Every time I see a post like “Having ADHD is…” or “Neurodivergents are…” and I find myself relating to it kinda fucks me up.
Like… is this thing I do really a symptom of this whatever? and how many of these symptoms do I need before considering if I have this? Or is it just like a sort of common thing that I only exhibit because I share blood with someone who does have ADHD? And me sharing a symptom of this is just a fluke of genetics?
I mean, these sorts of posts are really good because they help people find others like them and understand more things about their own mental illnesses (I know I’ve found some interesting things about my own illnesses from various online posts) but they also create this weird little crossover world that I keep accidentally sticking my feet into.
And I also know that most of these conditions are really difficult to diagnose properly so perhaps only having one or two similar behaviours doesn’t mean I have any level of the condition.
My own personal theory is that people with mental illnesses/neurdiversity all have the same little glitch in their brain that causes this condition to develop, and because it’s the same glitch even though it causes different reactions, it can mean that there are little mistakes. So, specific symptoms can cross between conditions, without any others appearing. Of course, I’m nowhere near being a doctor so this is pure speculation, please tell me how it actually works/what information I’m missing because I’d like to learn why this happens.
i would say most posts people make like this on tumblr aren’t about things exclusive to or suggestive of whatever diagnosis they mention or even exclusive to/suggestive of having any mental or brain condition (being neurodivergent.) if you suspect you may have [x] disorder i suggest looking into it yourself outside of social media because i once saw someone ask “wait is having a favorite color or color motif a neurodivergent thing?” if you suspect you may qualify for an adhd diagnosis i’d be happy to discuss that with you as someone who’s been diagnosed three times and is currently on cns stimulant medication for management.
also there’s really very few, if any, blanket statements that apply to the whole of neurodivergent people, other than we’re at risk for/subject to ableism. so especially take any “neurodivergents are/it’s a neurodivergent thing”-type posts.
I’m very sorry it took me so long to reply to this, I was on holiday with the faeries :P
I definitely agree with your comment about not deciding purely from internet strangers. And after a few months feeling really weird and uncomfortably I finally raised it with my doctor recently. I’ve taken the DIVA test and we’re going to discuss my results when I next see her next week.
But thank you very much for offering me advice and information, I really appreciate it!
Every time I see a post like “Having ADHD is…” or “Neurodivergents are…” and I find myself relating to it kinda fucks me up.
Like… is this thing I do really a symptom of this whatever? and how many of these symptoms do I need before considering if I have this? Or is it just like a sort of common thing that I only exhibit because I share blood with someone who does have ADHD? And me sharing a symptom of this is just a fluke of genetics?
I mean, these sorts of posts are really good because they help people find others like them and understand more things about their own mental illnesses (I know I’ve found some interesting things about my own illnesses from various online posts) but they also create this weird little crossover world that I keep accidentally sticking my feet into.
And I also know that most of these conditions are really difficult to diagnose properly so perhaps only having one or two similar behaviours doesn’t mean I have any level of the condition.
My own personal theory is that people with mental illnesses/neurdiversity all have the same little glitch in their brain that causes this condition to develop, and because it’s the same glitch even though it causes different reactions, it can mean that there are little mistakes. So, specific symptoms can cross between conditions, without any others appearing. Of course, I’m nowhere near being a doctor so this is pure speculation, please tell me how it actually works/what information I’m missing because I’d like to learn why this happens.
Hi just letting y’all know that Sia, the artist, is making what is essentially a big “F you” to autistic people. She is collaborating with Autism Speaks which is an organization that believes autism is something to be cured and treats autistic people like burdens. It is another run of the mill inspiration p**n movie for non autistic people and able bodied people to feel like they have compassion and understanding for us. For any of you who are not autistic and are able bodied, please do not support this film as it perpetuates bad stereotypes about autism and disabled individuals.
The fact that she used a neurotypical actress to represent a neurodivergent character definitely isn’t great, but on its own it really isn’t the end of the world.
But her rude responses to people being upset? Her shitty treatment to her autistic fans? Her shitty treatment to Maddie, the actress who was uncomfortable with her role? Her partnering with fucking Autism Speaks? Absolutely disgusting. Straight ableism.
Try harder.
I queued this a little while ago so I feel that I should add that Autism Speaks themselves put out a disclaimer saying they had no part in what Sia did and disagree with her actions.
The god awful ableist hate group is doing better than her. That’s low.
Hi just letting y’all know that Sia, the artist, is making what is essentially a big “F you” to autistic people. She is collaborating with Autism Speaks which is an organization that believes autism is something to be cured and treats autistic people like burdens. It is another run of the mill inspiration p**n movie for non autistic people and able bodied people to feel like they have compassion and understanding for us. For any of you who are not autistic and are able bodied, please do not support this film as it perpetuates bad stereotypes about autism and disabled individuals.
The fact that she used a neurotypical actress to represent a neurodivergent character definitely isn’t great, but on its own it really isn’t the end of the world.
But her rude responses to people being upset? Her shitty treatment to her autistic fans? Her shitty treatment to Maddie, the actress who was uncomfortable with her role? Her partnering with fucking Autism Speaks? Absolutely disgusting. Straight ableism.
legimate autistic trans person: this mogai shit, especially neurogenders and your “autigender”, harms us
some cis kid: lmao mean gatekeeper
Me, neurodivergent and nonbinary: neopronouns arent necessary and saying that people like me “need” them to “properly express” our gender makes us out to be dumb toddlers.
Some cisgender neurotypical: you’re ableist >:((((
Some people apparently think that special interests are only experienced by autistic people. Not the case, anyone can experience them but being autistic can correlate with having special interests more intensely or more often. Special interests or circumscribed interests are not exclusive to autistic people but autistics generally tend to display an affinity towards having these interests essentially.
I think people also forget that even with autistic traits, non autistics can have them. Like sensory issues, socialising differences, etc. Can exist in non autistics to the same extent. They may just not consider themself autistic, may only have one type of autistic trait but not be autistic, may have a different neurodivergence that overlaps with autistic traits, or literally any other good faith reason.
And acting like its only autistic people who experience these things, or acting like all autistics experience every single one of these things, does not help in neurodivergent liberation or inclusivity.
i dont think im being overdramatic when i say this but i literally would not be able to succeed in college if it weren’t for text to speech. I can’t do readings. Can’t start them and can’t finish them. It’s such a needlessly painful process. When they give us scanned documents to read its so fuckin hellish that half the time I have my girlfriend read them to me, and the other half I skim through them just to get the gist because I Actually don’t Think I Can Do It Otherwise.
And the only reason I even thought to do this was because I habitually listen to podcasts and audiobooks constantly and my brain was like “wish this was an audiobook” and I finally went “oh WAIT IT CAN BE”
it feels weird to consider it like, a kind of disability aid, but I’ve known for a while that my brain is a bit Quirky so I think it actually is, cuz otherwise readings end with me in tears. It makes college so much easier to just listen to PDFs.
One of the… I guess challenges I’ve faced in getting people to take ADHD seriously is that the prevailing idea (in my experience, anyways) about dopamine is that it’s the “drug neurotransmitter”. It’s the fun one, that’s bad for you! Like all drugs! You shouldn’t be looking for more dopamine, that just means you’re looking for a high!
The things is, it’s not like that. It’s really, really not.
Dopamine’s a little bit like glucose (sugar, required for your body to generate energy); a substance that is 100% genuinely essential to having a fully-functioning properly working brain and body, to the point that it feels good when you get more of it because you’re filling a need, to the point that yeah, you can get addicted to it.
But if you’re glucose deficient, that’s hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), where your cells don’t have the energy to keep running because there’s no fuel. AKA a major issue.
If you’re dopamine deficient… well, just go look up the symptoms of ADHD. All of them, not just the inattentiveness ones. ADHD can and does fuck up your life severely, on multiple levels, because ADHD brains are chronically lacking in a compound necessary for basic function.
Yeah, like anything, you can have too much dopamine. But that’s literally the opposite of the problem here.
Dopamine’s not the “evil drug neurotransmitter”, but the number of people I’ve tried to explain ADHD and ADHD medications that think that has really impacted my ability to even be understood, much less given the accommodations I need.
I find myself reminded of that line from a movie about not allowing oneself to become addicted to water… Does it count as an addiction if it’s a substance that your body is supposed to have?
Gentle reminder that memes and inside jokes relating to human identity, such as race, gender, sexuality, ableness, neurodivergency, etc. don’t always apply to everyone in that ingroup, and if you don’t relate to all the fun jokes in a community, your identity is still valid. People are complex and one person with that identity may not share the same experiences and feelings as another. I think that makes every person so special and a point to be celebrated.
For those of you who may or may not know, I am autistic. Because of this, there are a few aspects of the witchcraft experience that can be, well, tricky for me.
When I started about 5-ish years ago, I figured that you had to do witchcraft exactly the way people told you. Some of the time, this wasn’t an issue. Other times, it was.
Because I was diagnosed at a young age, I have learned a lot about how to mask my symptoms. This meant that my craft was also very heavily centered around neurotypical approaches to the craft (rituals, spellwork, etc.). It was fine for a while. However, recently I have been slowly working on unmasking and getting a better sense as to how I truly function, and I’ve found that more neurodivergent ways of doing witchcraft actually work better for me!
Recently, there have been many posts circulating around that focus on how traditional meditation doesn’t work for all minds, and people sharing their own ways of mindfulness without sacrificing things their neurodivergent mind needs.
I figured I’d share some ways I’ve been practicing “new mindfulness” and how it’s been working for me, as well as other techniques I have seen that could help others.
1. Lots and lots of stimming
Meditation/mindfulness requires a certain amount of brain power. Not much, but enough. The traditional ways of meditation normally involve you “staying perfectly still” and “clearing your mind”. For me, they did work, to a point. But coming out of meditation didn’t always leave me relaxed or more aware. A lot of the time it felt exhausting, like I was holding my breath.
For me, stimming is almost equivalent to breathing. I do it constantly, and if I’m not doing it in some capacity, my brain goes beserk. Stimming helps me to focus on something. It keeps my brain occupied, that way I can do other things that require an x amount of brain power. Stimming also helps me deter any anxiety/panic attacks that may arise!
Something you can do, which I’ve been testing out, is doing very “intense” stimming exercises to help practice mindfulness. What I do is put on some noise cancelling headphones, cover myself in blankets, and do some sensory stimming. The only thing I can sense is what I am feeling, and I focus on that to a strong degree.
2. Hyperfocusing
This is kinda related to stimming, but this is a bit different, and more like how traditional mediation actually works. In normal mindfulness, you pick something to focus on, and then you focus on it. You’re not necessarily “clearing your mind”, you’re just finding something to fixate on, and letting thoughts go past you without paying attention to them.
Normally what I do is focus on a sound or sensation, since a lot of my stimming habits revolve around these two things. I’ll either put on some music or some form of white noise and just focus on it. Or, when I’m charging something during my meditation, I focus on how it feels.
However,don’t force yourself to focus on one thing! I know that sounds hypocritical, but if you make yourself hear your ceiling fan and only your ceiling fan, you’re not going to meditate well and you’ll end up not feeling great when you come out of the session.
Instead, let your mind focus on something else. If your mind instead wants to focus on the traffic outside, let it. If your mind wants to focus on how the bed feels underneath you, let it. With practice, your mind will do these jumps less frequently, but jumping from one focus to another isn’t a bad thing, as a matter of fact it is 100% normal!
3. Movement
Contrary to popular belief, meditation doesn’t always have to be when you’re standing still. If it is easier to be calm while in motion, then do so! This can be something small as stimming to something big like going for a run. Ridding yourself of any internal or external distractions is key to successful meditation sessions. So, if motion helps you to focus and helps ease the mind, the motion you should do!
A lot of the times when I stim, I pace back and forth in one spot. I find that when I do that, I get a lot less brain fog. I can be more creative, think things through more efficiently, and help to fight back against any anxiety my brain tries to wrap me into. I end up focusing on one thing for long periods of time, which, in a way, is kinda like meditation if you think about it!
So, the takeaway…
When I’ve done some of these things stated above. I feel a lot more calm. Some of the grounding/charging exercises I did in the past would sometimes give me trouble. Now, I can do them a lot more easily I find I can practice my craft more effectively than before, meaning I can achieve better results in anything I do with it!
Am I telling you you should do exactly what I do to help you meditate? No, not in the slightest. However, it might give you some ideas as to how to better approach meditation and mindfulness. It may also help broaden your perspective a bit onto how meditationreally works, and that’s there’s no “one size fits all” way of doing it either.
disability advocacy went wrong when it became about inspiration porn and “differently abled” and savants. its incredible that that guy with no legs did a triathlon but your sister with no legs will not and she doesnt need prosthetics or five hour training days to deserve respect and compassion and accommodations. its incredible that that autistic guy can look at a city from a helicopter for an hour and then draw the entire detailed skyline from memory when he lands but your autistic friend cannot and they dont need to have a special Autism Power to deserve respect and compassion and accommodations.
activism framed around “we are just as CAPABLE” means that when people genuinely are less capable they are left behind. activism framed around “we are just as WORTHY” is fundamental to radical compassion.
Any other nd people remember just intensely identifying with creep by radiohead in middle school? Just that feeling of alienation and feeling like I didn’t belong really hit home with me
I tend to assume everyone is the same as me. Like if I’m sitting next to someone and a spot opens up next to me, my first instinct is to move a seat down from the person to give them space, since I would appreciate that in their place. Often, this would be viewed as offensive since it would seem to them that I don’t like them. Is it an autistic thing to have a hard time grasping that other people have different knowledge, opinions, wants, and needs from you? Also if someone ever moves away from you, don’t feel to bad about it. It might be someone like me, who means it in a nice way!
Common myth: “neurotypicals don’t stim”. This is actually false. Neurotypical people do stim, it’s just usually in a slightly different way. Common stims that you might notice a neurotypical doing include: nail biting, hair twirling, leg bouncing, foot tapping, pen biting, skin picking, knuckle cracking and more. These are stims that go unnoticed most of the time because they are so common. Autistic people’s stims are usually more noticeable. Stims you might see autistic people doing include: hand flapping, rocking, echolalia (repeating words or phrases), head banging, excessive blinking, spinning in circles and more. Stimming is not an exclusive autism trait. It’s the short term for “self-stimulatory behaviours” which every human being does in one way or another. It’s a completely normal way of regulating emotions. I’ve seen some people saying “neurotypicals don’t stim, they fidget” but fidgeting is actually a form of stimming.
The reasons why a neurotypical stims is usually different to why an autistic person does, however, the reasons can be the same. Stimming can help in stressful situations where anxiety levels are high. You’re more likely to notice a neurotypical person stimming when they are particularly anxious, for example in an exam or a job interview. Autistic people stim as a way of expressing emotions, for example we will stim when we are happy or excited, not just when we are anxious. Autistic people frequently experience sensory overloads and stimming helps to calm us down.
I find it ironic and hypocritical when neurotypicals make fun of autistics for stimming when they literally stim too. My parents will comment on my stimming when my mum is sat there biting her nails and my dad is bouncing his leg and picking his skin. How are my stims wrong and their stims right? Before you judge an autistic person for stimming take a look at yourself because I can guarantee you stim in one way or another. Let’s normalise and embrace stimming because not only is it beautiful, it’s incredibly important. Suppressing stims can be detrimental to our mental health.
Embrace the stim! No matter how big or small! All stims are valid!!
I’ve always thought that if neurotypicals just tried hand flapping, they’d like it but noooo, they’ve gotta insist that stimming is weird even though they do it too.
Routines don’t have to be doing the same things at the same time every day. Sometimes, it’s choosing the exact same options in a video game every single time, even if the game gives you a variety of choices (looking at you, Life is Strange). Sometimes it’s checking your apps in the same order when you wake up in the morning. Or when your songs MUST be in the same order when you listen to them. I personally dislike routines like “wake up at 10 a.m. and have oatmeal for breakfast, shower at 11, etc.” However, I love doing everything else that I listed. I worried about being a fake autistic before I realized that those were routines too.
me, every time I get a new hyperfixation: oh my god, this thing is so wonderful! I’m literally going to love this thing at this same intensity until the day I die.
me, when the hyperfixation ends: my identity as a person is shattered. there is a void that will never be filled. I will never move on from this.
me, when I get my next hyperfixation: oh my god, this thing is so wonderful! I’m literally going to love this thing until I die!
Don’t assume autistic people can do everything you can do but also don’t assume that we can’t do something. Ask us about our individual abilities, since we’re all different. And if we ask for help, give it if you can.
