AuDHD Flourishing

I failed my first driving test! On a technicality! Ah, the frustrations of begging to exist in structures not built for us. Three quick stories about bureaucratic bullshit in a single week, and how it fits into my own big ball of yarn. It's okay that the stuff that's hard for us is probably never going to be fun or easy.We need support and RESOURCES that work for us! More on finding good resources in the episode... librarians are often a great place to start. Resources:Like Your Brain community spaceTranscript DocEmail NewsletterNew course: Experimenting Your Way to an Extraordinary Life

The autistic / AuDHD self-discovery journey can feel like finding out that you've been hammering screws this whole time. You never learned how to use the right tools. You may not have been given the right tools at all! A few thoughts on the grief inherent in the process, and how to equip your personal toolbox now that you know what's up.Resources:Like Your Brain community spaceTranscript DocEmail NewsletterNew course: Experimenting Your Way to an Extraordinary Life

Weeks and months are staples of scheduling systems. But they tend not to work well for me as units of time. My personal ideal is two days on, two days off, though that's impractical. Instead, I talk about the various workarounds I've found, including intentionally scheduling rest (and how if I don't have time for that, I need to decrease demands). If weeks don't work well for you, how can you find what does?Resources:Like Your Brain community spaceTranscript DocEmail NewsletterNew course: Experimenting Your Way to an Extraordinary Life

This episode is about both why it's so hard to get help as an AuDHDer,and some of the broad steps I see working for us.It can help to have a view of your "big ball of yarn" i.e. complex and interrelated problems or life areas.It can also help to start addressing your sensory needs, core needs, and just live your life while you take a break from big processing.Please take care and be gentle to yourself!Links mentioned:New course: Experimenting Your Way to an Extraordinary LifeYour Core Self Care Need episodeThe 4 steps I talked aboutCrisis Resources:USA-based anonymous crisis chatInternational crisis linesVarious types of crisis resources in about 10 countriesResources:Like Your Brain community spaceTranscript DocEmail Newsletter

What NOT to do in your AuDHD discovery process is just as important as knowing what to do! This episode interweaves nicely with last week's episode about what AuDHDers need.This is hardly an exhaustive list, but it covers many of the patterns I've seen and heard in the community.Links mentioned:InterGifted: What is Giftedness?Autistic Culture PodcastFree Office Hours call (p.s. being a free Patreon member is the best way to get updates/reminders about these calls)Crisis Resources:USA-based anonymous crisis chatInternational crisis linesVarious types of crisis resources in about 10 countriesResources:Like Your Brain community spaceTranscript DocEmail Newsletter

What do AuDHDers need (beyond the obvious needs all humans have)? And why do those needs matter?This episode covers some important ones:Being able to engage with our interests (in a particular way)Executive Function support, without trying to make the hardest things easy or enjoyableAutonomyTrue restThe narrow path of just enough stimulationProcessing timeTo be witnessed in just the right wayRecognition that our needs vary quite a bit day to dayComing to terms with disabilitySpace and time throughout our self-discovery journeySafe enough spaces to explore what it means to be ourselfLinks mentioned:Executive function test post if you want to ask Qs or share your experienceExecutive Skills Questionnaire Revised (ESQ-R)Unmasking Autism book (affiliate link)Crisis Resources:USA-based anonymous crisis chatInternational crisis linesVarious types of crisis resources in about 10 countriesResources:Like Your Brain community spaceTranscript DocEmail NewsletterLove Your Brain course

Almost all of us consider formal diagnosis in our AuDHD discovery journey. Whether it's ADHD-focused for medication, or Autism-focused for validation or accommodations.Knowing why you want the diagnosis goes a long way in figuring out what to pursue. The main options as I currently see them are:full formal neuropsych testingprovisional diagnosis with a shorter screening testa formal letter requesting accommodations from your providerself-diagnosiscommunity diagnosisThis episode talks aboutThe upsides and downsides of diagnosis in generalMy personal diagnosis experience (two full rounds of neuropsych testing)Options to approach decision-making for yourselfHow to get started if you do want diagnosisQuestions from the longer decision-making process in the episode are in the Transcript DocCrisis Resources:USA-based anonymous crisis chatInternational crisis linesVarious types of crisis resources in about 10 countriesMonotropism resources:Monotropism Questionnaire and more info about itMonotropism explainedFergus Murray's 6 Starting Points for Understanding Autism034 Monotropism Might Explain Everything with Fergus Murray035 How Much Time Does Creating Take?039 Autism "Levels" and MonotropismOther Links mentioned:Devon Price's post about Autism diagnosis pros n consThrow Away the Masters Tools: Liberating Ourselves From the Pathology Paradigm by Nick WalkerAuDHD Flourishing Resources:Like Your Brain community spaceTranscript DocEmail Newsletter

Bonus drop from The Curiosity Cure podcast:Today's conversation with Mattia takes us through their journey with chronic pain, feeling better, and the ways they navigate their inner mindbody conversation as someone with AuDHD + PDA. We touch upon themes of neurodivergence, gender transition, resourcing inner + external safety. We chat about using hypnotic techniques to decrease a sense of threat/unsafety that may accompany disorders like ehlers-danlos syndrome and POTS. Thanks to Deb for sharing this episode: full show notes hereThe show notes link above has many resources about successful healing from related conditionsThe Curiosity Cure podcast site

I'm taking the last two weeks of August off, and will be back in September with a "back to the basics" series about things like diagnosis, what to do when you first discover your AuDHD identity, etc! In the meantime, you can check out...Like Your Brain community spaceTranscript DocYouTube: The Longer Road, Mattia guesting on other pods