Search by topic, theme, or feeling
From Performance to Presence: Reducing Identity Distance Through Social Architecture
This post explores how Herbert Blumer’s theory of symbolic interactionism can guide neurodivergent individuals in reducing identity distance through intentional social and environmental design. It frames authentic expression not as a departure from social rules but as a renegotiation of what those rules should be.
Somatic Practices for Nervous System Resilience in Neurodivergent Adults
Somatic therapy offers a hopeful pathway for neurodivergent individuals to gently expand their nervous system's window of tolerance.
The Somatic Cost of Masking In Neurodivergent People
The chronic muscular tension, profound fatigue, and identity fragmentation often experienced by neurodivergent individuals who mask are not separate symptoms but interconnected signs of a body forced to live a prolonged performance.
Finding Your Voice: Self Advocacy for Neurodivergent Individuals
For neurodivergent individuals, self advocacy often requires translating fundamental needs into a foreign language of social norms.
Understanding and Supporting Neurodivergent Sensory Experiences
Sensory sensitivities are a core, valid experience for many neurodivergent individuals. By understanding and implementing personalized mitigation strategies, we can foster safety and reduce the harm caused by chronic overstimulation.
A Somatic Perspective on Neurodiverse Relationship Equity
True fairness in a neurodiverse relationship moves beyond equal division to equitable support, meeting each partner's unique neurological needs to foster a shared sense of safety and fulfillment.
The Complex Intersection of Neurodivergent Minds and Self Harm
Self harm ideation in neurodivergent individuals often represents a nervous system's survival response to overwhelming distress, not a symptom of brokenness.
Reclaiming the Inner Voice: CPTSD and Negative Self-Talk in Neurodivergent Individuals
For neurodivergent individuals with CPTSD, negative self-concepts are often trauma responses forged in a world of chronic mismatch. Healing involves gentle practices that address both the ingrained neural pathways of criticism and the specific context of neurodivergent experience.
What the Pufferfish Teaches Us About Neurodivergent Protections
Like the pufferfish that inflates to create safety, the neurodivergent nervous system uses protective behaviors like withdrawal or irritability as a response to overload.
Loneliness and Friendship in the Neurodivergent Experience
Loneliness within the neurodivergent community is not a personal failing but often a result of navigating a world designed for different social operating systems.
The Missing Map: Understanding and Building Cognitive Empathy
Many neurodivergent individuals possess profound empathy, yet struggle with cognitive empathy, the mental map for reading social cues.
Neurodivergence, Communication Trauma, CPTSD and Embodied Healing
For many neurodivergent individuals, the very act of communication can become a source of profound and repeated trauma.
Healthy Regulation or A Rut? Neurodivergent Routines and Rituals
For many neurodivergent individuals, ritual and regularity are not preferences but essential tools for nervous system regulation.
Neurotype, Truth, and Conflict in Relationships
When conflict arises, neurodivergent individuals often prioritize objective truth seeking, while neurotypical individuals tend to focus on emotional considerations.
Thin-Slicing and the Neurodivergent Experience: Navigating Social Rejection
Even the most meticulously crafted mask cannot always conceal the innate differences in neurodivergent communication and presence.
A Compassionate Look at Neurodivergent Meltdowns and Support Strategies
A neurodivergent meltdown is an overwhelming physiological response to being overloaded, not a behavioral choice.
Theory of Mind in Neurodiverse Communication
Effective communication requires us to infer the complex internal states of others, a cognitive process known as theory of mind.
Participant Observers in Life: How Neurodivergent People Study Social Interactions
Neurodivergent individuals often become keen anthropologists of social behavior, meticulously studying human interaction to create a mask for survival.
Time Blindness and Neurodivergence
Time blindness in neurodivergent individuals can strain relationships but is manageable with strategies, understanding and collaboration.
Understanding Autistic Shutdowns
Autistic shutdowns are a protective neurological response to overwhelm and are often misunderstood as disengagement.