Executive Functioning Differences and NeuroDivergent People – My Autistic ADHD Experience

According to understood dot com: executive functioning is a set of mental skills that includes working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. We use these skills every day to learn work and manage daily life. Trouble with executive functioning can make it hard to focus, follow directions, and handle emotions among other things. Continue reading Executive Functioning Differences and NeuroDivergent People – My Autistic ADHD Experience

NeuroDivergent Emotional Differences – My AutDHD (Autistic ADHD) Perspective

I feel my emotions very intensely, and because of that intense internal emotional experience, sometimes that results in me having a very intense outward emotional expression, that can be seen by other people around me. Continue reading NeuroDivergent Emotional Differences – My AutDHD (Autistic ADHD) Perspective

We NEED to Talk About NeuroDivergent Energy Regulation – My Autistic ADHD Perspective

First off, there are various types of energy a person can feel, or experience, in one’s body.
There is emotional energy, when you get really excited, happy, angry, or scared, energy rises in your body… or if you are feeling down and depressed, you may have energy drained out of your body. Those are emotional energy fields.
There is also sensory energy. For example, when I feel sensory overload, my brain feels like electric static is erupting out of it, and I have way too much electric current flowing through my body, and I need to slow that pulsing energy field down to stop the sensory overload.
There’s emotional energy, and there’s sensory energy… as an Autistic ADHDer, there is also inertia, Autistic Inertia, or just the struggle to get energy moving, and slow energy down, once it is moving.
As an Autistic Person, with the Autistic Inertia, and as an ADHDer, I struggle to get myself going in the morning, struggle to get myself started, but then also struggling to stop myself, once I get going.
Continue reading We NEED to Talk About NeuroDivergent Energy Regulation – My Autistic ADHD Perspective

Why are there SO MANY Late Diagnosed or Discovered Autistic and NeuroDivergent People???

There are a lot of NeuroDivergent People who are discovering that they have brains that work very differently than many other people in adulthood, and late in life. This week I wanted to talk about why.

I was not labeled Autistic or ADHD, however, I was labeled stubborn, difficult, sensitive, rebellious, fussy. The list really goes on and on. I could do an entire video, just listing off horrible things I was called, because I didn’t know I was NeuroDivergent growing up. Continue reading Why are there SO MANY Late Diagnosed or Discovered Autistic and NeuroDivergent People???

Things I Got in Trouble for Growing up as an Undiagnosed Autistic ADHDer

I didn’t find out I was Autistic until I was 29, and my ADHD wasn’t diagnosed until several years later, however, autism and ADHD are both lifelong neurodevelopmental differences.
This means I was Autistic and ADHD my entire life, growing up, as a child, and I will be Autistic ADHD, my brain will be the same, the day I die.
There were obvious manifestations of my brain difference as a child growing up, many of which were labeled as “behavioral problems” and dismissed, or I was constantly scolded for acting in a very Autistic ADHD way.
Continue reading Things I Got in Trouble for Growing up as an Undiagnosed Autistic ADHDer

Treating Autistic & NeuroDivergent People Equitably PT 2: Society Must Change

Part one of this series, was talking about the need for NeuroDivergent People to be able to live an authentic NeuroDivergent lifestyle.

This week it is part two talking about ethical treatment of Autistic and NeuroDivergent humans, not medical treatment. We’re talking about the treatment we receive from society.

Part two, diving in deeper, I want to talk about the need from society to accept us, and allow us to be ourselves and live openly and authentically; because, the reality is, though we need what I talked about in part one of this series, it’s not always safe for us to be open. It can make us vulnerable, to have people realize that our minds work differently.
Continue reading Treating Autistic & NeuroDivergent People Equitably PT 2: Society Must Change

Treating Autistic & NeuroDivergent People Equitably: PT 1 The Need for a NeuroDivergent Lifestyle

I want to talk to you a bit today about treatment for Autistic and NeuroDivergent people… and when I say “treatment”, I want to be very clear, I am not talking about medical treatment. I’m talking about kind, and fair, just treatment of NeuroDivergent People.

As I said, this is not medical treatment. This is how we need to be treated by society and those around us, and what we need in order to live successful, fulfilled, happy, and authentic NeuroDivergent lives. Continue reading Treating Autistic & NeuroDivergent People Equitably: PT 1 The Need for a NeuroDivergent Lifestyle

NeuroDiversity in the Workplace – Asking Autistic & NeuroDivergent People to Keep a NeuroTypical Pace

One of the things that I share with organizational leaders, and members of different companies I work with, is the fact that NeuroDivergent pace, often can look different than NeuroTypical pace, and NeuroDivergent workers can have, what I like to call “variable energy reserves” and may need to adjust our schedules accordingly. Continue reading NeuroDiversity in the Workplace – Asking Autistic & NeuroDivergent People to Keep a NeuroTypical Pace

I’m Autistic – This is What I WISH People Understood About Sensory Processing & Sensory Overload

Well, for me, that is when some kind of sensory input light, sound, touch, smell, a sensation on my skin, et cetera, and so forth, becomes so overwhelming to me that I either shut down, meltdown, or run away from it; because I am basically sent into almost a panic or, just this need to stop, or get away from and escape something that is currently agitating me, within the environment around me.

Some of my common triggers for sensory overload would be bright, fluorescent, lighting, certain smells, certain sounds, just really get to me. Continue reading I’m Autistic – This is What I WISH People Understood About Sensory Processing & Sensory Overload