Blog Archives

A GIRL'S HEART

BY KAITLIN FLAHERTY

Almost all nonspeakers are male. Here at M2H, I am in a poetry club: me and five guys. I am in a book club: me and four guys. I am in a math club…me and a bunch of guys. There are only a handful of girls here, amid a sea of boys. This place is swimming in testosterone. I am thankful that so many of these men are my friends. And of course I have the best boyfriend on earth. But there are differences in the perspectives of men and women. As a nonspeaking woman, I have experiences and thoughts that are only feminine in nature.

Of course there are many things in common among us nonspeakers. But in this blog, I’ll talk from my girl’s heart.

5/23/2025 0 Comments

Medicine...At Last

I have certainly been getting worse and worse with my OCD lately. I cannot stop picking everything from my eyelashes to my clothes to garbage off the floor. I want to stop so badly it hurts…but I can’t. I have finally gone to see Dr. Minhas, the psychiatrist who is helping so many Mouth to Handers. I thought he was great in that he was not condescending to either me or my mother. He listened carefully and then recommended a medicine that may help my OCD.

Definitely I am getting the sense that OCD is difficult to treat. Being that I have had it for so long, I really don’t expect miracles. All I hope for at this point is a little relief. Just to have the OCD ease up enough to give me some time each day to not be picking would be a major victory.

Feeling the way I do every day is hell on earth. I am anxious to see how I do.

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5/9/2025 0 Comments

Our Lost Promise

I know that Alex has been depressed lately. He is always happy so that is particularly distressing to me. All of us are intelligent, but he is in a class unto himself. He is feeling that heartbreak that we all feel: that we will never be what we should have been.

I too think about this all the time. It is our tragedy. He is mourning the Alex that should have been. And then those speaking people with autism blast RFK for daring to suggest that we need a cure.

Alex is a hero to all of us here. But he should have been a hero to mankind, because he has the brilliance and heart. All of us were capable of doing so much. I just hope something happens soon to allow us to fulfill even a fraction of that promise.

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5/2/2025 3 Comments

Nonspeakers Unite!

All of us here at M2H believe that the world is changing out there. Awkward to say perhaps, but being in the “26% of profoundly autistic” makes me desperately want a cure. Being one of the profoundly autistic ones gives me a unique perspective on all of this.

Good for you if you are “autistic” and can speak and go to college and live independently. Good for you if you have a girl or boy friend, and can get married someday, and have a job. Good for you if you can make signs, and march around screaming that your autism is a gift.

But don’t you DARE try to speak for us.

I believe that you and your big mouths have held up autism research for far too long. But we can talk now too…at least some of us can. And we want a cure. My voice may be silent, but my typing finger is not. Being nonspeaking is hell. And if those of you who are blessed to be able to speak had an ounce of compassion, you would fight with us, not against us.