Neurodivergence

from 2022, but probably very relatable to many people (myself included)

An awesome post with tons of super informative threads that I thought this community could get a lot of value from. I would hate for this info to be lost so I made sure to archive it and share it here in the Fediverse, enjoy! 😄

Triplett was known worldwide as “Case 1″ - the first person to be diagnosed with autism.

Triplett worked at the bank for about 65 years, according to CEO Allen Breland, whose own 36-year tenure makes him a relative newcomer there.

“Don was a remarkable individual,” Breland said of the fiercely independent savant. “And he kept things interesting.”

Though he came across to newcomers as strange and obsessive, Triplett had a facility with numbers that made phone directories obsolete in his presence.

I love being outside. I hate the sun. I also hate sunscreen.

I feel like there's a weird split between the reality of having this gross white goop on you all the time (most people don't wear sunscreen all the time, right? Right??) and the reality of the sun basically wanting us all dead.

This sunburn calculator made by a dermatologist will show you how quickly you can actually get burned. Personally, today, I literally can't stay outside for longer than 14-ish minutes (probably even shorter in my case) without any sunscreen before I've had too much sun.

Even on a somewhat cloudy day, I can't stay out there for more than half an hour. I notice that I'm getting too much sun, too. I feel like my eyes are sunburned practically. I struggle to comprehend how skin like this even evolved. People practically shame me for "not going out enough" when they straight-up just have darker skin than me.

...And yet the idea of always putting sunscreen on is like, some kind of social faux pas on top of me really not wanting to. It smells, people notice that it smells, it feels gross, people notice that I'm even pastier than usual. It's like wow, you care about skin care enough to deal with that and spend gobs of money sticking a shot glass of sunscreen on yourself every two hours? God forbid if I actually had lip balm of all things as a man, and wearing clothing that would actually keep the sun at bay a little bit, ahhhahahaha. No. /rant

TL;DR what do y'all do about the sun existing?

Edit: I got over myself and started buying decent sunscreen. And decent SPF lip balm because Jesus Christ my lips are somethin' else. If people think it's weird to not get skin cancer that's their problem.

ADHD and autism are both strongly correlated with justice sensitivity. If you need an explanation for what that is, here's a quote from this article:

Justice sensitivity is the tendency to notice and identify wrong-doing and injustice and have intense cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions to that injustice. People who are justice sensitive tend to notice injustice more often than others, they tend to ruminate longer and more intensely on that injustice, and they feel a stronger need to restore justice.

Do y'all experience this? If so, how does it manifest?

For me, I can't see injustice and do nothing. Failing to stand up for my beliefs makes me hate myself, and I'll usually do it even if I know it's a bad idea or I'm surrounded by people who disagree--if anything, I feel more compelled to do it then. Since some of my beliefs are wildly unpopular, this often winds up in me feeling ostracized, rejected, and depressed.

I don't know what to do about this. I can't just not stand up for what I believe in--it's clearly the right thing to do. But it's a deeply unpleasant experience I keep repeating. I'll choose standing up for my beliefs over not being hurt if I have to, but that doesn't make it fun.

this is a pretty short piece from about a decade ago, which leads with:

Somebody calls autism a tragedy. Somebody kills an autistic person. Somebody doesn’t see how these two events are connected. I try to explain. I try harder. It happens again and again and again and somebody ‘splains it away.

and i'm sure you can already see where this is going and why it's going that way; it's a good piece, if heavy.

Thanks to the DEA’s massive overreach, for the third time in 5 or so months I’ve had to call a pharmacy outside my area to get my Concerta. My regular pharmacy gave me what they had, which I’m grateful for, but that left me short 7 pills. I then had to:

-Find a pharmacy that had the medicine I needed in the proper dose

-Call my doctor to have him send a new prescription over to that pharmacy since you’re not allowed to just show them your current one

-Drive about 15-20 minutes to get there

-Wait in line, give them my driver’s license (which I don’t have to do at my normal pharmacy) and sign a bunch of shit before finally leaving with it.

I’m just tired of this song and dance. Concerta works best for me though and isn’t too expensive with a coupon. I just want the DEA to stop micromanaging ADHD meds. I understand some oversight is needed but they go way overboard. Feel free to vent your frustration here as well.

Hey folks!

Sorry for the mangled title! Hope I'm doing this correctly.

I'm an interior architect/designer currently trying to write an article about the influence of architecture on people experiencing synesthesia or sensory processing disorders, with the end goal being to give some ideas and suggestions for more universal and inclusive design.

I'm only in the research stage, so I don't have much to share yet.

A very superficial Google search told me there are so many varieties of synesthesia that it's impossible to really pinpoint anything common like "most people hear a low note when seeing the colour blue", or "the colour red tastes like honey", so I'm curious what it's like for you? Is shopping fun or torture? What about museums? Is anything ever "quiet" for you? What do you wish public buildings had (or don't have) to make going there easier/more fun for you? Are there specific triggers?

I wasn't actually planning on publishing* your stories into the article, I'm just trying understand what life if like for you at this point.

*Publishing sounds super fancy, but I only have 1 subscriber so there's a large chance nobody would even see it anyway.

Also please feel free correct me if I'm using the wrong terminology, this is new terrain for me.

Thank you in advance for sharing your experiences!

(i'll also crosspost this one in [email protected], since i'm not sure how much overlap our two communities currently have)

Sorry for the external link, but Lemmy wouldn't allow me to post the whole text. As mentioned at the start, feel free to contribute or debate as you see fit, I might update this post later on.

Do you ever miss your refill appointments, like, almost every time? I've been conserving my Adderall since the shortage started - I've only gotten one refill in the past six months, and I've also missed every refill appointment in that time. I'm throwing money away for fees to reschedule appointments ... for a medication that helps me remember appointments ... that I can't even get refilled because of the supply change shortage. It's so frustrating and ironic, all I can do is try to laugh.

^hahaha^

Hi, so I've been wandering this all my life, but how do others get the energy to finish and do things?

My ADHD/Autistic brain has trouble getting the simplest of chores done, simply due to me not being able to start or continue past a mental block.

I've been taking meds for my depression, and it seems to have helped but... If anyone has some tricks they've used to get by, please let me know.

Thank you in advance for the help!

I've used https://reddit.com/r/cptsd as a support group for awhile. It never felt right to post such sensitive discussions onto a platform controlled by a tech company trying to monetize its content, so I was really happy when things like Lemmy began taking off. In my opinion, support communities belong in user-owned spaces like this.

I use Beehaw as a provider, and I thought it might be a good place to host a CPTSD community because of Beehaw's rules and ethos. I had a look at what's existing, and this is the closest one I could find. There's [email protected] (am I referring to that correctly?), but it's dead.

Is anyone aware of a good CPTSD community, or would there be interest/support in creating one on Beehaw?

Edit: I've inquired to see how this works: https://beehaw.org/post/554142

CROSS-INSTANCE LINK (may not work): c/[email protected]

Link for beehaw here (may not work)

Otherwise search for: [[email protected]](/c/[email protected])

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/107214

Aphantasia is the inability to create mental imagery.

For discussion, research or memes.

10 days ago, Lauren (who has schizoaffective disorder) shared that she was starting to experience psychosis, and as an educational channel about schizophrenia and related conditions such as schizoaffective disorder she has been sharing the experience of coming to terms with this and receiving treatment.

Her next update was a week later, sharing that she'd voluntarily checked in to a psychiatric ward, and then today she uploaded a day in the life at a psych ward. She seems to be doing well, but still has no solidified discharge date quite yet.

I think these sorts of videos are very important to normalize and destigmatize seeking treatment for more stigmatized conditions such as schizophrenia. Society has come a long way in destigmatizing anxiety and depression, but still has a long way to go with anything to do with psychosis, so I thought these were worth a share.

This will be long, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.

Has anyone else noticed that there are less avenues of support and resources for adults than there is for kids? For the purposes of this post I’m talking about mainly government sources. I’m aware there are some NGOs that offer help for adults. It seems like government agencies only have a lot of their neurodivergent resources and support for families, particularly children. While this is completely understandable, these children will eventually become adults, and it will be a rude awakening.

There’s still so many misconceptions about neurodivergent people that particularly hurt when a person becomes an adult, and it starts from childhood. Some of the things I’ve heard:“oh they’re kids, they’ll grow out of it” and too many neurotypicals thinking that we’re all invalids that can’t take care of ourselves and need to be institutionalized. Things would definitely improve (job wise and mental health wise) if more groups would stop thinking of these conditions as just something kids go through and expand their support systems to adults as well as children.

A community for respectful discussion and memes related to autism acceptance. All neurotypes are welcome.

If coming from the beehaw.org instance, try this link to be ablesubscribe: https://beehaw.org/c/[email protected]

Please let me know if you have trouble with any of the links.

I've created a community more more light-hearted banter on ADHD. Hope y'all will join me.

Link via your own instance: [email protected]

As someone with ADHD I find it’s a common experience for many that we stay up all night. I’ve fought that in the past but now I kinda feel like I should just accept it. Go to bed late, get up late. However that’s not very conducive to a normal business routine.

How do you all handle your mornings and nights? Is it worth it even to try to change?

Invisible struggles may be the worst kind of struggles. Or if you're not blending in, people insist that "you should try." It's especially hard coming from family members who know you but refuse to acknowledge that you can't just """change your brain""" and """be normal""".

This can also apply to invisible illnesses & mental health. Please know that there are people out there who get you. You're not alone.

Who here is parenting an ND child?

Has finding out their diagnosis also led to you or their other parent to a late diagnosis?

Any resources you'd like to share with the community?

Neurodivergent folk are told in thousands of ways, small and large, that we are both too much and not enough at the same time. It is crazy making.

These are opinions and not very good ones.

The vast majority of the things that we are criticized for are not actually requirements. We are mostly criticized for things that are the optional extras that makes the critical person feel comfortable. If it is not their job to make you comfortable, then it is not your job to make them comfortable.

All that we have to do in life is to be Perfectly Fine Human Beings.

A Perfectly Fine Human Being:

~ Keeps themselves and their environment clean enough not to negatively impact someone else’s health.

~ Obeys the civil law. Read it for yourself.

~ Does not purposely aggravate others. That is just self-preservation.

~ Does their share and only their share. Get that spelled out in the beginning and preferably in writing.

~ Honors any contract freely entered into. If it isn’t in the contract you are not responsible. Read the contract.

~ Keeps themselves to themselves. Peopling is optional, but if you choose to people you have implicitly agreed to play by their rules.

~ Quietly walks away from people and situations that they find unhelpful or unhealthy.

This is all it Takes to be a Perfectly Fine Human Being just as you are. Every thing beyond this is extra and completely optional.

I’ve been at this neurodivergent thing for 51 years (diagnosed as dyslexic in 1972 and autistic in 2021) and have cultivated a wonderful group of fellow neurodivergent folks. The one thing that makes the single biggest improvement in our lives is learning to love our quirks. Fly, be free to be your quirky, adorkable selves. Being adorkable is adorable.