Diagnosing as autistic is just the very first step. Reappraising you choices, what truly motivates you, how and when to engage with others, how much of yourself you have been giving up to conform and what you are going to have to let go of to become more authentically yourself...these are the next steps in the ongoing journey of overhauling your autistic life.
Exploring some of the links I have personally made between low barometric pressure and increased pain (also ADHD, intensity and sensitivity). Considering a non-linear approach to all of these areas (how linear are your symptoms, really), do changes in air pressure play a part?
From the eye of the storm of a flare-up, sharing what I have noticed about the close link between mast cell activation, circadian and other cycles and ADHD behaviours. Read on...
Turns out I am one of probably thousands of people who been profoundly affected by misophonia all of my life and yet didn't know what it was and could never put a name to it (or quite dispel some of the shame of it)...until I began to research the effects of autism more and more by listening to other women's real-life stories. Sharing in case this is any of you too.
What you or I need to recover our health, to maintain it and truly thrive may be completely different, even polar opposite to what someone else needs. Considering the potential relationship between ADHD and a chronic (as in, long perpetuated) state of poor health.
High-functioning autism is often missed or misunderstood, not least because those with it so often overcompensate for their traits. The term has also been phased out in "official" quarters and yet it still applies to just so many people, not least those who have reached midlife undiagnosed (and especially women). Tackling this controversial topic on behalf of those of us who still fall between the cracks, with a link to some useful resources to help you find your way.
Burnout or even trauma can be a very real risk if you are autistic and find social engagement really challenging or have poor track record; however, it can also be a highly positive "stim" from which you may get far more positive effects than you know. How to reconcile this two pony team, and the completely different directions they pull in, can be a lifelong conundrum if you happen to be both autistic and ADHD but getting it right can potentially lead to far better health and a vastly improved quality of life.
When you're hungry for good vibration, when your system basically runs on it above all other motivators, it runs the risk of sucking vibes in from many sources, not all of them equal. Exploring the cross-over of neurodivergence, stimming, addiction risk, the need to source the right energy for your life and the possibility of finding good health, even thriving, once you realise your energy needs are fundamentally different to other peoples.
Being on the spectrum doesn’t mean one person lives at a high functioning end and some other autistic person lives somewhere in the middle or at the bottom. It means we are all a range, within ourselves, and some of those highs can mask the lows (a primary reason for missed diagnosis). One trait alone can overcompensate for several shortfalls and mean adults are so blinded by your ability they don’t accommodate or even see your considerable struggles. You then exhaust yourself by overcompensating for, or masking, your own struggles for years, burning yourself out by having to work twice as hard as everyone else just to get by or meet high expectations set by others which you took on at face value. Suddenly, you are hit between the eyes by the pathos of this…you were never really that person they thought you were, which you took on at face value, but rather this other person with such a wide mixture of gifts and challenges they almost seem to cancel you out.
There are so many areas of human experience where autism is assumed to mean less than or shortfall whereas it’s often a case of more…so much more that it’s untenable and excruciating to be in the experience. Sometimes, the very appearance of so-called shortfall should prompt the question “is way too much going on in there, so much so that it can’t be handled or made sense of, can’t be articulated or processed in conventional ways?”.
Living whole 