What Winter Teaches Me – Surviving and Thriving in the Slow Season by Harnessing the Quiet: A Strategy for Winter Creativity

I Don’t Fight Winter Anymore. Why I’ve learned to embrace the slow, quiet months—and how it sets the stage for everything that follows.
Continue reading What Winter Teaches Me – Surviving and Thriving in the Slow Season by Harnessing the Quiet: A Strategy for Winter Creativity

NeuroDivergent Camouflaging & Pressure to Conform – Book Preview

NeuroDivergent Camouflaging is a survival mechanism used to endure a world that is often dangerous and unkind to those of us who stand out. It is important to note that this camouflaging is done in self-defense and is not intended to be manipulative or deceptive. This Masking can be conscious or subconscious. We may not even realize we’re doing it. Continue reading NeuroDivergent Camouflaging & Pressure to Conform – Book Preview

Late Identified NeuroDivergence: Getting Back in Touch with Myself and My Needs

I knew I was different, but not why, so I could only assume “I was bad” and had “something wrong with me,” making it difficult (or impossible) for me to do what everyone else expected me to do (easily). Not understanding why things were so hard for me made it worse.
Continue reading Late Identified NeuroDivergence: Getting Back in Touch with Myself and My Needs

My Autistic Experience With Eye Contact and Having My AuDHD Traits Treated Behaviorally In School

My Autistic Experience With Eye-Contact: I don’t need to look at you to speak to you (or hear you) Growing up, especially in school, I was often scolded for “not paying attention” (regardless of whether I was actually paying attention … Continue reading My Autistic Experience With Eye Contact and Having My AuDHD Traits Treated Behaviorally In School

Debunking the Myths: Autism VS ADHD – What IS the difference?

I’m Autistic, and I’m also ADHD (combined presentation). I have two NeuroTypes (or brain types) that are often at odds with one another (but also so similar it can be hard to tell the two apart).

This difficulty in sorting out these two NeuroTypes has given birth to a term, AuDHD (shorthand for Autistic and ADHD), which is often used to describe the unique experience of being both Autistic and ADHD simultaneously. Continue reading Debunking the Myths: Autism VS ADHD – What IS the difference?

Sounding the Alarm: Battling the ABA Epidemic: ABAers Target ADHD and Kids Who Started School Late During COVID

These results are not limited to people who’ve experienced formal modification programs (because compliance-based programs permeate our society and many of its systems as a whole).
Continue reading Sounding the Alarm: Battling the ABA Epidemic: ABAers Target ADHD and Kids Who Started School Late During COVID

Lyric Rivera - NeuroDivergent Rebel Asks: Has anyone ever tried to punish the NeuroDivergence out of you?

Have You Ever Been Punished (or Scolded) for Your NeuroDivergence?

Recently, I asked my NeuroDivergent readers if anyone has “ever tried to “punish” the NeuroDivergence out of” them (while being reasonably sure I knew the answer to my question).

Overwhelming comments came pouring in on various platforms, with stories from my readers telling how they had been harmed by people around them (who insisted on unfair and unrealistic expectations of NeuroTypicality).

I knew there would be Autistic People and ADHDers who had been punished for our NeuroTypes because many of my readers are my age (or older), and when we were growing up, punishment was the standard of care for kids who struggled to fall in line.

What surprised me was how many people with other NeuroTypes were also punished for things beyond their control. Continue reading Have You Ever Been Punished (or Scolded) for Your NeuroDivergence?