Social Issues

There is nothing quite like untensing and unclenching your emotional and physical inhibitions when the seasons change over week after week, month after month, year after year. But sometimes, without realising it, your mood can turn bleak, anxious, irritable, hopeless, fatigued, and stressful when winter depression sets in. And for any person, let alone a neurodivergent, queer cis-woman having to deal with multiple chronic comorbidities that deprive her of socialisation and engagement in any highly intensive activities.

Eliza Thomas, who is a Adelaide based autistic and bisexual stand-up comedian was recently diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which has upturned her capacity to function when undertaking ordinarily menial and complex tasks, e.g., going to medical appointments, cleaning the house, driving a car unaided. This also includes managing narcolepsy, meltdowns, and burnout that sometimes causes her to cry uncontrollably and sleep erratically.

Eliza reflected more about this and other neurological deterrences that have impacted her with Utterly Queer As!‘s Jarad McLoughlin, such as not making mistakes whilst staying attuned to her own lived experiences as she gets older, being allowed to not be so functional, and making peace with the reality that she will have to live with these comorbidities for the rest of her life. Eliza also talks heartily about her long-running Adelaide Fringe show, Dead Dad’s Club, and working on a future ‘controversially’ unnamed project aiming to call out the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)’s systemic ableism and labourious exploitation of its disabled participants. But their conversation began with Jarad welcoming Eliza back to the studio for the third time.

Photo supplied by Jason Vandepeer

Produced by Jarad McLoughlin