Every time a website updates their privacy policy, I just assume that they are finding new ways to harvest and sell my data at this point, and the more corpo-speak they use in the announcement the more data I assume they're stealing :/

Being autistic doesn't stop when you have kids, if anything, it changes in unique and unpredictable ways. Being an autistic parent means navigating all the challenges of parenting while also needing to navigate our own (and often our child's) neurodivergent needs. It's a lot

The goal of emotional regulation isn't to reduce the size of emotions, nor is to to stop feeling emotions altogether. The goal is to absorb mild emotional shocks without them becoming outsized emotional reactions that reek havoc on physical, mental, and social wellbeing

Stop thinking about ADHD and/or autism only in terms of behaviour! Neurodivergent conditions change our behaviour and behavioural needs, sure, but they also change our sensory experiences, how we think about ourselves and world, and our emotions

Autistic communities aren't always inclusive or accessible to all autistic people equally. Autistic social and support groups (and research participants) often under represent the true diversity of autistic people. This skews our understanding of autism, autistic experiences, and community needs

If you want to change a behaviour, you need to understand why the behaviour is happening. If you don't meet the need that causes the behaviour to arise, simply discouraging or punishing the behaviour isn't healthy or ethical, and it's not going to work. ...this skeet is about ABA.

Before getting diagnosed with ADHD, it can feel like everything is leading up to our assessment, like our assessment is the destination or end of the journey. But learning you are neurodivergent is the beginning of self-understanding, not the end

ADHD'ers will seriously be like "I'm just lazy" while they are spending every morsel of energy they have, moving heaven and earth, just to get started

For better mental health, you need to understand how feedback loops work. Depression, anxiety, and even mania often exists in feedback loops where an initial situation leads to a self-reinforcing cycle, and before we know it, we're in a scary place filled with dangers that we struggle to get out of

Having a spiky profile, like many autistic and/or ADHD do, is wild. Tell me why so many of us do amazing work in complex, highly involved situations (like complicated work projects) but struggle with basic home- and self-care tasks (like showers or laundry). It is astounding

Getting a diagnosis is associated with both positive and negative consequences. On the good side, diagnoses can help us understand ourselves and plan appropriately for the future, including setting realistic goals. They can also enable us to identify and build supports towards personal growth

Managing ADHD isn't something that can be done alone. The best management of ADHD requires some combination of professional support, accommodation, medical treatment, and community building (oh, and luck). Stop trying to do it alone!

Different neurodivergent conditions can look very similar but be COMPLETELY different. This is why it's so important to understand the root of our behaviours or experiences. These differences change our treatment options, accommodations, and personal coping strategies!

Me: Hi, I'm Maaya, and this is my anxiety dog. Her name is Korra. Them: Oh, she's like a service dog then? Me: No no no no. She has crippling anxiety. In fact, she's afraid of cooking

There's so much pressure to conform to the neurotypical way of things. This creates an invisible power dynamic to existing in a neurotypical world as a neurodivergent person. This can steal our agency and teach us it isn't safe to diverge from neurotypical expectations

Knowing with 100% certainty that I'm not going to be able do everything I need to get done today, no matter how hard I try, is not a great task initiation strategy, fyi

Why do so few people understand that emotional regulation is a core struggle for ADHD'ers? It's so hard when our emotions are big, fast, or intrusive, the way they are for many of us. And can lead us down majorly dark emotional paths before we even realize what's happening (1/2)

Intrusive regret, the feeling when you cringe and overanalyze something that happened years ago, is an intrusive thought like any other. It can be distressing, disturbing or even negatively impact our ability to function, but it isn't something we're choosing or doing to ourselves

Every single neurodivergent condition has complexity and nuance to it. One person's experience with ADHD or OCD, for example, can be SO SO SO different than someone else's. Remember: Our traits and our experiences aren't universal, and neither are anyone else's

Autistic people sometimes communicate in different ways than allistic people. These differences can be in word choice or tone, but can be the medium of communication itself. Using assistive technology to communicate doesn't diminish our personhood, our intelligence, or our worth

I've found today's ADHD champion:

If we could harness power from the dread ADHD'ers feel about their upcoming tasks, we'd never need energy again

Prioritizing the experiences of neurotypical professionals, parents, and caregivers shifts the goal away from supporting and accommodating autistic people's needs. Over the long-term, this focus stagnates community supports in a way that makes being autistic so much harder

Our ways of self-regulating are limited by what has been modelled for us. Without good, diverse models for how to self-regulate, it's so easy to get stuck in an approach that isn't actually authentic to us. Seeking these models for self-regulation skills is such an underrated path to growth

Being AuDHD often feels like ADHD and autism are locked in an epic battle, exhausting internal resources… until they decide to collaborate on making functioning impossible

Every single freaking application: "Simplify this document with AI?" Me: "No. I need AI to fuck off"

In a world with Elon musk we somehow still need reminders that being autistic is actually not sufficient to be a good person

One thing I learned teaching at University is that accommodations that help one person sometimes negatively affects other people. Clear, detailed, specific instructions, for example, can massively help autistic and anxious students, but might overwhelm ADHD, PDA, or other anxious students.

When we have co-occurring conditions, like ADHD and OCD, the traits of one can make the traits of the other harder to spot. Understanding the differences, however, is so important; it allows us to use different strategies in different situations and for different experiences

I love how when folks are looking for people who are exploiting the system they start with poor mothers who have the audacity to own a cell phone and not with billionaires who have made it their explicit job to get even richer by exploiting other people's labour

Born to be a weird little forest creature, collecting shiny trinkets forced to have a job and do the forest trinket thing on evenings and weekends

Supporting neurodivergent communities means taking our accommodations seriously, even if you don't understand them. By all means, it's okay to learn more and try to understand, but your understanding and comfort isn't necessary for making my world more accessible to me

Goals can be really hard for many of us with ADHD. We can struggle to connect short-term actions to long-term results, struggle to sort our rich internal world into which even are goals, or struggle to even remember the goals we do have. …so, I made a thing to try to help (🧵)

The number of articles that tell people with ADHD that they need to have a routine, without explaining how to do that or acknowledging the challenges of routines with ADHD honestly frustrates the hell out of me

Goals can be really hard for many of us with ADHD. We can struggle to connect short-term actions to long-term results, struggle to sort our rich internal world into which even are goals, or struggle to even remember the goals we do have. …so, I made a thing to try to help (🧵)

Because experiencing rejection sensitivity can be so painful for ADHD'ers, some of us fear that we could be inflicting that pain on others by rejecting them, being less than enthusiastic, or even having boundaries. This can encourage us to reject our own needs in favour of not rejecting others

Neurodivergent joy looks different for different people and different neurotypes. For ADHD'ers, it could look like passionate idea creation or problem solving, or it could look like excitedly flitting from one activity to the next. It could look like eager spontaneity or zealous hyperfocus

One of the hardest parts of being ADHD is constantly balancing our stimulation needs. Too much and we can end up distracted or overwhelmed. Too little and we can end up impulsive or understimulated. And the second we aren't actively balancing these needs, everything comes crashing down

Without that sense of being prepared and orderly - we go into a tailspin because what we thought was the road in front of us for the day - is now a complete shitshow and we have to figure out how to best deal with the situation.

Uncertainty can be a major stressor for a lot of autistic folks. This isn't usually about control; it's about being able to prepare. Knowing what's ahead allows us to understand what's expected of us and what we might need to meet those expectations. Without that, we are more prone to overwhelm

Most people with ADHD also have another mental health, neurodevelopmental, or behavioural condition at the same time. I don't know who needs to here this, but these are just as worthy of treatment, professional support, and accommodation as ADHD is

Regularly being told that our big, fast emotions are overreactions trains ADHD'ers to try to suppress our emotional experience entierly. This isn't healthy or sustainable, as it disconnects us from understanding what we're feeling or what we need to self-regulate in the face of our emotions

If you have ADHD, I have a question for you: How do you get the things you're trying to remember out of your head? Because if they don't exist OUTSIDE OF YOUR HEAD (usually in a place you'll see, hear, or trip over them) do they really exist? My experience says no. No, they don't.

When you accidentally your way into a job in your special interest

ADHD makes it so much harder to hear our body's natural cues like hunger, thirst, and stress. We can neglect these needs because we don't hear or recognize them until they're really intense. Or we overdo it constantly because our stimulation needs are more obvious than our bodily ones

The autistic need for routine is framed so negatively for some reason. Sure, these needs can be disruptive or dysregulating in the face of unexpected changes, but autistic routines can also be joyful, regulating, or grounding, offering structure and peace

Daily struggle by AceAngell on reddit www.reddit.com/user/AceAnge...

Hey ADHD'ers. When novelty runs out, replacing it with anxiety or guilt isn't actually sustainable or healthy! Maybe make it fun by setting quests or challenges. Or add a social component that offers some community. Or build it into a routine. Or, hear me out, let it go. That's okay too

It isn't just the big traumatic events that impact our ability to cope and function. Small traumas, such as barriers, micro-aggressions, and unexpected friction also have an impact. Worse, we never face only one of these at a time, but rather the sum of them all together

It's a great cosmic joke that neurodivergence both runs in families and gets diagnosed based on parent reports. I was diagnosed at 30 because a man who has eaten potatoes every day for 57 years and a woman who collects loose buttons decided I was a perfectly normal child.