An eye-opening and enlightening collection of stories from people living with Selective Mutism (SM), this book provides a much-needed platform for people with SM to share experiences of the condition in their own words. Exploring all aspects of SM, from symptoms and diagnostic criteria, to triggers and the consequences of being psychologically unable to speak, the stories in this book dispel the myths around this often misunderstood condition. Far from refusing to talk, or choosing not to, the contributors offer genuine insights into why they simply cannot speak in certain situations or in front of certain people. Children, teens and adults from the UK and US share experiences of feeling isolated, struggling at school, and finding ways to communicate. Letting people with SM know that they are not alone with the condition, the book will also help family, friends and professionals to understand what it is like to live with SM.

Labeled deaf, retarded, disturbed and insane, Donna Williams lived in a world of her own. Alternating between rigid hostility and extroversion, she waged what she termed her "war against the world." She existed in a dreamlike state, parroting the voices of those around her in the hope that they would leave her alone. Few people understood her, least of all Donna helself.
It was not until the age of twenty-five that Donna discovered the word- autism- that would at last give her the opportunity to understand herself and begin to build a bridge to join the world as most know it.
"Nobody Nowhere, Donna Williams' extraordinary autobiography, is her heroic attempt to come to terms with autism. This eloquent memoir reveals a fierce intelligence, great creativity and much humour. It will shatter many myths and misconceptions.
The poetic sensibility and extraordinary insights of "Nobody Nowhere make it inspiring reading for everyone.

"From the Trade Paperback edition.

Donna William's challenging new book, written by an autistic person for people with autism and related disorders, carers, and the professionals who work with them, is a practical handbook to understanding, living with and working with autism. Exploring autism from the inside, it shows clearly how the behaviours associated with autism can have a range of different causes, and in many cases reflect the autistic person's attempt to gain control over their internal world. The sensory and perceptual problems that challenge a person with autism are described in depth, together with strategies for tackling them so as to enable that person to take more control of their lives. Donna Williams comments on the various approaches to autism, drawing out those strategies that are of real use, and explaining why some approaches may prove counterproductive, leaving the autistic person feeling even more isolated and misunderstood. Taking the view that understanding autism is the key to managing the condition, Donna William's book will bring illumination to all those who have felt baffled and frustrated by the outside appearance of autism. It contains a wealth of helpful suggestions, insights and new ideas, exploding old myths and promoting a view that all those involved with autism will find empowering and creative.

Exposure anxiety is increasingly understood as a crippling condition affecting a high proportion of people on the autism spectrum. To many it is an invisible cage, leaving the person suffering from it aware, but buried alive in their own involuntary responses and isolation. Exposure Anxiety: The Invisible Cage describes the condition and its underlying physiological causes, and presents a range of approaches and strategies that can be used to combat it. Based on personal experience, the book shows how people with autism can be shown how to emerge from the stranglehold of exposure anxiety and develop their individuality. It progressively shapes the individual torn between experiencing it as the sanctuary and the prison. Exposure Anxiety makes it hard to stand noticing you are noticing. It can make love a form of torture, repel you from the sound of your own voice, make you meaning deaf to your own words and those of others and compel you to avoid, divert from or retaliate against the very things that which most have the power to reach you. Exposure Anxiety progressively co-opts the identity of the person as separate to the condition or it leaves them aware but buried alive in their own involuntary responses and isolation. Exposure Anxiety is the involuntary social-emotional self-protection response that needs no enemy. It turns the world upside-down, makes no yes and yes no and co-opts and defies conventional, non-autistic teaching techniques. Exposure Anxiety has many faces. By defeating it at its own game, Donna demonstrates how the person can progressively be inspired to fight for themselves and attempt to emerge, from the undercurrent, as the tide.

Need to book a hotel with high-speed access? Want to impress your client with the best restaurant in town? Wish you had known that the train was faster and cheaper than a cab?

The "Business Travel Almanac" puts the answers to these questions and more at the fingertips of the busy business traveler. Whether you're in the office or already on the road, this is the all-in-one source that you'll reference time and again. With a combination of travel advice, reference material, directory information, and city guides, this book is a unique tool for the traveling professional.

The first section is packed full of information about travel in general, including airline comparisons, hotel details, and rental car options. It is presented in a directory format for quick reference, and peppered with invaluable tips that make life easier on the go.

Section 2 focuses on 15 major U.S. cities that are common destinations for business travelers. Each city segment includes airport and city maps, restaurant reviews, stores that provide business services, convention center information, and much more!

Cities include: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Dallas, Washington DC, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Phoenix, and Las Vegas

In the acclaimed sequel to Nobody Nowhere--in which Donna Williams gives readers a guided tour of life with autism--Williams explores the four years since her diagnosis and her attempts to leave her "world under glass" and live normally. NPR sponsorship.

Chris and Andrew are very good friends, but sometimes Chris does things that Andrew doesn't understand. Chris can hear a fly buzzing when it's a mile away! But he doesn't like bright flashing lights like the ones on Andrew's favourite arcade game. Chris and Andrew have lots of fun together, but at times they laugh at completely different things - it doesn't matter though, because everyone is different, and being different can be rather cool! Chris and Andrew are here to help people understand the experiences of a child with autism, and how others can help by understanding how they are different, and recognising their many unique talents. This fully-illustrated book is targeted at boys and girls aged 5+, and also serves as an excellent starting point for family and classroom discussions.

Jeanette Purkis spent her early life reacting violently against her feelings of embarrassment, anger and confusion about her 'difference' from other people. She was unaware until well into adulthood that everything she found difficult, including her lack of success in forming relationships, could be a result of having Asperger Syndrome. Used to being a misfit from a very young age, Jeanette found that being a member of a group in which she had a label - Jeanette the Communist; Jeanette, Enemy of the State; Jeanette the convict; Jeanette the drug addict - gave her a sense of order she could depend on, particularly in prison, where each day had a set routine and the inmates accepted her because of her rebel attitude. Finally diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome at the age of 20, the author only began to accept her diagnosis some years later when she felt for the first time that she might learn to cope with being herself. Jeanette's remarkable life and her journey towards finding a different kind of normal is compelling and inspiring reading for people with autism spectrum disorders, and those living or working with them.

Everyday Heaven is the much-awaited fourth installment in Donna Williams' series of best-selling autobiographies about her life with autism. A humorous, riveting, roller-coaster of a book, Everyday Heaven covers the monumental nine years from the time Ian left their accidental, 'autistic marriage', to Donna's candid, funny, often bumbling explorations of sexuality and orientation, the challenge of coming to terms with the sudden deaths of those closest to her and finally knowing what life was like without the invisible cage of her 'Exposure Anxiety'. Described as enthralling, deeply moving and gripping, this book will strike a lasting chord not only with autistic readers and professionals seeking to better understand those on the autism spectrum but all of us who simply dream of daring to love deeply, to adventure and to deal triumphantly with the losses along the way.

The Jumbled Jigsaw exposes autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) not as single entities but as a combination of a whole range of often untreated, sometimes easily treatable, underlying conditions. Exploring everything from mood, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and tic disorders to information processing and sensory perceptual difficulties, including dependency issues, identity problems and much more, Donna demonstrates how a number of such conditions can combine to form a 'cluster condition' and underpin the label 'autism spectrum disorder'. Donna Williams encourages and empowers families to look at what they can do to change their child's environment to address anxiety, overload and other issues. She also gives carers the necessary information to navigate the booming autism marketplace and demand the right tools for the job. The author also challenges professionals to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to identifying and treating the cluster conditions that make up an autism spectrum diagnosis, and to improve service delivery to those in need. The Jumbled Jigsaw is a call to modern society to take responsibility and accept diversity. It is written in a very human and user-friendly way for parents and for Auties and Aspies themselves, but it is also aimed at carers, professionals, policy-makers and service providers.

This is the second volume of Donna Williams' autobiography in which she recounts the story of her struggle with autism. Taking up the thread where "Nobody Nowhere: The Remarkable Autobiography of an Autistic Girl" left off, this volume tells of her ongoing battle to overcome the compulsions and obsessions of autism, and her increasingly successful efforts to lead a normal life. The third volume, "Like Colour to the Blind: Soul Searching and Soul Finding" continues the story.

His book captures the nostalgic romanticism of the Australian bush in the 1960s but also the height of deep ignorance and the culture of `see no evil' in which almost all who could and should have changed things, looked the other way... Caiseal's book is as beautiful and magical as it is shocking.' - From the Foreword by Donna Williams Growing up in Australia in the 1970s, Caiseal Mor was labelled 'retarded' and 'an idiot', and his parents were led to believe that physical punishment could cure his autism. In this courageous and captivating autobiography, Mor vividly captures his early experiences of dissociation from his true existence - a common reaction by children suffering from repeated abuse - and the various personas through which he lived through in his teens and early adulthood - the Mahjee, Charles P. Puddlejumper, Marco Polo and Chameleon Feeble. The rocky path towards discovering his true identity and finally accepting himself takes him on a spiritual pilgrimage via several different countries, once nearly getting caught unwittingly carrying drugs over the Moroccan border; forming relationships with people he meets but very often misjudges; to the revelation - the awakening - of love and acceptance.

For anyone who reads original poetry, this is an excellent read. Donna Williams has a unique talent for creative writing and this collection of poetry takes the reader on a journey of powerful emotions. The poetry is good, unusual and full of personal feelings experienced by the author. The poems are sometimes tear-jerking and at other times so full of humour that you want to laugh out loud. This book leaves a deep and lasting impression, helping to break down the barriers we all feel safer using when thinking of people who are 'different'. The author shows us that she is an individual and competently takes us into her confidence until we see clearly how she sees, making the reader question their own view of life. The poetry is original in its own use of language, the author making us see the world from a different angle in poems like `Peace' in which she describes her addiction to fear and `Terrorist' in which she explains some of her anger and frustration.' - Good Autism Practice Not Just Anything is a mosaic of logic, passion and philosophical musings by Donna Williams, sometimes jolting, sometimes moving, often illuminating. In it Donna takes you on a poetic adventure into places past, present and beyond. Often intertwined with the world of autistic experience, her writings divulge with immediacy, a person in the grip of overload and shutdowns, of extreme sensory and emotional highs and passions, of alienation from self, from body and fear of the intensity of emotion, of the struggle to know self, to communicate, to comprehend. At other times, her writing somehow transcends the often assumed limitations of autism, and she dissects so many of the concepts we take for granted, bringing us face to face with our own social constructions of `reality' and so called 'normality' in a way only Donna can.

This music CD from is now available through Jessica Kingsley Publishers. It features poems written or co-written by Donna Williams set to music which she has composed. The poems provide a personal insight, revealing to the non-autistic how the world appears to the autistic person. They are also a celebration of the creative talents of Donna Williams, whose autobiography, Nobody Nowhere: The Remarkable Autobiography of an Autistic Girl also available from Jessica Kingsley Publishers) reached the bestseller lists when published as a trade paperback.

In this fresh and positive book, Stella Waterhouse investigates how people with autism perceive the world, and discusses the symptoms, behaviours and possible causes of this condition. In addition to examining the relation of autism to hyperactivity, Attention Deficit Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Tourette Syndrome, she also considers the impact of anxiety and the pros and cons of some of the current treatments including secretin, diet, tinted lenses and Auditory Integration Training. Her approach emphasises the importance of taking into account the views of people with autism and their families. This is a practical and sympathetic book, which will be of interest to professionals and non-professionals alike.

This is the last of three volumes of autobiography, in which Donna Williams recounts the story of her struggle with autism. Following on from "Nobody Nowhere: The Remarkable Autobiography of an Autistic Girl" and "Somebody Somewhere: Breaking Free from the World of Autism", this volume tells of Donna's relationship with Ian, a man with difficulties similar to her own. She describes how they learn to admit to, and live with, their feelings for one another, as they search for a true sense of self.