Shows / Dustin's Dynasty
Episodes
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Magnified Fear
Over the past few months, I have been experiencing overmagnification of fears. A trait of autistics that we always may do something wrong and live in a…
- Dustin's Dynasty
There was a time I thought I would be in a Group Home for Life
Twenty years ago, this week, I celebrated “graduating” from a residential treatment facility, or RTF. It felt like a group home, but if my parents didn’t want…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: Connections
Many times all that an autistic person wants is to for someone to understand them and accept them for who they are. This episode is also available as a blog…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: Am I Safe to Return?
Well, we are in that homestretch where I promised where the services delivered to me would gravitate to a more in-person approach rather than being hybrid or…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Time For You
A few weeks ago, I took a “mental health day”, but it was anything but that. I performed my volunteer responsibilities by attending a few meetings without a…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Tone it Down!
Autism is a spectrum, meaning it has a spectrum of features. One of these is communication. One cannot have the ability to communicate without assistance and…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: Keeping Encouraged
This week has been monumental in the wellness realm. I did have a loss at my weekly support group, a total of three weeks at this point. I am beginning to…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: The Fabric of Our Lives
Today, in preparation of writing this article, I came across a photo from a year ago when universal masking was mandated in Pennsylvania. This episode is also…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Grooming
This week for my adulting post, I am going to write about grooming an autistic self. For autistics, we can either excel or lack in this regard. Sometimes it is…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Anger in Autistic Adults
Everyone gets angry. Without a doubt. But for autistics, we are prone to eruptions of anger. This is because we have a light switch and we see no “gray areas”…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: Keep the Fires Burning
If anyone has been following my Wellness Wednesday posts, they have realized that I have begun the health train again. It had seemed that by not combining…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: Too Soon to Let Our Guard Down
In the meantime, be cautious, wear a mask, practice social or physical distancing and balance your virtual time with some rest and relaxation. This episode is…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Boredom, Loneliness and Isolation
Being independent has proved to me that there’s times of boredom, loneliness and isolation as many are experiencing right now due to the ongoing pandemic. This…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: Setting Priorities to Return to the Community
Having received my second dose of the COVID-19 Vaccine and while I am not completely certain that the end is in sight, although there is a glimpse in the eyes…
Dustin's DynastyWellness Wednesday: Small Goals Matter
This past week I worked hard at getting all the weight off by portion control, more water, tracking food and personal weigh ins each morning consistently with…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Putting It In Perspective
Writing this on Easter Sunday because I am bored really puts things into perspective how fortunate I am. We are over a year into the pandemic, when work and my…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Independence and Supports
Independence. The dream of many autistics. Yes, that is a goal for many as many still live with their family, some by choice, some because they need care that…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Today Begins Autism Acceptance Month
Each April, we celebrate Autism Acceptance Month to spread awareness, promote acceptance, and ignite change. This episode is also available as a blog post…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: When It’s So Hard to Give Up, but you know that You Can’t
This week has been a tough spot in the wellness journey. I had performed exceptionally well over the past week by exercising regularly and trying my best to…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: A Lesson In Resiliency
We have been in a national pandemic for over a year now. Of anything I have experienced in the year and that has been a lot, it has taught me to be resilient…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Disappointment
Growing up, I have had too many experiences to count about being disapppointed. Back then I was never one to "take it like a man" and accept was handed down to…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Building Confidence
We have to sometimes have the encouragement that we have to set our own standards of what that needs to be and ourselves have the inner confidence that it is…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: Stepping Safe Back into the Community
So as a continuum of yesterday’s post on having the inertia to activate we are gradually beginning to do things pre-COVID. Although we did things like walk…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: Intertia to Activate
The spring weather has come out in full swing recently. It’s Daylight longer (the Pennsylvania General Assembly is considering extending Daylight Saving Time…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Someone Else’s Journey is Not Yours
Oftentimes, in the modes of social media the journey of autistics. We see their milestones and their downfalls. We also oftentimes want to compare their…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Mental Health and Friends
Having friends outside of family in the past few years has taught me to set my own boundaries in what I share, how I respond to others, standing up for my…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: We Must Continue to Take Care of Ourselves
As we are hitting the point in of the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 Pandemic, those that have had a wide variety of changes from what is normal must…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: One Year…
Today marks one year since many, including myself entered a world of unknown. However, as we hit the one-year anniversary as the world we live in change…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: We Don’t See It
While being an autistic can have its talents like being organized and ritual, we have to remember that this being autistic is of spectrum manner and as such…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: The First Dose, Judgement Free
As I shared on the majority of my social media channels the other day, I received my first dose of the COVID-19 Vaccine. While many who are in desiring to be…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Gainfully Employed 11 Years – and I didn’t even wan t to work
On March 10, 2010 I started a new endeavor as a Consumer Satisfaction Team Member. Although I didn’t know it, this job would require me to oftentimes interact…
- Dustin's Dynasty
To go off the past is tempting, but I am reminded of how it makes me
When evening comes, I realize that it is time to take my pills because I consciously look at that clock because that certain hour is nearing and I know it. A…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Self-Regulation
So, this week partly I have been focusing on self-regulation. This topic has sparked an interest in me because I have been hearing about it from other…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Progress is Progress
In the last few months since becoming independent again, I have noticed benchmarks that I continue to achieve as time progresses. While they may seem little to…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: “Progress is Progress”
Loving the sun, and just near a week and a half until Daylight Saving time begins here in the US, the sun is rising before I head out on the days I do and they…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: Pros and Cons
As we are nearing a year anniversary of being under the pandemic, many I know are hitting a wall. It is when we are just tired. Tired of daunting the PPE…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Motivation to Adult and Care About Others
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://dustinsdynastyusa.com/2021/03/01/adulting-motivation-to-adult-and-care-about-others/
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: Spring on The Horizon
What a difference a week will make, or a few days for that matter! While here in Southwestern Pennsylvania should be used to rough Februarys, we haven’t…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: The Vaccine
Likely you turn on the TV today and you hear about “the vaccine”. Like the many other orders and guidance from our leaders around the world and the United…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: True Independence
Being independent comes with a great deal of responsibility. When I left my last independent situation, I thought it would be some time before I would be on my…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Without Creature Comforts
This winter has been one for the books not only in here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, but across the United States as well as across the pond. For us here we…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: Flipping the Coin
Well, another week has come by and it has been seriously a week of highs and lows. From experiencing a near meltdown about having to walk long distances in the…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: Advances
Today, marks 11 months of the United States classifying COVID-19 as a National Emergency. It has been a trying time for several of the world’s population…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Growing and Experiencing Food Opportunities
It definitely has been a weekend. Accepting the fact that I need to lose weight and for real focus on it. If you recall, last week, I was in sort of a slump of…
- Dustin's Dynasty
How Imagine Dragons’ “Dancing In the Dark” got me through the COVID-19 Lockdown
Dancing in the Dark is the eleventh and final track on Evolve. The song is not only the album’s closer, but it’s also one of the smoothest and most low-key…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Not Because I Want To, But Because I Have To
This week on my blog we have been focusing on shutdown and sleep. Related to that is the necessary to sometimes for autistics to take a break and recharge our…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: Sleep is necessary to Autistic Wellbeing
Sleep. Its one of the most common know ill effects of the autistic brain. Many autistics struggle with It continually through life. To find that perfect…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: It’s Effecting Everyone
I know that in writing this week about Autistic Shutout, I have found out that I am certainly not the only one experiencing these symptoms. Also, to be…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Handling Autistic Shutdown
When a person experiences Autistic Shutdown, the best thing to do is to just let them get the rest they need. We as autistics have just been at times too…
- Dustin's Dynasty
The Powerful Mom
There has been a lot of discussion on the web about moms, specifically the moms of parents with special needs. These moms deserve all the credit they can get…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: The Winter Blues
So, I don’t know if this is common with many in the autism community, but I am experiencing an heavy amount of the “Winter Blues.” A snowier winter, alongside…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: Zoomed Out
We are nearing the 11th month of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it indeed has been a test on the autistic community by far. But one has to be thinking, what about all…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: Having Trust
First, I want to credit that I was inspired to write this upon a fellow autism blogger that touched on the subject. I personally have witnessed the…
- Dustin's Dynasty
We Just Want to Fit In
I have been doing a lot of reflection this week on autism and the things I do to get by on a day to day basis. While certainly no one is perfect, nor is there…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: Accepting Our Coping Mechanisms
I know I sound like a broken record when I say that my post for Wednesday is late, but I’ve heard many great things this week and have too discovered many…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: When Things Don’t Work
Yesterday was one of those days when what could go wrong would go wrong. In a world when autistics such as myself just want the things we need to work perform…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adulting: The Assumable
So as I am getting adjusted to independent life again, it has made me realize the need to do things that just are sort of unspoken and what should be routine…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Adhering to Abrupt Changes in Routine
Most of 2020 and gearing into 2021 we have had a great deal of change to routine. To the autistic community, this can be perceived as a nightmare. I hear of…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Wellness Wednesday: COVID Fatigue
Again, sorry for the late delivery of today’s blog pot and I am sorry to again bring up something COVID related, however, I personally feel that it is…
- Dustin's Dynasty
Concentrating On COVID: Motivation to Do the Expected
As we come off of a national holiday, it was a somewhat different schedule for me. The day program was open on Saturday and we were open on a different…