What's in a label and looking at the bigger picture: Considering the importance of using the right descriptor when conveying the seriousness of your condition to yourself and others whilst exploring a possible link between CFS / ME and neurodiversity.
It seems that autism does lend itself to glitchy handling of oxalates, glutamates and some other dietary factors including omega 3s and certain vitamins, with broad ranging effects on health, pain levels and mental wellbeing. Piecing together some of my own detective work to iron out life-long struggles due to dietary factors, hoping to shed some light for others.
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?”.
Highly Sensitive People spend whole lifetimes feeling like we live on the fringe of all fringes, dancing someone else’s dance (carefully), feeling odd when we compare ourselves with what are supposedly “normal” reactions to everyday situations, when we feel unable to join in because things get too much for us such as when life is too noisy, busy or triggering to be borne by our finely tuned wiring and when we just can’t manage the loneliness of being, apparently, the only one who notices things that, to us, are obvious…So, from now on, let all that be for a higher reason; embrace its potential, not its weirdness or other people's misfits ideas about it. This trait has been proven to be an evolutionary potential in every one of the many species where it has been found to exist (in just 20% of the population in every case) and it is also shown not to be a pathology, so let's stop acting like it is. Now is the time to dare to be, unapologetically, ourselves...or walk off to where we feel better and are listened to and truly valued for our gifts, even be alone for a while to recover and grow ourselves, rather than this endless rub and rejection.
Imagine going through life at cross-purposes with most of the people around you...not because you are broken but because you are different to a degree you didn't realise until now. Plunging the challenging world of neurodiverse relationships from personal experience, from some books I can recommend and from the perspective of some fresh new approaches to autism that are (thankfully) starting to appear.
Living whole 