Summarizing September 2025: Personal Reflection of September 2025

 


I was thinking about the next blog and what I would write on after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.  I realized that September 2025 was a heavy month for me and I struggled with developing topics that I could write on.  I noodled on it and decided to take a creativity break to aide my writers block from freezing my thoughts more.  One thing after another emerged effecting my abilities to want to write.  However, I decided I can't sit on the sidelines.  I am an advocate and hopeful influencer for the autism community.  I won't be silent when it comes to matters that affect the autism and neurodivergent community that I've grown to love over the past 3 years. 

Charlie Kirk Shooting Aftermath

The days following September 10th was hard on my friends and fellow and former classmates who've attended Utah Valley University.  While I don't agree with President Trump's views, I will always support people who voted him.  Unity and understanding is always the solution to avoid gun violence in my book.  I was doing some side research on how shootings of any kind can affect a community of the place it happened. Most don't realize how much a shooting of any kind can impact not just those involved, but those in the community and surrounding areas.  While they didn't witness it, I've had some friends of mine who were on campus when it happened who were impacted.  

Even though I'm no licensed psychologist, I do want to share that I have been thinking about what trauma means.  I feel like if we dwell on the past or trauma too much, it doesn't help.  Traumatic events that happen to us are like a new scab that will turn into a scar over time.  If we focus too much on it without the proper help, we infect and prevent it from healing.  Therapies and support groups are examples of getting proper help.

Tylenol & Autism Problem

After the assassination happened, on Monday September 22, 2025, President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. decided that they would announce the cause of autism in a press conference.  They shared that autism is caused by Tylenol/acetaminophen.  When I read that and watched them announce it, it made me sad and a little angry.  Why does this make me feel angry?  It's fear from the U.S. Government and leaders that people with autism are threats.  They coin it as a disease, which it isn't.  Autism has been around for a long time. 

I'm going to enlighten those who need it on the journey of autism getting where it is today.  The history of the autism diagnosis began in 1911 as a coined term by Eugen Bleuler to define a set of schizophrenic patients.  In 1943, Leo Kanner released an article and identifying "early infantile autism".  Hans Asperger in 1944, related the syndrome of social deficits and intense interests which he termed "autistic psychopathology".  In the 1960s & 1970s, the "refrigerator mother's theory" circled around blaming mothers for causing their child's autism because their child wouldn't give them love.  In the 1970s, research found that autism was a separate diagnosis and a distinct neurodevelopmental disorder from schizophrenia.  The DSM-III (1980), included autism as a distinct diagnostic entity, separating it from other childhood disorders.   The DSM-III-R (1987), revised the definition of autism to include a wider range of symptoms working and moving to a more broader concept of autism.  In 1990, the DSM-IV recognized autism as a spectrum disorder, incorporating Asperger's Syndrome as a separate, but related diagnosis.  Finally, in 2013, the DSM-5 merged all autism-related diagnoses into a single umbrella diagnosis as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and moved away from separate categories. 

Now, Tylenol wasn't marketed until 1955.  Interesting, right? Why would you blame these folks on causing autism?  Autism is a genetic and environmentally caused neurodevelopmental disability...NOT DISEASE! Also, I want to note that my mom, Samantha Collier, has shared with me that she didn't take Tylenol while pregnant with me...and I'm autistic.  This is a perfect example of correlation doesn't equal causation.  

With a new month beginning, I want to invite you if you're reading this that just because you have a bad month or bad day, doesn't mean your life is over.  September was hell for me, but I'm optimistic about October.  Hopefully October 2025 brings good.  If it doesn't, I hope to learn whatever the universe wants to teach us.


What are your thoughts?  Comment down below.

If you liked this blog post, PLEASE comment down below on what your favorite part was, and feel free to share it with your friends and family, etc.  If you have any comments, questions, etc. about what you were reading? Reach out to me by messaging me on Instagram or TikTok @neurospicyblondie or email me alyssa.onthespectrum@gmail.com for any inquiries.   

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