Have you recently figured out you're Autistic, or are you again grappling with, what it means to be Autistic? Or AuDHD, neurodivergent, or highly sensitive?
(Formal diagnosis, self-identification, and questioning are all valid.)
Do you want to find new ways to live and work that don’t compromise who you are?
I help later-identified Autistic and AuDHD adults get from barely surviving to actually thriving—without forcing yourself into a neurotypical mold.
i had ~8hs of seminar yesterday on, can you believe it, #AuDHD [yes claiming a new # down below, let's use it to the max!]!
wow that was emotionally hard, VERY, and the fact that until 2013 it wasn't allowed at all to diagnose those two on the same person makes only few studies available yet, so if you find anything please forward to me! the psychologist/therapist giving the seminar was great and it has been one of THE BEST in my whole life.
Students have been back to school for a couple of months, and the dopamine of starting a new school year may have worn off by now.
If you're homeschooling an Autistic student, or supporting one who's in the classroom, I wrote 24 Tips for Homeschooling an Autistic Student, From an Autistic Teacher on my blog. Read it to find some things that may help your Autistic students today: autismchrysalis.com/2026/09/02…
#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autism #Homeschooling
Many autistic kids struggle with getting their schoolwork done and staying focused during classes, here's some tips I've amassed over the years that could help your child out.Heather Cook (Autism Chrysalis)
For Autistic and ADHD students, socializing takes quite a bit of cognitive energy, and that doesn’t go well with being wound up, shut off, anxious, or upset.
When you're on edge, you don’t get your best work done, either. Quite a bit of bouncy, frenzied, or unresponsive behavior comes from 𝙖 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙨𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢. Reorganizing it involves making sure each of the senses have enough input without getting overloaded.
Have you had people in your life who modeled, taught, and helped you develop positive, healthy or useful skills in these areas of life?
Or have you simply been blamed for doing badly with them?
Here are 48 common things that society expects adults to be able to do well, but that Autistics, ADHDers, and people from dysfunctional families often are not taught: autismchrysalis.com/have-i-bee…
#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurodiversity
Do you blame yourself for doing badly at common things that society expects adults to be able to do? But have you actually been taught how, in ways that work for you? Here’s a quiz to tell the difference.www.autismchrysalis.com
What if you rephrased it in your own mind from, “I’m lazy” or “I just can't be bothered” or “I need a good ass kicking” or whatever, to “I don't have enough energy right now to do X” or “I’m saving up my limited energy for X,” or “I’m recuperating from X.”
How would you think about yourself differently? How would you think about your to-do list differently? How would you relate differently to people around you?
#ActuallyAutistic #Autistic #Neurodiversity #AutisticBurnout
"Who needs labels anyway?" sounds progressive, but isn't.
A 'label' can give people language for their experiences, a basis for organising, and access to a community.
The interesting question - I think - isn't whether we have categories or not (we do. Ask any librarian or linguist).
It's who gets to make and use the categories... and for what purpose.
💟
#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #ADHD #AuDHD #Neurodivergent #SocialJustice #EpistemicInjustice
Some minds work like a spotlight. Monotropic minds work like a tunnel.
Going deep is the strength. Leaving is the cost: the thread, the momentum and the half-built picture all stay behind. That's the transition tax.
What helps:
1. A safe exit: a parking note on where the thought was heading.
2. A visible countdown before the exit.
3. Cool-off time between tunnels.
The tunnel is a strength. The exits need design.
Story of my life! And no need to tell me to pay attention, slow down or to be more careful, not helpful. 🤷♀️
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“Dyspraxia often overlaps with autism and gets waved off as clumsiness for decades. Here's what it actually is, why it gets missed, and what changes once you have the word for it.“
“You can be autistic without dyspraxia, have dyspraxia without being autistic, or, very commonly, carry both at once.“
heyasd.com/blogs/autism/dyspra…
#ActuallyAutistic #autism @autistics #dyspraxia
Dyspraxia, also called DCD, often overlaps with autism and gets missed in adults for years. What it actually is, why it's dismissed as clumsiness, and what helps.Daniel Burford (HeyASD)
As a person with AuDHD who has experienced burnout multiple times and is now eleven years burnout free, I’ve used these phrases to help me improve a number of different areas of my life:
- When I’m happy, let myself be happy.
- When I’m tired, let myself be tired.
- When I’m sick, let myself be sick. (i.e. Don’t push through and overdo it.)
- When I’m excited, let myself be excited.
- When I’m feeling good, let myself feel good.
Etc.
One really important tool during autistic burnout recovery is 𝙖 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙫𝙤𝙞𝙘𝙚. Being able to respond to yourself with compassion. Even when things go wrong, even when you make poor choices, even when you make reasonable choices and it all goes kablooey.
#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout
Today’s episode of “my brain weasels are dumb” - perhaps I somehow tricked the doctor into diagnosing me and I am in fact, as I always suspected, just a drama queen trying to be special.
Just read a short article on Autistic Fawning and now I think I need to go have a long hard think about that one. Just reading it made me want to cry. I…don’t like looking at that.
The fact that, as Autistics, we do see things differently, that we’re not really in the mainstream, and we’re kind of looking at it as an outsider, often, gives us the ability to see it from a different perspective than the people who are in it.
As in, we can see where the trauma is, we can see where the broken systems are, better than a lot of people who are in it. 1/2
As Autistics, we often learn at a very early age to simply numb our experiences, to numb the perceptions of how bad it really is. Or we fight the signals and everything feels like you’re battling the world constantly, all the time. Either way, it takes an extraordinary amount of energy. It’s exhausting. 1/4
#AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic
Another invaluable skill to fully recover from autistic burnout is 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩. You can develop the skill of attuning to what your internal state is in the moment, of what your needs are, what your emotions are, what your desires are.
Because you can't go towards something that you want if you don't know what it is you want.
#AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic
Rest is more than sleeping. Anything that gives you energy counts as restorative.
Here are more than 80 ideas of activities from real Autistics, to feel good, so you have the energy to cope when things happen that are more challenging to deal with: autismchrysalis.com/restorativ…
#ActuallyAutistic #Autistic #Neurodiversity #BurnoutRecovery
More than 80 ideas of activities from real Autistics, to feel good, so you have the energy to cope when things happen that are more challenging to deal with.www.autismchrysalis.com
Is it burnout or is it a midlife crisis? -->
If you're wanting to make big changes in your life and worried that what you're calling a burnout is really a midlife crisis, here's how you can tell the difference: youtube.com/watch?v=rA9YAClq5i…
#AutisticBurnout #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD
A transcript is available at: https://www.autismchrysalis.com/2023/05/20/is-it-burnout-or-a-midlife-crisis/If you're wanting to make big changes in your life...Autism Chrysalis (YouTube)
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I only forget to breathe sometimes when I'm very focused on something.
It is bonkers to me how different I feel today.
Like, obviously I woke up autistic every day of my life, but today I woke up officially autistic. I woke up a zebra not a broken pony as my favourite metaphor goes. I could scream for joy, or do the snoopy happy dance (which I am just now realising is the socially acceptable version of happy flailing that I’ve developed).
Oh how wonderful it is to feel free.
#ActuallyAutistic
Getting enough energy back to keep masking isn't true burnout recovery. Really getting out of autistic burnout means reducing the dissonance between the version you've presented to the world and your inner experiences.
For more on this topic, check out my video: youtube.com/watch?v=E2jv3iSInk…
#AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic
Getting enough energy back to keep masking isn't true burnout recovery. Really getting out of autistic burnout means reducing the dissonance between the vers...Autism Chrysalis (YouTube)
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The single most impactful thing that a supporter can do is to believe the person in burnout, and to say so not once, but repeatedly, in simple terms: “This is real. This makes sense. You’re not making it up.” 1/3
#AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic
They say, "If you meet an Autistic person, you've met one Autistic person." True, it's a very diverse condition. But the implication, when flipped around, is that the Autistic person *also* never meets anyone like them. And it's impossible to describe how alienating & painfully lonely such an existence is to folks who, by nature of being within the realm of normal social functioning, categorically don't experience it.
Gar nichts. Denn spätestens wenn in diesen Videos gesprochen wird, stört Hintergrundmusik sehr.
Oder anders: Das ist nicht barrierefrei, denn für manche Menschen gibt das dann Geräusch-Matsch, und sie verstehen gar nichts.
(Ich zum Beispiel.)
This.
We're born with Autism, ADHD, AuDHD, but we don't get a diagnosis unless we can't cope anymore.
A rant by #MyFavouriteJo
#Autism #Autismus #ADHD #AuDHD
#actuallyautistic
I will never be ok with this cause it does not make sense!All psychiatrists believe you are born ADHD and/or autistic - it is not something you can suddenly ...MyFavouriteJo (YouTube)
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A comment I got in one my recent conversations around the 5 stages of Burnout and Recovery workshop: “Our internalized ableism tells us that we can’t allow things to hurt or to be hard. I often have to remind myself that my disability can actually be disabling.” My response to this --->
#AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic
Ich brauche eure Hilfe, gerne teilen ...
Frage an Schleswig-holsteinische Eltern:
Welche Erfahrungen hast du mit dem Förderschwerpunkt Autismus in SH gemacht?
Hat der Förderschwerpunkt dein Kind in der Schule merklich entlastet und/ oder dich als Elternteil?
Wenn ja in welchem Kontext oder warum nicht?
Wie war das Prozedere bis dahin und wie war die Zusammenarbeit mit Amt, Schule, Förderzentrum?
Apparently some Anthropic researcher is going around explaining LLM language tendencies and styles by comparing them to autistic people.
Unacceptable. *Very* not cool.
We've already had enough of this crap, being compared to computers and robots. We aren't fucking language models. We are living, breathing, multifaceted *human beings* who happen to have a different wiring plan than the majority of other human beings. Learn the fucking difference and stop comparing us to automated, unfeeling, unthinking, non-conscious, unnuanced, unnatural systems.
When you don't have the energy or the words to explain autistic burnout to the people in your life, this free guide will do the explaining for you.
autismchrysalis.com/explaining…
#AutisticBurnout #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD
A short, plain-language PDF you can hand to family, a partner, friends, doctors, therapists, or an employer, so they can understand what you're going through without you having to find the words.www.autismchrysalis.com
Es nervt, wenn ich eine Email schreibe und damit meine Kommunikationspräferenz deutlich zeige, und ich bekomme ein halbes Dutzend Anrufe zurück. Für andere Leute geht das auch deutlich über ein Ärgernis hinaus, es schließt sie konkret aus. Wäre schön, wenn es in unserer Gesellschaft ein Selbstverständnis gäbe: wenn nichts anderes vereinbart wurde, wird für die Antwort dasselbe Kommunikationsmittel verwendet wie für die Frage.
There are five key, holistic, interrelated solutions specifically for the challenges that we face as Autistics and AuDHDers, especially when you've struggled for decades. They are --->
#AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic
One of the things I'm struggling with is how to describe the groups I work with (editing, author coaching, etc.)
I work with people are neurodivergent,, have a chronic mental or physical illness, consider themselves disabled, or queer.
That's a mouthful (a handful if I'm typing?).
Wondering if I can condense that into: I work with people whose brains and bodies operate differently and/or who describe themselves as queer.
Thoughts?
Help an #ActuallyAutistic #Queer #Disabled person out?
Autistic people are famously fond of logic, and data.
We’ve also repeatedly ‘failed’ in tests designed to evaluate our empathy.
Tests which I found more interesting as a ‘spot the assumption’ exercise than serious research – or at least, serious research into what the studies professed to be about.
(I wrote a thread on it, "Have you wondered where the claim that autistic people lack empathy came from?", link: mas.to/@KatyElphinstone/116070…)
⬇️
#ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent #AutismResearch #Empathy #AutisticThinking #CriticalPsychology #Logic #Reasoning #Neurodiversity #DoubleEmpathy
Have you wondered where the claim that autistic people lack empathy came from? The “jellyfish” study (2011) was influential in this, as it concluded that autistic people lacked Theory of Mind & capacity for moral reasoning. https://medicalxpress.K. J. Elphinstone (mas.to)
Is empathy a less reliable basis for morality than people tend to assume?
A thread on empathy, morality, and autistic reasoning ♾️
Empathy works a bit like a spotlight. In its traditional sense, it often illuminates only a certain bit of the landscape (the bit that’s in front of us, or that we choose to see) but not all of it.
That's a problem if we confuse that with morality, or 'goodness'.
⬇️
#ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent #Autism #Empathy #Morality #SocialJustice #CriticalPsychology #AutismResearch
How to fake eye contact.
A tutorial for autistics.
I occasionally get asked by autistics for help on making eye contact. Here's what I typically tell them. -->
Internalized ableism is so pervasive in our society that it’s affecting you in ways you’ve been trained not to notice. Ways that you may be discriminating against yourself, and giving yourself a harder time than you really need to. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙖𝙪𝙡𝙩.
It's the CAN'T culture: The C̲apitalist, C̲olonized, A̲bleist, N̲eurotypical, and T̲raumatized culture, the society we live in. It's not you.
