“Going the Distance Book Reviews: We’re Not Broken by Eric Garcia.”

As promised, here is where I cover my thoughts about books that I have read related to the autism/neurodiversity communities.

For this first entry, I want to share my thoughts on a book that was recently published and is making quite an impact. The book is called “We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation” by Neurodiverse Journalist Eric Garcia.

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Neurodiverse Journalist Eric Garcia, author of “We’re Not Broken.”

What is pretty clear as I write this review is that there are a lot of misconceptions and myths about autism as a whole. Many people will view autism and other neurodiverse conditions as related to vaccines…which is not true by any means. What is true is that Eric tries to prove the skeptics wrong by doing this book and interviewing success stories that autism doesn’t define them for who they are.

Pennsylvania House of Representatives Member Jessica Benham, the first openly autistic member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

What I like about this book is that Eric covers each area by a specific neurodiverse person.

For example, the first person he starts off talking about was Jessica Benham, the first openly autistic representative to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. He covers her journey to becoming elected to the PGA as thourghly as possibly and how her autism doesn’t slow her down from achieving her dreams.

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But, one thing that I personally discovered when reading this book is that many in the community are LGBTQ or have LGBTQ qualities. In this case, Jessica proves people wrong that regardless of orientation or something like autism, anyone can succeed at anything that their heart is set on.

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Another area that Eric largely talks about is the hiring process of neurodiverse individuals. What is very obvious is that we neurodiverse individuals want to work our way up to the top of whatever mountain we are climbing. Unfortunately, most companies are making that difficult for those individuals wanting to make an impact. We have the capability, but we are never given a chance to make that impact.

However, as I am writing this, stories of companies like Google and Microsoft have come out as saying that neurodiverse individuals can make an impact on the workforce. Now, if other major companies could follow suit, that would be great.

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Yet another important area that Eric covers is being in love on the spectrum and I couldn’t help but connect with him on this issue as I had been in situations where I struggle around romantic feelings for someone when in reality, I don’t want to be romantic. Eric, if you’re reading this, just know that you are not alone in this journey.

He also interviews a neurodiverse couple with neurodiverse children of their own and gives a pretty strong insight into how an entire family can be neurodiverse and that stems from the romance between two neurodiverse individuals.

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One more area example that Eric covers strongly is that autism is used as an excuse for a person’s behavior, particularly with one of the defendants in the Capitol Riots at the beginning of this year. It goes to further state that autism should NEVER be used as an excuse for anything that we screw up on or whatever crimes we commit, regardless of whether we are a celebrity or an everyday citizen who happens to be neurodiverse or neurotypical.

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith

And as another thing, Eric mentions that some politicians and even some entertainment celebrities, like Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, view autism as something that needs to be cured.

This is not the case in any way!

When we are diagnosed with autism, we have autism for life whether we like it or not. This is why we even have a community to begin with, to welcome those who want acceptance for who they are as a person!

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Overall, I can strongly say that this was an excellent book to review. I would strongly recommend it if you are trying to gain an understanding if you have a neurodiverse diagnosis or know someone else who is neurodiverse.

“We’re Not Broken” Purchase Link

Catch you all later for the next review!!