BIOGRAPHY OF M. L. MAYAAN-BARUCH

On April 24, 1996, in the city of Svendborg, on the southern edge of the island Funen in Denmark, a baby boy was born. Infant jaundice meant I spent the first days of my life in an incubator, and have enjoyed staying alone, in small rooms, ever since. When I was around 7, I was diagnosed with the now obsolete Kanner's syndrome - childhood autism - today a part of the broader autism spectrum of disorders. I spent most of school life in a school catered to neurodivergents. I have probably met 100+ autistics in my life, and the disorder has been a part of my identity ever since I started developing one.

I went on to study web-development, learning HTML and CSS, PHP, SQL, and a lot of other IT skills. Computers have been interest of mine since childhood - my father was an independent IT-technician for most of my childhood, and we always had cool machines in the home. Later on, I became acquainted with Photoshop and Illustrator, and today do as much graphic design as I do programming (if not a little more.) My values in programming are simplicity, IIABDFI, respecting users privacy, FOSS, and web 2.0 sensibilities.

I come from a culturally Christian background, but faith was never an important or meaningful part of my life. I was always interested in religion, and would often rent books at our local library about ancient Egyptian religion, as well as literature produced by so-called "UFO-cults." I first became interested in Raëlism, but never seriously considered joining it. Judaism became my growing obsession, and I decided to live a kosher lifestyle - which I have been doing ever since - to see if it was something for me. I prepared to formally convert to Judaism, and established many links to Jewish organizations and fellow converts, especially in the anti-Zionist milieu. I grew disillusioned over a period of 4-5 years of continued spiritual disappointment, a feeling of never fully being welcomed, and theological issues I could not justify to myself. I formally renounced my conversion process around 2017.

Now spiritually homeless, I never lost my faith in the god of the Hebrew Bible, and practiced a pseudo-Karaite faith while I explored alternatives like Islam, Baha'i, Sikhi, and Christianity. I accepted Jesus as the messiah, and as my saviour, in 2018. While I never had any grand epiphany, or profound spiritual experience, or falling to my knees in tears and prayer, I remain fully convinced that the messiah appeared in Judea around 2000 years ago, the incarnate son of God, the image of the invisible God, and went by the name Yeshua. The eureka moment for me was the confirmation that Jesus never commanded us to abandon the laws of Moses, which I had been led to believe - that Jesus, through his sacrifice, wrote the law onto our hearts. I have never felt more at home, more at peace, or more purposeful in my existence - I am a proud Torah-Observant Christian.

I was born disabled. Although I have, for all intents and purposes, always been 'high-functioning,' evolving mental health issues have always been an active part of my life. During childhood, I had issues connecting with peers, and was subjected to bullying for many years. I am blessed to have had, and to still have, a very loving and caring social circle, namely my parents. They acted when I showed distress, and removed me from school. I was diagnosed with autism, and went into a program catered to people with pervasive developmental disorders. I excelled here, and kept improving and growing. Being with other kids who had issues, those issues sometimes rub off. I experienced many people of varying levels of disability, with many interesting diagnoses, like OCD, Tourette's, Aspergers, dyspraxia, cerebral palsy, PDD-NOS, ADHD, ADD, and all the rest.

I first experienced intrusive thoughts and obsessions in my early teens. Around the same time, I started to experience depersonalisation and derealisation. Upon going to college, my conditions worsened, and I was now experiencing constant DP/DR to some extent. I still am. I have learned to live with it, and although it is extremely uncomfortable and at times distressing, I have modeled my life in such a way that I can manage. I worked full-time from around 2016 to 2020 - I ended up stressed and burnt out, and my ADL were severely impacted. I was classed as an 'Individual with Reduced Work Capacity,' and granted access to the Danish Fleksjob scheme, which I am extremely grateful for. I have been on this program since 2022, now working 15 hours a week in a job I absolutely love.