Finding HopeRare Birds, The New Neurodivergent Clothing Line – Review
Posted on August 12, 2023
Several months ago, I got an email with a survey for a new clothing line that prioritises neurodivergent people, known as Rare Birds. They already had plans to make the clothes soft, seamless, without labels, and so on, all things that neurodivergent individuals often struggle with; problems like these can trigger anything from difficulty concentration to full-blown meltdowns. This definitely appealed to me, having struggled with clothing and fabric issues all my life, and I eagerly filled out the first and then the second survey with my preferences, what a clothing line would ideally provide me with. Then, back in July I think, they launched the line and I bought a handful of items, hopeful that I’d find things I loved but also just curious about what they did with the survey results and how that data has translated into the actual clothes.
So here are my thoughts on my order, on the clothes that I bought.
My first impression when I unpacked them (apart from the overwhelming smell of plastic that plumed out of the box – it was so strong it actually gave me a headache and I knew I’d have to wash whatever I kept a handful of times before I could wear them) was that the fabric wasn’t what I’d been hoping for. I’m a 100% cotton girl and the clothes felt more lycra-like, more stretchy and slippery, which didn’t thrill me. But I wasn’t going to be put off just by that; I felt like I had to give them a real chance. First impressions and all that…
So, because I wanted to get a real sense of what the line was like, I’d bought several things (which ended up being pretty expensive but I’ll come back to that later):
Everyday Short-Sleeve T-Shirt (in black) – This big, loose t-shirt is described as “gentle on the skin and super soft to the touch” and in their ThermoSoft range, made of 68% Bamboo, 28% Organic Cotton, and 4% Elastane. It’s reported to be stretchy, durable, super soft, breathable, and thermo-regulating (the bamboo helps to regulate your body temperature, making sure you stay cool when it’s hot and warm when it’s cold). It was comfortable, if not my fabric preference, but not more comfortable than most of the t-shirts I already own and I wouldn’t wear it out; it’s a bit shapeless and I felt kind of frumpy in it.
Everyday Long-Sleeve T-Shirt (in black) – Part of the CloudComfort collection, this soft long-sleeve top is made from 95% Modal (made from beech trees and considered more eco-friendly than cotton) and 5% Elastane. They describe it as ultra soft, durable, lightweight, and breathable. The last part is what I liked most about it: it felt very light and airy, even if the fabric isn’t quite my preference. I think it would be good for summer, especially since I’ve semi-recently developed the compulsive urge to be covered up at all times. It’s a nicer shape than the short-sleeve t-shirt too. It was probably my favourite of the things we bought, although I’m still not sure how comfortable I’d feel wearing it outside the house; it’s not as flattering as I would have liked (and I don’t mean tight – I wouldn’t want it to be tight – I mean in regards to its shape).
Everyday Leggings (in black) – Made of 86% Organic Cotton and 14% Elastane, these leggings from the FlexSoft range (described as blending “the softness of Organic Cotton with the stretchiness of Elastane to create a fabric that maintains its shape with ease while being gentle on the skin”) are supposed to be soft and comfortable (even for the very sensitive skin), stretchy but strong, lightweight, and will retain their shape despite frequent wash and wear. They were strong and supportive but I’m not completely convinced by the shaping of them: the waistband was uncomfortably tight at a strange point of my torso, which was particularly unpleasant when sitting.
Everyday Joggers (in black) – Also in the ThermoSoft range, these thin sweatpants are made of 68% Bamboo, 28% Organic Cotton, and 4% Elastane: stretchy, durable, super soft, breathable, and thermo-regulating. I found them light and thin (not heavy, like the fabric of some sweatpants) and I think they’d be particularly good in the summer but they’re far too like pyjamas to ever wear out. And while I know sweatpants are about comfort and not about looking good, I felt actively unattractive in them, which I think I would struggle with long term. (The idea of Dopamine Dressing is something that I’m intrigued by and want to test out at some point to see if it does improve my mood and confidence and motivation).
DreamSeam Socks (in black) – They were beautifully soft, I have to give them that, made of 75% Bamboo, 23% Polyester, and 2% Elastane, and I love that they don’t have seams (I’ve been wearing my socks inside out for years in order to avoid them) but I couldn’t even bear to open them when I saw how expensive they were (£10 for one pair of socks – when I’d made the order, Mum and I had been talking about it, she’d done it on her laptop, and either she didn’t mention the pricing to me or I missed her telling me). That’s just too expensive (especially in the case of the socks when you can just turn them inside out).
And that was something I wanted to talk about in general. A significant percentage of the neurodivergent population are unemployed for various reasons and so to charge so much for basic items makes them, as far as I can tell, pretty unavailable to the people they’re making them for. I want to support them and I can understand many of the reasons why they may need to cost what they do but I certainly can’t afford it as a general practice. It’s all too expensive for me to base my wardrobe around; they are simple, basic pieces after all and not fashion or statement pieces for which you’d expect to spend more. I want to support them but while they’re this expensive, there’s a limit to what I could buy.
Another general issue that I noticed is that none of the clothes have sizes bigger than XL. Other than excluding anyone who wears sizes bigger than this, it’s not uncommon for neurodivergent people to want their clothes loose to avoid feeling uncomfortable or overstimulated; while it’s true that most of these clothes are roomy, I’d imagine that anyone who’s size L or above and looking for baggy clothes will struggle without bigger sizes. Maybe this is something they’ll introduce over time but I have noticed it while perusing their website.
And on a personal note, I didn’t feel good in pretty much any of it: I felt unattractive and like, to others, as if I hadn’t put any effort into my appearance. I know they’re meant to be the basics but still, they didn’t make me feel good about how I looked or confident in my appearance, which we know is really important when it comes to our mental health, our confidence, our relationships… As I mentioned earlier, the idea of Dopamine Dressing – dressing in a way that boosts your mood, your productivity, your confidence – is real, even if the evidence is still largely anecdotal in the neurodivergent population: if I’m excited about the clothes I’m wearing and how I look, I’m likely to feel more confident and social and motivated because I feel good in myself. I can’t believe I’m the only person who feels this way. That is something I think is lacking here and hopefully will be addressed in the future.
Although I didn’t have a hugely positive experience this time, I think that overall, it’s a really positive thing. Different people want different things so I can hardly be annoyed that it’s not everything I wanted right off the bat; I guess I just hoped that I’d like it more than I do. But as I said, I think it’s a really great venture that I am excited about and will continue to support. It’s brand new and you’ve got to start somewhere; there are so many avenues that they can explore from this point. I’ll be keeping an eye on it to see what they go on to release and whether that is more my thing.
The Resurgence of My Body-Focussed Repetitive Behaviours
Posted on July 15, 2023
TW: Mentions of Trichotillomania, Dermatillomania, and self harm.
Over the last twenty months – the period dominated by my latest depressive episode – my hair pulling has been much less of a problem, something that tends to happen when I’m really depressed; it’s like I’m too depressed to pull. I guess that’s something to be grateful for while incredibly depressed (scraping the barrel but it’s something, or at least not nothing). But, over the last few months, my hair pulling (and other BFRBs) have returned with pretty frightening force.
As I said, it’s been a long time since I’ve been seriously pulling at my hair. But in the last couple of months, the urge has come roaring back with relentless intensity. Whether this is connected to starting the Phenelzine again, to beginning the escape from The Great Depression, or something else altogether, I have no idea but it’s a frustrating and exhausting to be back here again, back to pulling so much and so often that I have constant pain in my shoulder and arm. It hit me a while back that it will, in a couple of months, be ten years since I started pulling, which has been a pretty overwhelming realisation – I never thought it would become such a permanent part of my life.
I also started picking at my skin, which isn’t something I’ve ever really done and certainly not to the degree that I pull my hair. Frustrated by the imperfections of my fingertips, I ended up compulsively chewing on the callouses that had recently developed on my left hand (coming out of the depression, I’d started playing the guitar again and the callouses on my left hand – my string hand – had begun to reform); it got so bad and I’d gone through so many layers of skin that I couldn’t touch anything without pain. How they healed, I have no idea. I was also picking at my nails and the skin around them. My fingers were a mess, raw and painful and I ended up going through multiple packs of plasters in my attempts to stop. But, of course, I’d start picking at them as soon as I took the plasters off so they really did take ages to recover, and it was even longer before I could play guitar again.
And as if both of those behaviours weren’t enough, I was compulsively scratching at a half healed self harm cut on my face. It had started to heal but then suddenly I couldn’t leave the scab alone, reopening the cut and eventually making it bigger and bigger. I wasn’t trying to stop it from healing exactly but in my mind, the uneven, ‘imperfect’ edges needed to be fixed and so I kept trying to smooth them out, make them neater, make them symmetrical, or… something. It’s completely illogical because I was just making it bigger – just making the wound worse (and at this point, it really was a wound) – and more likely to get infected but I couldn’t help it.
I just could not stop myself. I tried so hard – trying every strategy I’ve ever used, every one I could find on the internet – but I still felt like I was losing my mind – and I mean that literally – if I didn’t do it, a feeling that got worse the longer I tried to stop myself. In the end, I always broke and my fingers found their way back to whichever of the three was their favourite at that moment in time. And it was always worse if I was extra tired or extra stressed. The only way to in way curb it – the behaviour if not the compulsion – was to cover the skin I was attacking, plasters over my fingers and a dressing across my face (that one was harder and less comfortable to explain). That didn’t stop me trying, constantly fiddling with the edges of them, and my hair bore the brunt of that coping mechanism. I ended up buying a hat that I could tuck all of my hair under but even with all of that in place, the urge to pull or pick got so bad sometimes that I simply gave in to it. Sometimes it was just too hard.
(On the left: before we found the correct dressing // On the right: in the early days when I’d only chewed on two callouses)
Jump to a few months later. My callouses finally healed and, after a period of using the wrong type of dressing before switching to a better one, my face recovered for the most part too although there’s still a scar. With those ‘imperfections’ ‘perfect’ again, hair pulling has become the main problem again. The urges are less than they were but still pretty relentless – perhaps a side effect of restarting the Phenelzine after all? – and I’m so fucking tired of the whole thing. I don’t know what to do, how to stop; I’ve seen so many people say that it’s not actually possible. But I don’t want to live like this. As I said, I don’t know what I’m going to do but I think I might try hypnotherapy; I’ve heard that some people have had positive results. So I guess we’ll see. Ten years is long enough.
More Tips For Travelling As An Autistic Person
Posted on June 10, 2023
Back in 2018, I wrote a post about travelling as an autistic person and my personal tips for making it smoother and less stressful and anxiety-inducing. In that post, I included:
- Plan ahead
- Speak to a travel agent
- Choose your accommodation carefully
- Write a list of everything you’ll need and have someone check it
- Pack an emergency kit in your carry on baggage
- Bring your own food
- Prepare specifically for the flight
- Build in time out and don’t feel guilty for it
I still stand by all of these strategies but since then, having travelled more and gained more experience (apart from the lockdown and pandemic times – the latter of which we are arguably still in but obviously travel is now more possible for many, many people), I have more thoughts that I thought might be helpful to share.
FIND A GOOD TRAVEL AGENT – I wrote about talking to a travel agent last time but I wanted to share my personal experience with our travel agent, a guy we first met when we travelled to the US in 2016. Since then, we’ve booked every trip we’ve taken with his help – we go to him for everything – and developed a solid relationship. It really helps, I think, that he has a working knowledge and understanding of Autism so, even though he didn’t know me and my struggles personally, he picked up what I could and couldn’t handle very quickly, which has made things so much smoother than they might’ve been otherwise. He always goes above and beyond for us, something I would attribute to the working relationship we’ve built with him, and I so, so appreciate it.
TAKE INSPIRATION FROM YOUR MOST EXTREME NEEDS WHEN YOU PACK – It’s easy to optimistically assume that you’ll have a normal day every day you’re away but that’s not only unlikely because our minds and bodies don’t cooperate just because we want them to but also because the stress and anxiety of travelling and being in a new, unfamiliar place can do a number on us. I always find being away from home for more than a few days incredibly stressful, which can screw up my energy, my pain, my anxiety, my sensory issues… So packing with bad days in mind is probably a good idea; I’ve started carrying my heat pad (for pain), my joint supports (which I don’t always need but, of course, always seem to need when I’ve left them at home), a number of different fidget toys, medication for migraines (not a super common occurrence but debilitating when they do happen) and so on…
LEARN SOME BASIC PHRASES – If you’re planning to go somewhere where the language is different to that of your home country, it’s definitely worth learning at least a few common phrases. I know this is often considered to be common courtesy and I don’t disagree but when you have a lot of health stuff to deal with or get really overwhelmed in new environments, it’s not that simple; with all of your other preparations, it can just slip down the priority list and then off the list altogether. I recently went to Germany and between the ridiculously long hours trying to get everything done before I left and then the total overwhelm when I got there, I somehow didn’t clock that I didn’t speak any German until a couple of days in. How bizarre is that?! Then, of course, I panicked and did my best to speed learn words and phrases like, “Yes, please,” “No, thank you,” “English please,” “Excuse me,” and “I’m sorry.” Fortunately for me, German isn’t completely alien and the spellings and pronunciations – at least for the simple stuff – are relatively close, or at least they felt that way in my brain. So I picked those up easily, which was a relief. I think that having some language can really reduce your anxiety because you don’t feel so lost (and potentially helpless) and it makes moving around and engaging with where you are a little easier.
ASSISTANCE SERVICES AT THE AIRPORT – I’ve now done multiple trips through airports where we’ve arranged for the assistance services to help us out. So now I get wheeled (in a wheelchair or one of those electric buggies) from check out to not just the gate but down the gangplank to the actual plane. Because I struggle with standing and walking for extended periods of time, this has not only reduced both my pain and fatigue, it’s also reduced my anxiety about the time it takes and the recovery time I’ll need later. Apart from a few mix ups (uncommon but it has happened), they’ve been super efficient and very nice. I’ve found a couple of them to be a bit intimidating but I think that’s just because they’re utterly focussed on the job (and the next one and the next one); no one has ever been anything but polite and even funny. On my recent trip to Germany, one of the women was really, really nice and we had a good laugh despite the language hurdles to navigate. The one confusion that I’ve experienced is that, at some airports (and always in the US), they operate on a tip system but no one’s ever told us that one way or the other. Maybe it’s the straightforward, autistic approach to things but, to me, a service provided by the airport implies that the airport pays them for the work they’re doing but clearly not. So that did take me by surprise and I haven’t always been prepared for that, financially or emotionally.
IF YOU’RE TRAVELLING FOR A SPECIFIC EVENT, FAMILIARISE YOURSELF WITH WHERE YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU NEED TO BE – If you’re travelling for an event like a wedding or a birthday, it’s well worth doing things like checking out and practising the route (or routes you’ll have to travel) so that you know how to get where you’re going and how long it will take. You don’t want to be stressing about being late or getting lost on the important day itself. And if you have to let go of everything else just to make sure that you can attend and engage with the event you’re there for, then that’s what you need to do; it’s hard not to feel guilty or upset about not ‘taking advantage’ of the opportunities that travelling has presented you with but most likely, if you’ve travelled for a particular event, it’s really important to you and has to be your priority. Chances are that you’ll feel better for putting it first.
HYDRATE – If I have learned anything over the last few years, it is how important it is to stay hydrated. We all know this, of course – we’re told often enough that none of us are drinking enough water – but autistic individuals often struggle with it specifically due to problems with our interoception (plus, thirst signals are generally weaker than other internal signals, making them harder to recognise). Being dehydrated can make everything so much harder, causing headaches and exhaustion to name a few, and when you’re away in an unfamiliar place, that’s the last thing you want.
IF YOU HAVE TO GO HOME EARLY, THAT’S OKAY – Sometimes shit happens and plans have to change. And that has to be okay. Whether it’s your physical health, your mental health, something going on at home, sometimes you just have to figure out how to accept the need for change and go home. Sometimes it’s a case of choosing the ‘lesser of two evils’ – staying is hard but so is leaving – and making the choice that feels the most right, even if both of them feel wrong to a certain extent. I usually need some time to come to terms with what the right decision is but then, once I know what I need to do, I just have to figure out how to make it happen.
Friedrichshafen in Germany: Lake Constance (known as Bodensee in German) and some gorgeous flowers I saw. (x)
As always, I feel sure that I’ve missed some. But hopefully these will be somewhat helpful to somebody. If any of you guys have any tips you’d like to share, please stick them in the comments!
Finding Hope 