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A review by visorforavisor
Different, Not Less: A Neurodivergent's Guide to Embracing Your True Self and Finding Your Happily Ever After by Chloé Hayden
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I don’t know if I’ve ever read anything else that touched me so wonderfully. I read the whole thing within the space of twenty four hours (the first time in a while that I’ve read a book that quickly). It made me feel less insane.
So many things that I’d thought were just me being dramatic, so many things I’d thought everyone dealt with, so many things I’d thought I’d always be alone in: all of these, explained in such beautiful and precise terms that I can’t count the number of times I cried while reading Different, Not Less.
Chloé Hayden describes meltdowns as feeling, for an autistic person, like watching a horror film when the disc is scratched in such a way that you’re just getting the jumpscare over and over. I’ve never felt understood in my meltdowns before. Not on that level. It’s such a perfect description of what I’ve experienced at least weekly (and at times daily) for my entire life, and it gives me hope. A simple description having such a profound effect seems silly, but that’s what this whole book is. It’s just page after page of Chloé Hayden making autistic (and ADHD) readers realise that we aren’t alone.
It’s more profound than not being alone, though. Knowing, intellectually, that there are other autistic people in the world (and even having autistic friends) did not prepare me for the enormous wave of emotion evoked by the passages in this book that frankly and accurately describe aspects of autism so rarely talked about by the wider media because non-autistic people are able to ignore them.
This is by an autistic person, and for autistic people. Both are revolutionary.
Cannot recommend enough, no matter your neurotype.
So many things that I’d thought were just me being dramatic, so many things I’d thought everyone dealt with, so many things I’d thought I’d always be alone in: all of these, explained in such beautiful and precise terms that I can’t count the number of times I cried while reading Different, Not Less.
Chloé Hayden describes meltdowns as feeling, for an autistic person, like watching a horror film when the disc is scratched in such a way that you’re just getting the jumpscare over and over. I’ve never felt understood in my meltdowns before. Not on that level. It’s such a perfect description of what I’ve experienced at least weekly (and at times daily) for my entire life, and it gives me hope. A simple description having such a profound effect seems silly, but that’s what this whole book is. It’s just page after page of Chloé Hayden making autistic (and ADHD) readers realise that we aren’t alone.
It’s more profound than not being alone, though. Knowing, intellectually, that there are other autistic people in the world (and even having autistic friends) did not prepare me for the enormous wave of emotion evoked by the passages in this book that frankly and accurately describe aspects of autism so rarely talked about by the wider media because non-autistic people are able to ignore them.
This is by an autistic person, and for autistic people. Both are revolutionary.
Cannot recommend enough, no matter your neurotype.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Suicide