Autistic License

A blog about the daily goings on in the life of a dyspraxic. Coordination is overrated.

[adhd-alien]

I carry so much internalized shame and guilt from not understanding why I couldn’t do anything right as a kid.

(Not only an ADHD thing, but such a common experience with it.)

[disoderly-dyspraxic]

[beardedmrbean]

[nathanielbuildsatesseract]

This is what having auditory processing issues is like.

[whyenn-reader]

Not to go "if you have ADHD just go for a run" or anything, but I am so serious if you have ADHD you should regularly go outside, no headphones no phone no nothing and just stand and observe for a while until you've had enough. Not until you get bored, until you've had enough. Drink your coffee without watching tiktok. Have a bath without music. Turn down the volume in your headphones. I cannot overstate how much learning to be bored is cruicial with ADHD. Life is not just about pleasure, no matter what your dysregulated dopamine system thinks, and when you teach your brain to be okay with being bored, then boring tasks stop feeling like torture. By letting yourself be bored you are yoinking your system out of the high/low binary and allow for the highs to feel like actual highs and not just anything that isn't low. I am so serious go literally touch grass. Listen to the sounds in your flat. Stimulate your body the way it was designed. It lowers anxiety and makes you feel like you're real and best of all it's completely free

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

I really wish more ADHD mental health care told you WHY things like this matter to our quality of life.

The Hyperactivity in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is NOT about being physically hyperactive, it's about having a "hyperactive central nervous system" because it's a form of inheritable dysautonomia. The problem with disautonomia, especially the ADHD kind, is that it makes boredom flag to your nervous system as a THREAT, triggering hyperactive and maladaptive central nervous system processes like fight or flight.

But dysautonomia kills you that way. Literally, part of the reason our average life spand increase on stimulents is that it helps manage risk-taking impulsivity that can get us killed by accident, but the other part is that stimulents can regulate a hyperactive CNS such that it is functionally (while impacted by the stimulent) NOT dysregulated anymore. And PHYSIOLOGICALLY that is essential because the physical outcomes of dysautonomia can reduce your life span by YEARS if not decades through self-perpetuating hypervigelence, endocrine disruption, and adrenal fatigue.

So when the ADHD brain goes stimulation-seeking and a doctor tells you to practice mindfulness, it feels like being told "hey go stand in a functioning boiler until you can stop thinking" rather than WHAT IT IS which is the process of re-teaching your body what is and isn't safe.

Standing outside making mindful, non-interpretive/moralized observation of the world helps your brain and body re-acclimate to the idea that absence of that frantic "busy" feeling isn't a threat or a risk to your safety, and gradually reduces the level of distress that just hanging out somewhere triggers for you.

Learning WHY this stuff was being suggested and understanding what it was actually supposed to do went a long way towards changing my relationship with my ADHD. I am FAR more functional now, far less prone to shame spirals and rejection sensitivity, hell, I can **sit physically still for near on an hour at a time** now without feeling like I'm going to crawl out of my skin.

So yeah. Go outside. Let the world narrow around you and take deep breaths until it stops feeling claustrophobic or like you need to climb walls. Learn how to let little sensations become big ones like the way the heat of the sun on your skin starts as a gentle warming and be omes a unique collection of sensory moments depending on how it lands on you. Listen for sounds under sounds and let them fade in and out as you move your focus from one sound to the next. Enjoy. Move on. Rinse and repeat.

When you no longer feel like the world is actively killing you, it's a lot easier to navigate it.

[whyenn-reader]

S++ tier addition to the post, thank you tumblr user butts bouncing on the beltway

[itsaspectrumcomic]

I cannot be the only one who struggles with this.

[dragonpyre]

Me: *makes someone laugh*

Me: this is good. I’m getting a good grade in neurotypical. Something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

tweet :)

[neil-gaiman]

I love Season 3 so much. And not because of the thing that I can't say without it being a spoiler.

[oddly-wired]

Ngl, my dyslexic ass read that as “David Tennant and Michael Sheen Shit Show” and thought “Well it is, but in a good way…”

[thememedaddy]

[quetiapine19-deactivated2024011]

Autism traits that aren't often talked about (part 1)

Strong sense of justice

Preferring bowls over plates and little spoons

Not knowing if someone if flirting with you

Rituals with no outcome

Not following gender norms

Making excessive eye contact

Trying to act like someone from a show/movie

Being clumsy and struggling with coordination

Preferring making friends with adults, rather than someone within your age group

Lack of fear

Being more drawn to cats, than dogs because most cats are autistic

[autism-things-for-my-parents]

To me, being autistic is having your environment randomly attack you at all times.

[spongebob-autisticquestions]

[sweetcherryblossomswrites]

[souperluminal]

Thinking about a duct tape wizard

[shubbabang]

Meeting new people

[adhdandcomics]

sometimes i’ll sit in the car for ages executive-dysfunctioning and the best way to snap out of this i’ve found is turning off the car and letting yourself heat up in the sun until it’s unbearable. genuinely have to tom-and-jerry smoke myself out of hiding in the car

[adhdandcomics]

BE WARNED! sometimes this strategy backfires and you end up getting extremely sleepy in your warm and toasty car instead and do nothing for even longer.

[cypopps]

Do autistic kids "grow out" of their autism? Why does it sometimes seem like there are so few autistic adults?

For Autism Acceptance Month, I covered this topic in this comic to help explain this disconnect! YouTube | TikTok | Instagram | Twitter

[mentalhealth]

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