Weirdly Successful
Dedicated to helping you understand, navigate and enjoy your weird & wonderful neurodivergent life.
Neurodivergent Adaptation Educator
"How did no one ever notice??"
The amount of times this sentence is heard in our house, along with the dramatically exaggerated waving of arms, would definitely qualify for a sitcom catchphrase.
You see, reader, I'm what they call "late-diagnosed".
"Late" is relative, of course. For ADHD, "late diagnosis" can mean anything from above 60 for those above 60 to 25 for those who are 25. For Autism, …
Habituation is a biological reaction mechanism where if a non-threatening stimuli keeps repeating, the response to it lowers over time. In neurodivergence, the brain's reduced capacity for habituation means we can't "tune out" unimportant stimuli, which leads to sensory difficulties and sensory overwhelm.
Demand avoidance means you're opposed to doing something when it's perceived as a demand, especially coming from an authority figure, even if you want to do the thing. .
PDA stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance or Pervasive Drive for Autonomy.
Autonomy is the core value for people with PDA and any demand that threatens this autonomy triggers a danger-response (fight, flight, freeze).
A trauma-informed approach is looking out for the needs of the individual with the effect of trauma taken into consideration.
Trauma can have a profound physical, biological, psychological and social effect on a person, and this effect cannot be discounted.
Spiritual bypassing is a dismissive behaviour, meaning the use of spiritual explanations to dismiss, diminish or avoid dealing with complicated emotions, uncomfortable experiences or facing the complex and often harsh realities of life. It's part magical thinking and part toxic positivity.
Interoception is the ability to notice and identify feelings inside one's body, like thirst or hunger. It also includes the ability to notice and regulate temperature changes or notice pain.
Alexithymia is the inability to assign names to feelings, describe them to others or talk about them. It is considered a separate neuropsychological condition but has significant overlaps with autism.
"This time, let's start the website small", we said.
"Let's just put up a homepage and a contact", we said.
"Okay, let's write three blog posts to start with, but no more!", we said.
72 published pages later…
One part of my brain is like an ancient trickster god. (A proper one, so think less Tom Hiddleston, more Tom Bombadil.) You never know when they next visit, but when they do, they pop up …
The curb-cut effect refers to the phenomenon that policies initially created to serve a marginalized group end up serving a much more significant portion of society, benefiting even more people than it was originally designed for.
Autistic speech patterns refer to unique ways autistic folks communicate or use language, but these patterns can also be present throughout the neurodivergent spectrum.
Autistic speech patterns include
- echolalia (echoing what you or others say),
- palilalia (repeating your own words or phrases),
- scripting (planning what you'll say),
- verbal stims (using words to stim)
- and vocal stims …
Autistic burnout refers to a state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion experienced by autistic people. It is a result of prolonged exposure to overwhelming sensory, social, and cognitive demands, often in an environment that does not accommodate their needs.
Misophonia is a neurodivergent condition characterized by an intense emotional and physiological response to specific sounds. People with misophonia experience strong negative reactions, such as anger, anxiety, or disgust, when exposed to certain sounds. These sounds can vary from person to person but commonly include chewing, slurping, tapping, or repetitive noises.
