Have you heard, there is a new name for ADHD and its VAST ("variable attention stimulus trait"). Exploring how this makes all the difference in the world and how opening the topic up is as expansive, boundless and exploratory as the acronym implies.
Beaking down "what happens" when you flare-up and coming to understand why your body migth tend to resort to these responses to certain triggers, usually in an effort to help you (an understanding that can occur to you when you slow down enough to listen, instead of letting fear lead the research party) can make for a big breakthrough in managing these dips...
Knowing what your weaknesses are and, importantly, owning them can be the very first step to making your "problems" much simpler to navigate, avoiding the endless re-runs of such familiar-old challenges and then claiming all those hidden strengths that are just waiting for you to notice them beyond the smokescreen of struggle...
Are sensory-sensitivities in autism the same as being a Highly Sensitive Person and what can you do, in either case, when your sensory experiences seem to play on loop, especially if they trigger physical symptoms? Sharing some insights as someone with both traits and ways I am starting to rewire my own highly sensitive responses.
What would my autism look like if it had been noticed 50 years ago, if I had been fed an appropriate diet supported by the full understanding of what best suits my particular biology, if I hadn't had to work so very hard to blend in as neurotypical for all these years as a matter of survival, and if my autism was welcomed as the useful and contributory trait that it is in its own unique way? Here, amongst some key observations about how "wrong" diet has had such a huge impact on my life, are some aspirations for the future of a world in which autism is better understood and has its valued place.
If recovery from chronic illness is like a long-running detective story, with us as its protagonist, this year has felt like one of those chapters that make sense of quite a few things in a series of "a-ha" moments. And though what I have learned in quick succession may very-well have overwhelmed me, it has also enlightened me as in TO LIGHT ME UP with a new degree of self-appreciation and awareness, also clarity as to how certain root circumstances click together to make chronic illness what it is.
Suddenly, people like me, on the long-haul to solo self-recovery from "mystery" illnesses find we are not all alone in here. Amidst the sea of people embarking on the bewildering covid long-haul recovery path, I'm hearing such a lot of talk about syndromes that are painfully familiar turf. So, what would I share with anyone at the start of such a journey and what does (or will) the coincidence potentially tell us about chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, PoTs, MCAS and a whole load of other overlapping syndromes? Here begins the mass learning curve!
Choosing the path that is right for you is also an inside job, though it's easier to get swept along conventional routes. Some personal thoughts on why I chose my healing route...
My physical foibles (labelled such things as EDS and chronic pain) don't render me unentitled to a gloriously reimagined health future but even more prone to be open minded and eager enough to embark on the journey because there are no rules where I dwell, it is all a giant leap in the dark so why not make it a leap towards what I prefer to envision and thus create. The first step is to make friends with movement...
The Earth is something so few of us think of as something we are deeply attached to and yet our planet is the parent from which we are never truly severed, though we do a great deal to wear thin the connection. Like stroppy teenagers, the modern human abuses and tugs at the tie, hardly considering how it will come to value and rely on it in years to come (perhaps, as often happens with our human parents, somewhat too late). The more detached we get, the less we thrive and the deeper the wound inside ourselves grows as we sense our own discordance with the universal pattern of Nature of which we are meant to be part. So what does that look like...and how do we reverse it?
Living whole 