ADHD Studyblr

22 // they/them

[bruisedpeachpoetry]

ADHD is a disability. I know this. Nobody else around me does. When I say I can't do something, I don't need tips, I don't need encouragement, I need you to believe me. I need just one person to believe that I'm not lying when I say I am unable to do something because of my literal developmental disability. No more "just push through", no more "try harder", no more "I did it and you can too", because I am absolutely sure that in this moment I am unable to fucking do it! Please believe me for once. Please.

[adhd-asd]

What are some tricks for getting executive dysfunction to bugger off long enough to do the thing?

     Here are some ideas I’ve either found work for me or I’ve been told work for other people. Hopefully you’ll find some of them effective or, if not, maybe they’ll inspire you to come up with some brand new strategies of your own.

Declare your intent aloud. Announce to yourself (and other people, if they’re around) that you’re going to do the thing you need to do. Eg: “I will clean the sink.” “I am going to have a shower.”

Talk yourself through the task. Narrating the steps of my current task as I do them helps me to concentrate and follow through. Eg: “I am gathering the empty cups from the table and putting them in the sink.” Sometimes I can then even start narrating things I am not doing and I’ll automatically follow through because it’s become a habit in the moment. If a task involves reading, try reading it aloud.

Steal the energy from elsewhere. Engage with something that makes you feel good first, then ride that high to do the thing that doesn’t. If the task involves doing something physical, put on some energetic music that makes you want to dance and then channel that dance energy into task energy.

Hype yourself up. Channel your inner feel-good sports movie coach and start telling yourself how awesome you are, how you’re gonna kick this task’s butt and this task doesn’t stand a chance. Repeat random over-the-top motivational phrases until the motivation has no choice but to appear, like summoning an eldritch being by annoying them until they acknowledge you.

Break the task into steps. Very often I’ll have trouble tackling tasks, even simple ones, just because I don’t know where to start and the whole thing feels bigger than it is. In this case I find it helps to determine the steps that a task involves and do them one at a time, treating each one as its own job. Eg: Instead of “I will write an essay” try “I will write an introductory paragraph” or even just “I will write an introductory sentence”.

Write the steps down. Goodness knows I can’t follow verbal instructions for the life of me unless they’re given one step at a time. Rather than trying to keep the steps straight in your head, write them down and keep referring back to that list when you get sidetracked, lost, or stuck.

Do the task out of order. If the task allows it, try doing whatever part is most appealing first to ease yourself into the workflow.

Make the workload smaller. If jobs like doing dishes or laundry seem like too much work, consider if you can get rid of some of the clothes or dishes to cut down on how much work there is in the first place. If you’ve committed to too large a project, see if you can simplify it or distribute the work involved among a group.

Narrow your focus. Rather than tackling an entire task at once, try breaking it into easier-to-manage chunks. If you need to do laundry or dishes, specify that you’re only going to wash shirts or plates. If reading an entire book is intimidating, assign yourself a certain number of pages at a time. If reading an entire page of text is intimidating, try covering the page with a loose piece of paper and slowly revealing lines as you read.

Do it in five minute increments. Set a timer for five minutes and do the task for the duration. If you feel like you could do a little more, keep at it. If you’re still struggling, give yourself a break (you can also time your break if you find that helps) and try again later.

Use a buddy. See if there’s someone who’s willing to have a call going or who will come sit by you or even just check in every once in a while to keep you accountable. ADHDers are notorious for lacking internal motivation, so employing someone else to externalize it can make a big difference.

Be kind to yourself. Sometimes, no matter what you do, your brain just doesn’t want to cooperate. If you feel yourself getting frustrated, remember that it’s not your fault. Take a step back, have a snack or drink of water, give yourself some time to decompress, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Taking care of yourself will help you to actually be in good enough condition to do the job.

     I’ve also talked more in-depth about how I personally tackle doing tasks despite executive dysfunction here, and I have an ADHD Writing Advice post here that has some tips that may be applicable to tasks other than writing.

     To others who struggle with executive dysfunction, what are some strategies you’ve discovered work for you?

[lateforcakes]

big ole comic about adult ADHD diagnosis + big feelings + making sure childhood me is okay

[fragrant-stars]

*through gritted teeth* it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be done. it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be done. it doesn’t have to be-

[assfamine]

I don’t know! We’ll see what the next movie makes me realize about myself. It’s kind of- It’s, I don’t know. I’m so lucky I get to work out this trauma and stuff like that on the big screen. It’s bizarre! But I’m glad you connected with it all.

Daniel Kwan, Co-Director of Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) | Everything Everywhere All At Once World Premiere Q&A from SXSW 2022

[k-dhd]

[sleepchokin]

"Everyone Has ADHD" / "Everyone has problems with that" Actually...

(source: Taking Charge of Adult ADHD by Dr Russell Barkley)

[tylerpage]

BUTTON PUSHER is now officially out in the world!!

Here’s a rundown of all 10 of the #ADHD facts I shared in the run-up to the book’s release. Order your copy HERE.

[shiftylookingcrow]

A (not comprehensive) List of Little Self Care Things I Do When Everything Feels Like Too Much:

Bathing

Wash just your body, or just your hair. You may not be completely clean, but you ARE cleaner

Still feels like too much? No problem!

Take off any jewelry from your hands/wrists and wash your hands up to your elbows, just taking your time

Then wash your arm pits and groin, those are the stinkiest parts of the body

If you're feeling up to it, wash your face too

Once you're done washing, take your favorite body lotion and massage it in anywhere you washed

Shaving

Shaving takes time and patience (especially if you prefer to be mostly hairless), but you don't have to go through the whole process every time

Wanna wear that cute tank top/crop top but don't feel comfortable with how hairy your pits are today?

JUST shave your arm pits then

Wanna wear shorts/capries/a skirt, but feel your legs are too fuzzy?

Where on your legs do the cuffs/hem sit? JUST shave from there down

Facial hair looking kinda scruffy? Got an electric shaver? It won't give you as close a shave as a razor, but it'll help neaten you up a bit

After any shaving, get back in there with your lotion and work it in well

Laundry

Don't have the energy to drag that big basket you've been avoiding down to the washing machine? Out of clothes but need something to wear tomorrow?

Wash ONLY what you'll need for the next 1 or 2 days. A smaller load means less to put away after

Need a bra/binder/mask/etc for tomorrow? Wash ONE, then hang it to dry with a fan blowing on it.

The air movement will help it dry faster, and while it may not be 100% dry by morning, it should be dry enough to wear comfortably

This can be done for underwear and socks as well

Dental

Mouth feeling like sandpaper, but you still can't find it in you to go through the whole tooth care routine?

JUST brush your teeth before bed. You can floss in the morning

No energy to get in there and really scrub like your dentist told you to? Even just a quick scrub is better than nothing

You know those little Gum brand toothpick things? With runber bristles on them? They can't replace proper flossing, but the CAN at least get the worst of the gunk from between your teeth

Food

Hungry but can't bring yourself to put together a whole meal? That's okay!

Get all the fixings for a sandwich (bread, spreads, cheese, meat, etc), put them on a plate and eat that. You're still eating a sandwich, it's just not an assembled sandwich

Want a smoothy, but don't want to fuss with the blender? Put it all together as a yogurt bowl instead

Want a salad? Grab a couple lettuce leaves, a stick of celery, half a tomato, or whatever else you'd have in there, and toss it on a plate. Grab some dressing (or not) and you've got a personal size veggie platter

Cut an orange in half and eat the pulp out with a spoon

Cut an apple in half, and eat JUST one half. You can save the other half for later, or eat it right after the first if you feel up to it

Cutting a banana in half and squeezing out the fruit means you don't have to worry about those gross stringy bits

Simple Smoothie Recipe:

1 banana

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp honey/sugar

Milk (dairy, soy, almond, whichever)

Berries, yogurt, chocolate chips, jam (optional)

Directions

Put all ingredients except milk in a blender (or 4 cup measure if using a hand mixer)

Pour in milk until ingredients are ALMOST covered. There should be about 1 inch/2.5 cm of solid ingredients visible

Blender/mix for 30-60 seconds, or until desired consistency. Pour into your favorite glass, or drink straight from the container

Simple baked potato:

Clean a medium to large potato and use a fork to stab holes down the sides and at each end. Depending on the size, you should have stab your potato somewhere around 9-12 times.

Place the potato in the microwave just off of center, one end facing the center of the spinning plate

Microwave for 15 minutes, flipping the potato end for end after every 5 minutes

Put the potato on a plate with some sour cream or ranch dressing, and dip it like a big ol' french fry

House Cleaning

Feel like there's too many dishes? Pick ONE place setting (bowl, plate, knife, fork, spoon, cup), and ONE pot/pan, and clean those. Do the same at the end of each meal, and while it might take a while, you'll eventually get things down to a manageable level

Dust bunnies breeding in the corners? Pick ONE room or hallway every couple days and just clean there. ONE clean room is better than NO clean rooms

Your room is so messy you don't know where to start? Every time you enter your room, put ONE thing back where it belongs. Every time you leave your room, take one thing that doesn't belong out with you and put it where it belongs.

Sink looking kind of gross? Give it a quick wipe down the next time you wash your hands

Toilet needs a clean? Pick a part (lid, seat, back or bowl) and just clean that bit. Even if you're just wiping some of the dust off the back.

Scum ring building up in the shower/bathtub? Give it a quick scrub next time you bathe. Maybe you don't get the whole thing, but you DID make a start.

Fitness

No energy for a full walk? If you can, walk around your house/apartment building. You might not have gone far, but you were UP and you were OUTSIDE.

Can't get out for whatever reason? Are there stairs in your house? In your apartment building? If you can, walk up and down those a few times.

Not really able to do stairs? Do some simple stretches instead.

Reach down and try to touch your toes, holding for 20 seconds. Reach up over your head as high as you can, holding for 20 seconds. Repeat 5 times

Sitting in a chair, reach your right hand across your body and over your left shoulder and try to grab the back of the chair without lifting your butt. Hold for 20 seconds. Do the same with your left arm, holding for 20 seconds. Repeat 5 times

Standing, or sitting on a chair, gently pull your head towards your shoulder (right hand, right shoulder; left hand, left shoulder), reaching the other hand down towards the ground. Hold for 20 seconds, then gently push your head upright again (lifting your head with just your neck muscles can cause them to seize after a stretch). Repeat 5 times

Miscellaneous

Need to trim your nails, but don't feel like sitting through both hands? Pick one finger on each hand, and just trim that nail. Do another nail on each hand tomorrow, and another the day after that. You don't have to do them all at once

Having trouble remembering to drink enough water? Find a water bottle/mug/glass that you like and try to keep it near you as much as possible. I find actually having a bottle with me helps me remember to keep sipping.

Still having trouble with your water intake? Fruit and veggies (specifically like apples, oranges, tomatoes, bell peppers and avocados to name a few) have high water content and can help keep you hydrated

Even if you can't get to sleep, lieing in bed with your eyes closed is more restful than trying to wear yourself out by reading or something

Alternatively, doing some mild stretches, or a few sit ups/push ups/jumping jacks can help wear you out without engaging your brain too much

You are aloud to say "no". You don't even need to give a reason. If everything feels like too much, taking on more responsibility will only make it worse, which will only make your output poorer as a result.

A reminder that this is by no means a complete list, just some things I've found helpful in my journey through adhd, depression, and anxiety. Not all tasks need to be done all at once. Maybe you can't do much, but that doesn't invalidate the some you did. Just because you take longer to do a task doesn't mean your bad at it, or that it isn't worth doing. You'll get there when you get there.

Please feel free to add to this post, I'd love to see what self care tricks other people are using!

[krakenartificer]

One of the things that I find hardest to do, that turns out to be textbook ADHD, is figuring out how to get started on a project

(I say, after having procrastinated on writing this, for the last 4 hours. Actually, I have no idea how long I've been procrastinating - I have timeblindness. But I did post a Facebook comment right before I tried to start for the first time, so I can check that. goes to check facebook ohno.jpg) (Two hours. It was 2 hours.)

That overhead/activation cost is so high, I desperately want to finish every project all in one go, in one sprint, rather than have to pay it twice. "Slow and steady wins the race," they say; "Just break it down in to steps and do a little bit every day," they say; and I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to make that work, but just doesn't. Paying the startup cost for 10 minutes of work isn't worth it, and deep down I know that, and won't let myself do something so extravagantly wasteful of spoons. That's not me being immature or unwilling to work -- that's me making an accurate and intelligent assessment of tactical realities.

And yet the fact remains that almost nothing worth doing can be done all in one sprint with no breaks, and that forcing myself to try is detrimental to both my mental and physical health, and therefore I do need to learn how to shut down a project and then start it up again. This is not a complete list, by any means, but it's the best method I've found so far. The specific solutions may or may not work for you, but hopefully it'll give you some ideas on how to start designing your own methods.

My problems with starting my work fall into three broad categories: 1) reticulating splines 2) remembering what's happened, and what's supposed to be happening 3) translating knowledge into action

1) Reticulating Splines

"Reticulating Splines" is a concept I stole from Luna Corbden. They explain it in detail at [link], but the way I always think of it is that my brain only loads in high-res. There is no "just a quick overview" or "don't get into the weeds" for me -- you are getting every piece of information related to this topic, and every relationship between all those pieces of information, or nothing. And as we all know from waiting on high-res videos to buffer, that takes FOREVER.

Now that's not inherently a good or a bad thing.

Once that network map has loaded

I am amazing at pulling up details other people have missed: my map isn't fuzzy and pixelated.

I am spectacularly good at spotting edge cases and unexpected consequences: I'm looking at the entire project and all its interrelationships at the same time.

I am incredibly good at following other people's trains of thought even when they're communicating badly: I know every possible path between two statements, so when someone says they're related, I can back-trace what their route from A to B must have been.

I am a much better developer, a much better tutor, and a much better manager because of this capability, as long as you give me time to get the splines reticulated.

But it does mean that there's no such thing as a "quick question" for me. Imagine if every time you went to Wikipedia, it had to load every single Wikipedia entry in your web browser before it would show you the page you asked for -- that's what talking to me is like if you spring a conversation on me without warning.

It follows, then, that there's no such thing as a "quick code change" or a "quick edit" or (my apologies to all the ADHD peeps struggling to get through this essay) a "quick explanation". This is how the world exists in my head, with all these interconnected parts, and I don't know how to give you only part of it. If you want me to change the code to write to a different table, or to change my terminology, I have to load the entire program, or the entire essay, into my brain, then make the change, then shut it all down again, before I can move onto the next thing.

So that's problem number one: every time I stop working on something, and then try to start up again, I have to re-load the entirety of the project into my brain again.

So the first thing about starting projects is to

be compassionate with yourself while things are buffering.

You're not stupid for needing to take your time to review, and you're not wasting time scrolling back and forth and clicking between pages and re-reading things in an order that you could never explain to someone else, and you're not trapped in some failed-functioning dissociative circle of hell. You're buffering, and the extra time it takes you to load this data structure is proportional to your ability to do things with it once it's loaded. That's just how it works.

The other thing is to externalize the splines as much as possible. Which gets us into

2) Memory (working and otherwise)

Look, we all know how ADHD affects memory, I don't think I need to go into a lot of detail here.

So that's problem number two: every time I stop working on something, I completely forget wtf I was doing.

Which means that you shouldn't rely on your memory.

WRITE THINGS DOWN

I don't care if everyone around you thinks that this is easy to remember. I don't care if you understand it all perfectly right now and can't imagine ever needing a reminder of how it works. Your vision of perfect clarity is because the splines are reticulated; as soon as you switch gears, that vision is going to fade into nothingness and you will be left with only a distant fuzzy memory of the galaxy-brain comprehension you once had, unless you WRITE. IT. DOWN.

For projects, specifically, there are two things I find very important to write down:

A) the overall flow of the project: what the steps and the sub-steps are, how they fit together, what order they should be done in, and how to tell if they've been completed or not. (My system for this is described at length here [x])

B) What the current status of the project is right now.

Where am I in the overall flow of the project? What step am I currently working on? What is stopping it from being completed? As with writing down the overall flow of the project, remember that these notes are for you, not for anyone else: they only have to make sense to future!you. Don't write them down in a way that you would write a memo to your boss, or an way your English teacher would approve of -- write them down in a way that makes sense to you.

A sample of the types of notes I have left myself:

For reasons I cannot begin to explain, the enrichment template and the enrichment block strings that existed in the repo this morning bear absolutely no resemblance to the enrichment query that is currently running prod, and I cannot find any place that the correct templates and strings have ever existed. So .... idk, tbh. I can't explain it. But I can fix it. So. I have copied the query from a prod run in EMR, and pasted it into the templates, and submitted that as an MR. I also changed the block_strings in Rosetta. With those two changes, we end up with something that looks like what's in prod, even if it's not in Master. So can I proceed? Are we good? I don't know -- my brain is too tired and dumb to figure out how to tell that.

It's been running all week, but not actually providing any data, because apparently mvno_accounts hasn't been updating its metadata. So I MSK REPAIRED and that fixed the problem. I added an MSCK REPAIR to the code, and hopefully that fixes the problem. I still need to backfill everything between run_date=2021-08-10 and run_date=2021-08-17

Says it has partitions [screenshot] Says it doesn't have data [screenshot] S3 says the partitions have no data [screenshot] So that's nice, I guess. How do I get the damn thing to write?

It gives me a completely useless error each time, each time on a different query, and I have no FUCKING clue what the FUCK it wants. So it can just FUCKING FUCK OFF. I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ANYMORE

Things to note from these examples:

You are not being graded on grammar / spelling / punctuation. As long as the punctuation enhances your ability to understand the sentence, it's correct.

It's largely a snapshot of MY internal state, not the state of the project. In contrast to everything western-supremacist culture tells you about suppressing your feelings, emotions [x] make [x] memories [x] stronger. That last one may not look like much of a hint, but when I got into work the next day, I read that, and I knew exactly what I had to do in order to continue work on the project.

Also please note that I have been using this system for a while, and I've gotten pretty good at guessing what future!me is going to need. You'll get better with practice. Just keep swimming, and be kind to yourself

And then also write down ...

3) Translating knowledge into action

As Russell Barkley says, "You've got a real problem on your hands. Cuz you can know stuff, and you won't do stuff." [x] The ADHD brain (apparently, I'm not a neuroscientist, I'm just trusting this neuroscientist) has a gap, or a wall, between knowledge and performance.

That is to say .... apparently most people .... if they know what needs to happen .... that means they can just .... do it??? Like, that's enough?? IDK, it sounds crazy to me, but I'm trying to respect that neurotypicals are the experts on their own experiences

I mentioned this in my stimulus-setup post [x], but putting "I need to decide which window to put this fan in" doesn't do a damn thing for me. I KNOW I need to figure out which window to put it in; the step after that is measuring the window, and I can't bloody measure the window if I don't know which window I'm measuring, can I? That much is obvious; any idiot could figure THAT out. But how do I figure that out??

So that's problem number three: every time I stop working on a project, I've lost the momentum, and I can spin my wheels for hours trying to find enough traction to translate knowledge into action again.

The most common way to try to compensate for this problem is to just try to remember this information until I get back to the project, but that leads to so many other problems. I have to keep checking myself: do I still remember? What was that list? Run over it again? It's hypervigilance, and it causes all kinds of health problems, and it makes for shitty doing-work-while-I-sleep dreams, and it's also a terrible way to live. And also, even if I succeed, it means I'm keeping the damn thing in working memory, which I already don't have enough of.

No, what I need to write down, as the last line in that note I'm leaving for myself, is the actual next thing that needs doing. "Check which window better fits the fan." That's actionable. That's a clear instruction -- especially if I've already left myself a note about which two windows are the final candidates, and where the fan is. That takes the goal and turns it into a thing that can be done.

A sample of the types of notes I have left myself:

open ~/Documents/Rosetta\ Docmentation.docx

Pull a chair up to the loom, and start re-stringing.

Find the damn manuscript

Go through the pattern and ID (and outline in bold) sections that could be sewn together with all one piece of yarn

Things to note from these examples:

Some of these steps are really really simple. Yes, in fact, I did indeed get hung up -- not on the incredibly gumption-draining process of re-stringing a loom, no -- I got hung up on the fact that we don't keep a chair next to the loom. If I pulled a chair up, I could do the rest of the project. I refuse to be ashamed of this. Neurotypicals suck at stuff I'm amazing at, and I suck at stuff they take for granted. If I write down "pull up a chair", the work gets done. That's what works for me. So I do it. Remember that you can't edit the manuscript until you find it. Write out the full path to the file; start your instruction with "go to the garage" ... do whatever it takes to make it actionable for you

for computer work, see if your OS gives you a way to make the computer do some of this work. In Linux and macOS, open is a valid command, which means I don't even have to remember how to open a document: I can just copy-paste open ~/Documents/Rosetta\ Docmentation.docx into terminal, and the document I need will magically appear on my screen.

Because I already have notes on the overall flow (see step 2), I don't have to have a lot of details or context in these notes. I don't have to specify where "the pattern" is, because the project notes already have a link to the pattern for this project.

Actionable Takeaways:

Before you start work on something:

Figure out what needs to be done for this project and how all the pieces will fit together (Detailed post on that at [link]) into one big project operation

Write that operation down

Before you stop work on something:

Write down anything you're keeping in working memory in order to be doing the work you're doing

Write down your current emotional state / inner dialogue

Write down the simplest, clearest instruction you can on what actual action you need to do to proceed.

[willowent]

From the zine Existing Autistic by Aven Wildsmith.

[Image description: three images illustrating someone cutting up a blue puzzle piece into the word ‘NO’ against a hot pink background.]

[fidgetcubist]

Autistic Voices: A Masterpost

Here is a list of resources about autism, with a focus on actually autistic voices, divided by topic. You will find articles, websites, videos, Youtube channels, etc., most of them created by autistic people. If there are resources you would like to contribute to this post, or if you have other suggestions, don’t hesitate to let me know.

What is autism?

Nick Walker: What is autism?

Autistic Self Advocacy Network: About Autism

Autisticality: Inclusive autistic traits

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic: What is Autism?

Neurodiversity

Identity-First Autistic: The Neurodiversity Paradigm

Nick Walker: Neurodiversity: some basic terms and definitions

Nick Walker: The Neurodiversity Paradigm and the Path of Self-Liberation

Nick Walker: Throw Away the Master’s Tools: Liberating Ourselves from the Pathology Paradigm

Elisabeth Wiklander: Neurodiversity — the key that unlocked my world

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic: What is Neurodiversity

Identity-first language vs person-first language

Autistic Self Advocacy Network: Identity-First Language

Nathan Selove: Autism ACTUALLY Speaking: Person First Language

Autistic Hoya: The Significance of Semantics: Person-First Language: Why It Matters

Social model of disability vs medical model of disability

Identity-First Autistic: Understanding Disability Models

Autistic Hoya: You are not a burden.

Nathan Selove: Autism ACTUALLY Speaking: Models of Disability Discourse

Nathan Selove: Creating A Social Model of Autism Ari Ne’eman at Emory University: Autism and the Disability Community: The Politics of Neurodiversity, Causation and Cure

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #16: Is Autism a Disability?

Functioning labels

Identity-First Autistic: Identity-First Autistic’s stance on ‘functioning labels’

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic: What about Functioning Labels? 

autisticliving: What’s Wrong with Functioning Labels? A Masterpost.

Nathan Selove: Autistic ACTUALLY Speaking: High Functioning versus Low Functioning

AUTISTIC WEREWOLF: WHY LABELS EXPECIALLY HIGH & LOW FUNCTIONING AUTISM IS ARE A LOAD OF CRAP! (cw: use of the R-word)

Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism: The Problems with Functioning Labels

Autistic women

Reese Piper: ‘I Thought I Was Lazy’: The Invisible Day-To-Day Struggle For Autistic Women

Fabienne Cazalis: The women who don’t know they’re autistic

Aspergers from the Inside: Female Diagnosis and Self-Advocacy with Geraldine Robertson

Purple Ella: DIFFERENCES AUTISTIC BOYS AND GIRLS

Seventh Voice: The Gas-lighting of Women and Girls on the Autism Spectrum

  Suicide

AutisticNomad: Speaking to Suicidal Autistics

Science Daily: Coventry University: People with Autism at Greater Risk of Attempting Suicide

Dan Jones: Autism: Diagnosis Saved My Life

Empathy

Rebecca Brewer and Jennifer Murphy for Spectrum News: People with autism can read emotions, feel empathy

Nathan Selove: Autism ACTUALLY Speaking: Empathy

Luna Lindsey: Double-Standards: The Irony of Empathy and Autism

Intersectional Neurodiversity: New Research Suggests Social Issues Are Down to Neurotypicals More than Autistics

Self-advocacy

Nathan Selove: Autism ACTUALLY Speaking: Self Advocacy

Amythest Schaber: Autistics Speaking: Self-Advocacy in a Culture of Cure

Autistic Hoya: What is Self-Advocacy?

Executive function

Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism: Executive Functioning Problems: A Frustrating Aspect of Being Autistic

Reese Piper: ‘I Thought I Was Lazy’: The Invisible Day-To-Day Struggle For Autistic Women

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #25: What is Executive Functioning?

Aspergers from the Inside: Executive Function (a response to Ask an Autistic)

Purple Ella: AUTISM AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING

Special interests

Musings of an Aspie: What’s So Special About a Special Interest?

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #13 - What are Special Interests?

Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism: Autism and Intense Interests: Why We Love What We Love and Why It Should Matter to You

Stimming

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #1 - What is Stimming?

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic: Living Atypically - Self-Injurious Stims

The Artism Spectrum: Stimming 101, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Stim

The Artism Spectrum: The Dark Side of the Stim: Self-injury and Destructive Habits

Meltdowns

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #15 - What are Autistic Meltdowns?

Unstrange Mind: The Protective Gift of Meltdowns

Purple Ella: DEALING WITH MELTDOWNS

Shutdowns

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #20 - What are Autistic Shutdowns?

Unstrange Mind: Autistic Shutdown Alters Brain Function

Passing

AUTISTIC WEREWOLF: ANOTHER WAY AUTISTIC WEREWOLVES HIDE IN THIS NEUROTYPICAL WORLD!

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #2 - What is Passing?

Autistic burnout

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #3 - What is Autistic Burnout?

Musings of an Aspie: Autistic Regression and Fluid Adaptation

Autisticality: Burnout

Autism Information Library: “Help! I seem to be Getting More Autistic!”

Inertia

Autisticality: Inertia

Divergent Minds: A Look at Autistic Inertia

Alexithymia

Unstrange Mind: Alexithymia: I Don’t Know How I Feel

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #27: What is Alexithymia?

What not to say to an autistic person

Autistic Hoya: 15 Things You Should Never Say To An Autistic

Radical Neurodivergence Speaking: What to say, and not to say, to an autistic adult

Nathan Selove: Top 5 Well Meaning Things People Should Stop Saying to Autistics

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #12 - What Shouldn’t I Say to Autistic People?

StimNation: S#!T Ignorant People Say to Autistics

Actually Autistic: 10 Things Not To Say To Autistic People

BBC Three: Things Not To Say To An Autistic Person

Autism and people of color

The Autism Wars - Mrs. Kerima Çevik‘s blog

Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism: Black and Autistic – Is There Room at the Advocacy Table?

Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism: Autistic, Gifted, And Black: An Interview With Mike Buckholtz

Autistic Hoya: I, too, am racialized.

AUTISTIC WEREWOLF: AUTISM: Growing Up BLACK In A NEUROTYPICAL Legal System!

Nathan Selove: Autism ACTUALLY Speaking: Interview Anthony Adams

@nyarutheve - Twitter account

Autism and LGBT+

Maxfield Sparrow: Autism and Gender Variance: Is There a Cause for the Correlation?

Alex Forshaw: The Intersection of Autism and Gender

Evil Autie: Being Trans in Autistic Space

AutisticNomad - Maxfield Sparrow’s Youtube channel

Non-speaking autistic voices

Amy Sequenzia: Non-speaking, “low-functioning”

Amy Sequenzia: “Autism Awareness Month” Awareness

Non-Speaking Autistic Speaking - Amy Sequenzia’s blog

Mel Baggs: In My Language

Mel Baggs: Don’t ever assume autism researchers know what they’re doing

Mel Baggs: Captioned Reply to GRASP/Autism Speaks Articles

Lysik'an: You don’t speak for Low-functioning autistics

Deej - documentary film

Sue Rubin’s website

Autism $peaks/Light It Up Blue/Puzzle Piece

The Caffeinated Autistic: New Autism Speaks Masterpost (Updated 4/4/17)

The Caffeinated Autistic: Autism Speaks *still* does not speak for me

Autistic Anthro: Enough with the Puzzle Pieces

Autistic Anthro: Autism Awareness Month

Amythest Schaber: Ask an Autistic #6 - What’s Wrong With Autism Speaks

Nathan Selove: Autism ACTUALLY Speaking: Lighting Up Blue

John Elder Robinson: I Resign My Roles at Autism Speaks

Autistic Hoya: Co-Opting the Movement: Autism Speaks, John Elder Robinson, and Complicity in Oppression

Autistic Hoya: Responding to Autism Speaks

Mel Baggs: Captioned Reply to GRASP/Autism Speaks Articles

Amy Sequenzia: “Autism Awareness Month” Awareness

When autism parents don’t listen

Jim Sinclair: Don’t Mourn For Us

Autistic Hoya: They keep publishing these violent articles

Autistic Hoya: Why we must #BoycottToSiri / An open letter to Judith Newman

Amythest Schaber: #BoycottToSiri

Susie Rodarme: An Open Letter to HarperCollins about TO SIRI WITH LOVE

Kaelan Rhywiol: Why I Believe ‘To Siri With Love’ By Judith Newman Is A Book That Does Incredible Damage To The Autistic Community

Aaron Kappel: When You’re Autistic, Abuse Is Considered Love

Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism: Autism Uncensored: A Dangerous and Spirit-Crushing Book

Service dogs and autism

Nathan Selove: Service Dog Tales

In French

Super Pépette - Julie Dachez’s Youtube channel

La Fille Pas Sympa - Julia March’s blog

[hsjdoeejrnflsishkdoxhdksso-deac]

the time for games is over . disorders ... activate

[sunshinetomorrow]

[adhd-vibes]

i like breaking things into 3’s. you got this! now start!

[adhdstudybitch]

If you’re someone who struggles with executive dysfunction I cannot emphasize how important it is to set reasonable, attainable goals for yourself. If your goal is “I need to clean my entire room today” but you’re not used to doing so often enough for it to be habitual, chances are pretty good that that isn’t a reasonable, attainable goal for you. Start small. Start with something you think you could do even when you’re struggling. Pick something that makes you feel good about yourself afterward. And don’t put pressure on yourself to do more than that if you’re not able to, because that pressure will make it harder to do the small thing.

For me, it’s making my bed. It’s simple, it takes me about three minutes to do, it makes my room look 300% better even if everything else looks like a lost game of jumanji so I feel proud of myself for doing it, and I don’t expect myself to do any more than that. Interestingly, once I’ve done the small thing it often gives me a burst of motivation to do more, but even on days when I can’t do more I still feel good about making my bed.

It can be anything. Make your bed, brush your teeth, pick up the clothes off your floor and throw them in a pile, remove the mugs from your room (no pressure to wash them), make one phone call, do five minutes of something creative, anything that feels small and simple to you. And don’t beat yourself up on days when you can’t do the small thing. Executive dysfunction is a bitch, but starting small is much easier than giving yourself big goals that feel completely overwhelming. 

[jackalopiel]

I'm kind to my future self because my past self was kind to me. I hate photos of myself now, but I take them anyway because I know she'll want them. I put money in a bank account because I know she'll need it when she moves. I go to therapy even if it makes me cry, which I hate, because I know she wants to be better. I don't like me very much, but I know she needs somebody and I'm going to be there for her. Because she studied hard so I could afford school and she ran until she couldn't breath so I can run without breaking a sweat now. I got her. She's got me.

[insomniac-arrest]

getting over the fear of being bad is so fucking hard… like, it’s literally a super power if you can start something and say ‘it doesn’t matter if it’s bad, it just matters that it exists’

‘bad’ is so terrifying, ‘bad’ is wrecking, and the ability to apply self-compassion to things deemed ‘bad’ is beyond amazing, to understand not everything in life will be ‘good’ and that’s okay

essays, art, novels, school, relationships, anyone out there starting things when they are terrified of the arbitrary metric of the result… I am so fucking proud of you, you are so brave and strong

keep starting new things, even if ‘bad’ is a possibility