Russell Lehmann is an autistic poet who resides in Nevada.  In third grade he stopped going to school due to severe social anxiety.  After three months, he was able to start attending school part-time.  This experience repeated itself over the next two years.  One day, in May of 2002, he had an extreme panic attack and stayed home from school.  He was never able to go back to public school again.  No one could figure out why this was happening.

In 2003, he was admitted to Children's Hospital to be treated for extreme OCD, depression and anxiety.  His therapy there was to confront his fears, which took an extremely hard toll on him.  The doctors at the hospital still could not figure out why he was experiencing all of these symptoms.  After five very long weeks, the doctors gave up on him, and discharged him without solving any of his symptoms.

Later that year, at the age of 12, Russell was diagnosed with autism.  In 2004, he was able to attend Overlake Specialty School.  He made great gains while he was there, however his life was still very far from normal. 

In 2008, he was able to play high school varsity football, while taking online classes at home.  Many struggles came with participating in a sport in which he knew none of the kids.  Multiple times Russell would have major panic attacks right before practice.  His coach was very supportive, and each time he helped Russell overcome his anxiety and attend practice.  In 2009, Russell was the starting defensive end for his high school football team.   

Russell has had self-written articles about himself published in magazines focusing on autism.  These articles detail his incredibly hard life, in which he has overcome many challenges, and has featured some of his poetry.  Temple Grandin, one of Time's 100 Most Influental People in the World, and the subject of the movie "Temple Grandin", which was nominated for 15 Emmy awards, calls his poetry "Beautiful".

Click below to read an article about Russell from the 2007 Summer issue of "The Autism Perspective".