Neurodivergence

Mods, if this isn't allowed please delete.

I have no skin in the game here. This is a summit that started today and goes through Thursday. I thought I'd share it here.

Autism isn't something a person has, or a "shell" that a person is trapped inside. There's no normal child hidden behind the autism. Autism is a way of being. It is pervasive; it colors every experience, every sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and encounter, every aspect of existence. It is not possible to separate the autism from the person--and if it were possible, the person you'd have left would not be the same person you started with.

This is important, so take a moment to consider it: Autism is a way of being. It is not possible to separate the person from the autism.

Howdy, fellow ADHDers. How the bloody hell do you get ANYTHING done at work?

My career history has been pretty varied, but I currently find myself as a quality and training manager at a firm that values neither. Because of this lack of defined interest from management above, much of my workload is self-led, and self motivated.

Which, of course, means that I do basically nothing.

I've been seeing a work coach for the past few months, who is helping to steer my mindset in the right direction, and ultimately it boils down to how easily distracted I am by things I deem more interesting than what I'm paid to do. Which is everything.

The one tool that works for me is a website blocker called Cold Turkey, which literally just forces me to not be able to access whichever websites I specify. It works brilliantly, because there's almost no way to override it, not easily anyway. However, the automated actions are part of the paid for app, which I can't currently afford, so I have to manually push the button that cuts me off from all those beautiful distractions on the internet.

The anxiety this spikes in me is way more than is healthy...

So what tools do you use to try and get shit done?

tl;dr I need to make a programming portfolio but I'm struggling with justifying it to my brain

Hey, so... there's a thing that's been bothering me for a long time. I've never been able to "fit in" at most jobs. I don't really have "a thing I'd enjoy working in" which, in my case, is a problem because I just can't give up more than a half of my time to something I don't care about, it really messes with my brain and I can't stay in that situation for long.

Programming caught my attention because it relies on stuff I'm quite good at. Solving problems, some creativity, more detailed work too. I have a few online courses done so I'm not totally clueless etc. I have an idea of how searching for a job looks now and other basics.

Now, for the main course: I'm trying so hard to find a field to stay in but for some reason it's weirdly difficult. I think it's because I'm not sure what this or that position really looks in day to day life. I was interested in C# and backend the most but I'm not sure anymore. Is it only working on web pages all day long? I can see it's usually commerce and I don't like that too much. I'm open to other languages too, that's not a problem.

On top of that everyone says "do a portfolio" and they're right because that's probably the only way to showcase the skills a person has but that's where things start to get tricky. My mind just refuses to do a project for the sake of doing it, straight up "nope" and it just doesn't want to cooperate. I tried to look into open source projects to help someone else but they're too advanced, I'm in that weird void between courses and real life applications. I tried to ask people in beginner groups if they'd like to make something together but no one answered, nobody I know needs an app for anything too so it's no use.

I think it's more neurodivergency related thing than strictly tech. Trouble with decision making, motivation, many people don't understand that.

My reasoning behind all this is that if I find a project that's needed by other people, I'd be able to complete it. I haven't found anyone with a similar issue yet though.

I had my first appointment today with a new provider - a nurse practitioner - at the third practice I've tried since getting diagnosed with ADHD in January. I'm kinda reeling from it, and I'm trying to make sense of my feelings, because idk if I'm just sensitive because I'm unmedicated for the third day in a row (didn't know if I'd get a refill today, trying to conserve what I had) or if it's a bad fit or if it's just new provider weirdness or what.

Brief history - first provider was through an online practice, couldn't get the Rx filled. Second provider was local, was a truly wonderful fit with fantastic rapport, but she was starting a new practice and ran into problems with state rules regarding prescribing and had to transfer my care back to the online practice. Third provider, again through the online practice, was very perfunctory and disinterested, gave a refill but needed an in-person referral to continue due to federal rules regarding prescribing, so I transferred to this third practice.

The nurse practitioner I saw today was mostly kind but asked a couple questions that hurt my feelings but probably shouldn't have - "Are you always like this??" at one point 😂🤦😭 yes, yes I am - and seemed disinterested anytime I got very deep into any elaboration. I figured out once I got home that he had already viewed the big huge document I shared outlining my symptoms/experience and why I was seeking help, so that's why he seemed impatient with my blathering, though I do wish he had come out and just said that.

Idk what I'm looking for. Experiences, commiseration, validation, anything vaguely resembling relating to any of this - I'm feeling like a real weirdo right now. Like, I understand I'm not neurotypical, that's why I was there seeking help, but it's been a while since I felt it so thoroughly after a conversation, especially when I guess I went in there hoping to come out feeling at least a little understood. Maybe he's not a good fit, or maybe my super awesome experience with that second practitioner has skewed my expectations?

What is your relationship like with your care provider(s)? What kind do you see? How long have you been seeing them? Have you seen others? What were those relationships like?

Anything you feel like sharing after reading this will probably help me.

I've had a 'passion' for programming for all my life, but recently I've been getting into a very, very emotional state over stuff like tooling and small things like that. The smallest things make me go off these days, and I feel so tired after every discussion. Feeling like I am in the wrong or that I don't know what I'm talking about. I wish I could just make it all go away or somehow be happy or succeed some day. I never will tho

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!

Posting to see if the defederation has affected my ability to post on here.

I'm requesting that

• One person on the beehaw.org instance reply to know if y'all can see my posts or not.
• Someone from the beehaw.org instance tell me if they can see my community through the beehaw instance: https://beehaw.org/c/[email protected]

(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.