotropism #AutisticSupport
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Monotropic Interests and Looping Thoughts
The theory of monotropism was developed by Murray, Lawson and Lesser in their article, Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism (2005). Monotropism is increasingly considered to be the underlying principle behind autism and is becoming more widely recognised, especially within autistic and neurodivergent communities. Fergus Murray, in their article Me and Monotropism:…
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Map of Monotropic Experiences
Monotropism seeks to explain Autism in terms of attention distribution and interests. OSF Preprints | Development and Validation of a Novel Self-Report Measure of Monotropism in Autistic and Non-Autistic People: The Monotropism Questionnaire This map highlights 20 common aspects of my personal monotropic experiences. How many do you experience? Where are you on the map…
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Autistic Burnout – Supporting Young People At Home & School
Being autistic is not an illness or a disorder in itself, but being autistic can have an impact on a person’s mental and physical health. This is due to the often unmet needs of living in a world that is generally designed for the well-being of people who are not autistic. In addition, three-quarters of…
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The Double Empathy Problem is DEEP
“The growing cracks in the thin veneer of our “civilised” economic and social operating model are impossible to ignore”, Jorn Bettin (2021). The double empathy problem (Milton, 2012) creates a gap of disconnect experienced between people due to misunderstood shared lived experiences. It is “a breakdown in reciprocity and mutual understanding that can happen between people…
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Top 5 Neurodivergent-Informed Strategies
Top 5 Neurodivergent-Informed Strategies By Helen Edgar, Autistic Realms, June 2024. 1. Be Kind Take time to listen and be with people in meaningful ways to help bridge the Double Empathy Problem (Milton, 2012). Be embodied and listen not only to people’s words but also to their bodies and sensory systems. Be responsive to people’s…
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Autistic Community: Connections and Becoming
Everyone seeks connection in some way or another. Connections may look different for autistic people. In line with the motto from Anna Freud’s National Autism Trainer Programme (Acceptance, Belonging and Connection), creating a sense of acceptance and belonging is likely to be more meaningful for autistic people than putting pressure on them to try and…
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Monotropism, Autism & OCD
This blog has been inspired by Dr Jeremy Shuman’s (PsyD) presentation, ‘Neurodiversity-Affirming OCD Care‘ (August 2023), available here. Exploring similarities and differences between Autistic and OCD monotropic flow states. Can attention tunnels freeze, and thoughts get stuck? Autism research is shifting; many people are moving away from the medical deficit model and seeing the value…
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Monotropism Questionnaire & Inner Autistic/ADHD Experiences
Post first published 28th July 2023 Over the past few weeks, there has been a sudden surge of interest in the Monotropism Questionnaire (MQ), pre-print released in June 2023 in the research paper ‘Development and Validation of a Novel Self-Report Measure of Monotropism in Autistic and Non-Autistic People: The Monotropism Questionnaire.‘ by Garau, V., Murray,…
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Penguin Pebbling: An Autistic Love Language
Penguin Pebbling is a neurodivergent way of showing you care, like sharing a meme or twig or pretty stone to say “I’m thinking of you,” inspired by penguins who gift pebbles to those they care about.
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Discovering Belonging: Creating Neuro-Affirming Animations with Thriving Autistic
Discovering Belonging: Neuro-Affirming Animations with Thriving Autistic. Celebrate Autistic identity through the Discovery Programme and new animations that explore belonging, strengths, and community.
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Being Autistic shapes grief: Explore unique paths through loss and affirming support
Explore how Autistic people experience grief differently and discover affirming resources, support, and strategies for navigating loss with compassion.
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Reflections on the Autistic Mental Health Conference 2025
Reflections On The Autistic Mental Health Conference. An Interview between David Gray-Hammond & Helen Edgar