My Battery Was Draining Faster Than It Could Charge. My Needs Weren’t the Problem. Ignoring Them Was. When I was diagnosed Autistic, more than 9 years ago now, I was at a low point in my life. I was in … Continue reading The Autistic Burnout That Led Me Home to Myself: The Life I Built Was a Prison. My Autism Diagnosis Handed Me the Key.
Isolated. Hurting… Ashamed. I’ve spoken about the reasons I feel that Autistic overloads are not that different from overloads in non-autistics in the past (on multiple occasions). Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much more I’ve been asked to “put away” … Continue reading Shutdowns and Unspoken Pain: The Weight of Repressed Emotions and Unmet Needs
Neurodiversity, a normal and natural part of human variation, encompasses the diversity of the brain and nervous system.
The human brain, body, and nervous system can exhibit variety in various ways. Still, these differences may not be readily apparent to outsiders (due to misunderstandings and assumptions because of these differences being hidden within the person’s brain). Continue reading The Realities of Autistic & NeuroDivergent Camouflaging (Masking)
I’ve discovered that the key to unlocking my potential and reducing my struggles lies in the autonomy and control that come with adulthood, a freedom that is often denied to NeuroDivergent youngsters.
Continue reading Autonomy Unlocked: A Life of My Own – How Adulthood Gave Me the Freedom I Needed to Thrive as an Autistic Person
We know we are different. Before I knew I was in NeuroDivergent, my labels were: Stubborn, “Lazy, Rebellions, Difficult, Stupid, Flake, dumb.” Now, those have been replaced with Autistic and ADHD.
Continue reading Should I tell my child they are NeuroDivergent?
Growing up, especially in school, I was often scolded for “not paying attention” (regardless of whether I was actually paying attention or not). Continue reading My Autistic Experience With Eye-Contact: I don’t need to look at you to speak to you (or hear you)
When I didn’t know I was NeuroDivergent, I used to feel like a failed NeuroTypical Person (because the expectations for me to be a “good” NeuroTypical seemed impossibly out of reach).
“Why can’t I just _______ ?” – Do something NeuroTypicals find simple.
“Why do they hate me? Why do they think I’m weird?”
“If I could only ______.” – Insert some activity that NeuroTypicals don’t struggle with.
“What’s WRONG with me? Why am I such a failure?” Continue reading I Used to Hate Myself When I Thought I was NeuroTypical
One piece of misinformation I’ve been seeing a lot of recently on this page is the misconception that “Autism is a mental illness” – which it’s not.
Being Autistic doesn’t necessarily mean one will have a mental health condition; there are Autistic people with great mental health out there, but they are in the minority.
Continue reading Autism is NOT a Mental Illness! What IS Autism: Autistic People Without the Pathology
To onlookers it may have seemed that I was “acting more Autistic” since my diagnosis, but in reality I was done with the shame, hiding my Autistic traits, and done acting NeuroTypical.
Continue reading Do I seem MORE Autistic to you NOW? Why many Autistics stop camouflaging their Autistic traits post autism discovery.
NeuroDivergent masking is when a NeuroDivergent Person, either consciously or subconsciously, camouflages, or masks, their divergent traits in order to blend in or to appear NeuroTypical.
Now, when we talk about masking for NeuroDivergent People, whether that’s Autistic People, ADHD, Dyslexia, any other neurodevelopmental difference, it’s important to understand that this camouflaging, this blending in, this masking, is something that many of us do in self-defense. It can be a subconscious thing. Some of us are not even aware we are doing it.
It’s something we do for safety and self-preservation. It’s a survival skill that can be harmful to those of us who adapt this survival skill. However, being able to blend in, and being able to be invisible, in a society that can be unfriendly, and even hostile, to those whose minds work differently, is something that we do to be safe. It’s not intended to be a manipulative or deceptive bait and switch.
The thing about masking, as a NeuroDivergent Person is: I learned to mask, even though I didn’t know, I was NeuroDivergent. I learned to mask, even though I wasn’t in any formal NeuroDivergent Conversion Therapy type of a program. I learned to mask, because not having an autism diagnosis and a label growing up, meant a lot of the Autistic struggles I had were labeled as behavioral problems and punished. Continue reading Autistic and NeuroDivergent Masking, Unmasking, and Burnout
