Neurodiversity - Tumblr Posts
In October, my autism diagnosis begins. Idk but I'm kinda scared, what if I'm wrong? I did research for 2 years but.. idk
I have Schizoaffective Disorder, does that count as ND? I saw that Schizophrenia was on the list, and I WAS originally diagnosed with that when I had my mental breakdown.
For those who don't know about Schizoaffective Disorder, it is a mental disorder. There are three types: Bipolar (Manic) Type [mix of Schizophrenia and Mania], Depressive Type [mix of Schizophrenia and Depression], and Mixed Type [a combination of all three].
I have Bipolar Type, personally. If you want more information, I will put some links to various sites explaining the disorder.
Here is a list of famous people with Schizoaffective Disorder:
Brian Wilson
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Britney Spears
Vincent van Gogh
Louis Wain
Virginia Woolf
Allison Schmitt
John Nash
Jordan Burnham
Michael Angel
And there are more famous people with this disorder than this!
This is the story of a young woman who has struggled with Schizoaffective Disorder. It advocates the need to stay on your meds unless a psychiatrist says it is safe to do so.
Sorry for the really long re-blog, but I felt the need to teach people about this.
fuck it. shout out to "high functioning" neurodivergents
the ones who can mask easily, the ones who can get social cues, the ones who have managed to go most of their life not even knowing they were ND because they didn't present as the stereotypical ND person.
the ones who can pay attention in class, understand social etiquette, who understand societial expectations
the ones who don't feel neurodivergent enough bc they don't struggle in the same ways/areas a lot of NDs do, or they can't relate to other NDs' experiences because they always understood these things easily
the ones with high empathy, the ones who DO get the joke, the ones who are constantly told that they can't possibly be neurodivergent because they don't act like what you'd expect a neurodivergent person to act like.
you are neurodivergent enough. you are valid, and so are your experiences. not struggling as much as others do in some places doesn't mean you dont struggle at all. your condition and diagnosis is valid. your symptoms are valid. YOU ARE VALID. not checking all the supposed boxes doesn't mean you aren't neurodivergent. you are enough. you are valid. you are loved. you are valued. you matter. you belong in neurodivergent spaces, you deserve to use whatever resources are available to you, you are allowed to take up space in these communities. and i am so, so proud of you.
feel free to, and actually, i encourage you to reblog this with your experiences. we belong in this community as much as anyone else. please also tag this w/ any neurodivergent conditions i may have forgotten 💙
since this is getting lots of notes I'd like to add, even if you're undiagnosed or maybe self diagnosed, for whatever reason, (i.e. can't get access to a diagnosis, not being taken seriously, or just not wanting an official diagnosis, etc.) this still applies to you. actually especially to you folks. don't think for a second you're not valid just bc you don't have the paperwork or whatever to say it
This...I like this
Flitwick creating spells to allow autistic and neurodivergent students to follow class without being overstimulated - like, spells that muffle bad sounds and that adapt to each particular student’s sensory issues, spells you can cast on wix robes and outfits for tactile input or for sensory defensive students
Hogwarts teachers allowing every student to stim at their convenience whenever they want, and having a special quiet room in case sensory overloads happen anyway
Professor Sprout having plenty of different sets of gloves so students can choose the best sensory ones from them
Frozen pizza is forever my #1 safe food. 🍕❤
could you imagine being an inhuman thing? could you imagine being holed up because the sight of you sends heads spinning on a bewildered axis? Their eyes boggling out of their heads? Their mouths agape like horrible, sickening fish? Their hands, clawed and wet from the beading of cold, slimy sweat at their palms, clutching at their bags, their itchy clothes? Sharp teeth bare behind thin, curled lips in a grimace? Mothers shield the eyes of their dearly beloved, chubby, sticky offspring? Grating, hushed whispers echo through the wondrous caverns of your mind, and you wish you could understand their inharmonious grumbling.
i do not blame my house for being haunted, even if my house is not a home because of it. its something im supposed to feel safe in, yet im taken under siege, trapped in a dark room by doors that swing shut and lock on their own, the lights flicker on and off and i can't control as much of it as i thought i could before. it's not that the house itself has anything wrong with it, though. sure, the floors are creaky and there are bugs in the rafters- but all houses have those problems. my house, in theory, functions as well as any house should. but mine was built on something it shouldn't have been, the foundation was different, the contractors who were supposed to build it up into something livable ignored the history of the grounds they had chosen, and the house was cursed to suffer for their actions. maybe their houses were a little haunted, as well. maybe they could overlook the poltergeists because their houses were sick, too. but because my haunting leaves me with bright red handprints on my skin, because my haunting drives me mad, because my haunting cannot be masked with yankee candles and new bulbs, im the one who must take responsibility. i do not blame my house for it's illness, i do not blame my house for causing me so much distress, because the house is not at fault. i do not blame the house. i blame the contractors.
how can you love someone so much you don't even let yourself speak.
and how can you hate yourself for realizing you did nothing wrong.
Going to put this here because nobody knows I have this account but I think maybe some of the things that y'all talk about as being unique features of adhd/autism/neurodiversity are actually just things everyone experiences (source: I experience them)
Wait- I thought this was normal???
"adhd isn't a disability"
breaks down over trying to start tasks until he deadline is stupidly close
unable to do basic chores unless it's like 4am and then the whole damn house gets cleaned
speaks too fast
tangent and tangent and tangent. makes social situations hard
literally unable to stop themselves from interrupting people mid sentence (and the constant "*interrupts*- sorry, please continue")
knows what they want to say, cannot find the words, even if it's something basic
auditory processing disorder (pretty common with adhd), like how do you explain that you can hear but your brain has minecraft server lag and the chat will appear soon
hyperfixations, and people thinking they are special interests when they are not (they are short term, literally stops you from basic care like eating and drinking when in) edit: it was brought to my attention this comes across like special interests are easier to live with which is not the case, please do not take that away from this post!!!
impulse purchases making bank accounts cry
all or nothing. not hungry to pain. don't need to pee until pain. you get the picture
cannot sit still, like actually can't, constant moving and shuffling which people think would be cute but actually just pisses people off
doesn't have a fidget toy, not bc they are popular but bc they would have to put it away bc dylan over there got a fidget spinner and has been loudly playing with it (dylan is neurotypical)
cannot do anything if there is something else to do that day, must wait
just stfu it is a disability
Having autism is like
Having ADHD is like
Having both Autism and ADHD is like
Autistic and ‘Over-reacting’ to the Little Things
Neurodivergent_lou
PDA autistic culture is hating the demand that comes with labels so much that you don’t even like identifying as agender because it still feels like…a gender (a concept which society forcefully imposed on you, and you therefore want no part of)
Time Blindness and Alarms
little tip I just discovered if you have time blindness, but are also pretty demand avoidant
a lot of advice for time blindness suggests using timers, which yes CAN work, but if you’re anything like me, that frequently DOESN’T because you just turn off the alarm, and its failure to work then stresses you out
a lot of them also suggest if you’re struggling with using alarms to set them to the most disruptive and annoying sound you can to ensure you can’t ignore them. or put them on the otherside of the room so you HAVE to disrupt what you’re doing to turn them off
and that’s bad fucking advice
because when it hits up with demand avoidance, what happens is often you get into the flow of work, and then this SCREECHING yell of an alarm interrupts you ‘demanding’ you stop your flow, which is just going to piss you off, and if you’re like me you’re going to hit snooze and keep going, getting more and more angry each time the alarm returns
so do the opposite
set your alarm for a pleasant, unobtrusive sound. something you will notice, but that you can sit with going off for a few seconds. what this has meant for me is that instead of feeling this frustrated immediacy to shut off the alarm, and then spitefully continuing whatever i was doing because the ‘rude’ alarm interrupted my flow, instead the alarm now politely ‘reminds’ me that the time i allotted for the task has ended, so its time for me to wind down what i’m doing
the key is making sure you pick a sound that you are ok with playing in the background. this then means you’re able to treat the alarm not like an absolute END TASK NOW, but instead a little ‘last call at the bar’, letting you bring things to a natural close without feeling like you’re being ordered to stop when you’re in the middle of things
None of this is exaggerated, the pain would be less painful than the mental breakdown we'd have to go through before we do The Thing*
Me: Please be clear in communicating with me- if you want something just say it
Also me: I know I need to do The Thing* but now that you’ve said I need to do it I would rather fist-fight a porcupine naked than do The Thing*
Autistic and Repeating the Same Phrase Over and Over
Neurodivergent_lou
GUYS AUTISM SPEAKS IS SHIT BUT IM DUMB
guys I need help I need sources, reasons, explanations specifically on why autism speaks bad please help me I’m lazy and don’t know what to look for
since autism often involves strict planning and routine whereas adhd often cannot function under such plans and routines, do audhd people have two wolves inside them who are constantly fighting like. "we NEED a plan" and "there will be NO PLAN or there will be NO MOTIVATION"
sometimes you just have to let yourself be a bit neurodivergent.
i hate going out, it gives me a lot of anxiety and sensory input that i dont like, and i am often forced to talk to people.
so i do this thing on more difficult days, or sometimes just for fun, where i "bring a fictional character with me". i walk and imagine Fictional Character walking next to me. they talk to me, reassure me, hype me up, whatever i need them to do.
today dean winchester came christmas shopping with me. he went over the list with me of stuff i needed to get, told me i was doing a good job every time i finished in a certain shop, reminded me to take a deep breath when i got a little overwhelmed.
and yea. its kinda silly. and i know its just me talking to myself in a different voice, but it Works! especially since all of my special interests/hyperfixations tend to be tv/movie related.
so do what you gotta do to Get Shit Done. stop holding yourself to neurotypical standards. if you need Fictional Character to tell you you're doing a good job, do it! if you need Favourite Singer to walk you to school, do it! yea it might feel silly but you're literally fighting against your own brain to get stuff done every single day. you can have a little self indulgent daydream, as a treat.