#adhd inertia

[the-fictive-haven]

I need to do something I need to do something I need to do something I need to do something-

Scrolls Tumblr frantically with mounting anxiety

[salti-thelatediagnosedautist]

The beginner autistic guide to common terms in our community (with extra context!).

*Disclaimer, I’m not a professional. This is just knowledge from my experience as an autistic person. Please feel free to correct anything :)

These definitions will include some of my own opinions and thoughts, especially on the more controversial terms. This is simply to help better prepare new autistic community members for conversations they become engaged in. Having all the perspective and context you can have can be very helpful when moving into new social spaces.

Autism (Or Autistic Spectrum Disorder, ASD): A neurodevelopmental disorder that is present from very early childhood. It’s mostly recognised through difficulties with social interaction and restricted and/or repetitive behaviours. The way it is referred to as “Autism Spectrum Disorder” is specifically referring to the fact that autism presents in countless ways. There are common traits and patterns, but the severity and complexity of those traits and symptoms is infinite.

NOTE: This does not mean that ‘everyone is a little bit autistic’. You are either autistic or you are not. It just means that if you have autism, it may present very differently to other autistic people you know.

Asperger’s Syndrome: Asperger’s syndrome is usually considered an older term for a ‘subtype’ of autism. The term is considered outdated by the DSM-5 and no longer used in that document. However it is still used in a lot of other countries. Now it is becoming more socially known that ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ is just a specific presentation of autism. Many autistics don’t like the use of the word ‘Asperger’s’ because of a couple reasons:

The term has a long history with NAZI’s and eugenics.

The term seems to basically mean ‘high functioning’ autistic, which simplifies the condition.

Asperger’s Syndrome is defined in a very similar way to autism, however people with “Asperger’s’ may be described as ‘gifted’ or ‘intellectual’.

It’s important to note that many people still identify themselves with the term ‘Asperger’s’. While it is good to be educated and up to date with terminology, some people have identified with this term their whole life and it’s not wrong to use the term for one-self. But either way, I do encourage you to do more research if you are comfortable.

Neurotype: Can be basically defined as the type of brain function one has. Some people consider autism a neurotype, and then neurotypical as another neurotype. However, many people claim that autism is ‘just another neurotype’. This is a harmful way of thinking about autism because autism is a disability. Labelling it as a ‘neurotype’ belittles all the struggles autistic people have that make them disabled. Autism is a spectrum and so some autistic people may not really consider themselves disabled, but many do.

Neurotypical (NT): A non-autistic person with no other mental conditions.

Allistic: A non-autistic person who can still have other mental conditions, such as depression or ADHD.

Neurodivergent (ND): Traditionally ‘Neurodivergent’ has been used to mean either autistic or ADHD. However in some contexts it is used to mean someone with any mental condition, including personality disorders or mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.

Neurodiversity: a term used to describe the fact that there are many neurotypes in the world. It is used to imply that differences in brain development and function should be accepted as relatively normal. I think this is a good sentiment, but that some neurotypes should still be considered disabilities as well as a neurotype, so as not to diminish the struggles specific neurotypes go through.

High functioning/Low functioning: The labels of functioning are terms used to describe how independent an autistic (or other kind of disabled) person is able to be. Many autistics do NOT like the use of these terms for a couple reasons:

It tends to focus on the way an autistics disability affects the allistic people around them.

It simplifies the experience of the individual with autism to how independent they are, and is also not very descriptive for anyone trying to help the said autistic person.

High needs/Low needs: These are labels used to describe how much assistance an autistic (or other kind of disabled) person may need. It is slightly preferred by autistic people as the language is more centred to what the autistic person needs, rather than how independent they can be.

NOTE, many autistic people would argue that these terms are basically the same as high functioning and low functioning. I personally consider it to be best to just state someones highest needs or difficulties. For example “Olivia is nonverbal and highly sensitive to light and noise.”.

Masking: Masking is the act of hiding ones autistic traits to appear to be neurotypical. Masking is often a survival strategy developed by autistics to evade bullying or isolation. Masking can include suppressing the urge to stim, forcing oneself to make eye contact, learning how to ‘properly’ execute facial expressions, studying body language, etc. Masking can be an extremely vital skill for autistic people, but when an autistic person has to mask for long periods of time it can lead to negative consequences such as burn out or meltdowns. Masking can also be used in the context of other disabilities, such as ADHD.

Scripting: Scripting is a form of masking, when an autistic person pre-plans or practices responses or entire conversations. You may have a script you unconsciously follow for questions like “how are you?” Or “how is work?”, etc. It may be inspired from TV shows, movies or observing other people interact.

Burn out: Burn out is when an autistic person reaches their limit and has decreased energy for an extended period of time. Burn out may last anywhere between a couple days or a few years. Burn out is often caused by excessive masking, but can also be caused by repeated rejection, bullying or other mental conditions. Burn out is not the same as depression, but it can co-exist with depression.

Meltdown: A meltdown is when an autistic person experiences what might look like a ‘tantrum’. The person may be very angry, yelling, punching or hitting things (or themselves). They may be aggressively stimming or humming to themselves. A meltdown, internally, feels as if you are completely filled with negative energy, as if you might burst. It can feel like extreme irritation, or anger, or shame. Meltdowns can be caused by any number of stressful situations. For an autistic person this can be having a lot of social events, their routine being disrupted, having to eat foods they don’t like, being overstimulated, or even just negative social interactions.

Shutdown: A shutdown is very similar to a meltdown, in how it can be caused. For me personally, I tend to have a shutdown if I am not in a safe place to have a meltdown. From the outside it looks very similar to dissociation, and it can co-exist with dissociation. It typically feels like you are shutting down, turning off. You emotions were about to burst and then you just went numb. You may be unable to move, or go non-verbal. You may be crying quietly or you may simply just very suddenly feel the need to go home.

NOTE: Meltdowns and shutdowns can appear to feel like a panic attack, but they are different. Panic attacks come from intense feelings of dread or doom. Meltdowns and shutdowns come from repeated, or intense, stressful situations for an autistic.

Hypersensitive: Hypersensitivity is when the brain processes sensory input (such as touch, taste and smell) as much more intense than a neurotypical person would. This can mean that a slight cold breeze may feel painfully cold. Or looking outside a window can hurt ones eyes because it feels too bright. Or having to wear specific textures to stay calm.

Hyposensitive: Hyposensitivity is the opposite of hypersensitivity. It is when your brain inteprets sensory input as much less intense than a neurotypical would. Ways this can present in an autistic person include not realising when they hurt themselves, having a high pain tolerance, being unaware of temperature changes, etc. You may also not recognise your bodies hunger cues, dehydration or need for sleep.

NOTE: An autistic person can experience both hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity. It can also fluctuate day-to-day.

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD): SPD is basically the term for experiencing lots of variation in your sensory input. It is similar to Auditory processing disorder. Which is where your hearing is technically fine (you aren’t any form of deaf), but you have trouble distinguishing what specific sounds are, or listening to one, important sound, in an area with lots of different noises (for example, being unable to understand what someone is saying next to you, because the TV is on.)

Overstimulation: This is when an autistic person has been experiencing too many different sensations at once, or for an extended period of time. This may be caused by too many noises happening at once. Or even just one annoying sound repeating for a long time. It can also be triggered by touch, taste, sight and smell.

Executive function/dysfunction: Executive function is the term used to describe how the brain initiates tasks. For neurodivergent folk, our executive function is often dysfunctional. This means we can often find it difficult to start new tasks. A way you may experience it is when you are sitting down, you may be screaming internally that you need to go and get some food, but your body seems unwilling to co-operate. Having executive dysfunction does not mean you are lazy, or do not want to do the task, it means you may be unable  to do the task.

Autistic intertia: Autistic inertia is related to executive dysfunction, because it is a term that helps describe how autistic people struggle to switch or initiate tasks. “ An autistic at rest remains at rest, and an autistic in motion remains in motion”.

Special interest/Hyperfixation: A special interest is a extremely long term interest/obsession with a particular topic. An example might be being really into pokemon. Learning all the different types of pokemon, playing all the games and collecting heaps of merch. A hyperfixation is a more short-lived interest that can be destructive in it’s severity (for example, it might get so extreme that it’s the only thing you can think about, to the point where you neglect your needs). Special interests are less likely to be destructive. But hyperfixations can be healthy and normal too.

Stimming: Stimming or self stimulation is the act of doing repetitive movements to help self regulate. Stimming can look like spinning, chewing, flapping hands, dancing, foot tapping, pen clicking, touch soft fabrics, using weighted blankets, lighting candles, eating crunchy snacks, etc. All of these forms of movement or repetitive sensory input can help us regulate our emotions better, prevent a meltdown or shutdown, or focus on a task easier.

NOTE: Echolalia is another term you may hear. It is a form of stimming in which an autistic person repeats sounds/phrases over and over.

ADHD: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder like autism, but it affects the brain in different ways. It often presents as having difficulties with paying attention, regulating emotions and hyperactivity (or, alternatively, it can present as being inattentive).

Savant or Savant syndrome: A condition when someone with some type of significant mental disability is an expert/’savant’ in a particular field, to the point of surpassing neurotypical experts. An example might be having photographic memory, or being able to learn languages extremely easily, or being an extraordinary mathematician. Autistic people often don’t like to hear the term ‘savant’ as we are often only valued by ‘society’ if we are savants. And if we are not, then we are often treated as lesser. This is kind of a form of eugenics.

Eugenics: Eugenics is a philosophy or belief that we can selectively breed humans to ‘improve’ humanity. Or create the ‘perfect race’. This was an idealogy practiced by Adolf Hitler during WWII, which lead to the holocaust. Eugenics is often a subtly underlying philosophy behind many statements that, on face value, seem relatively harmless. For example - “autism is the next step in evolution” is currently a popular statement. However, this implies that every other neurotype is not an improvement, which therefore implies that being autistic is superior. This would be considered a form of eugenics. Eugenics is considered a horrible philosophy because it encourages people to look down on others and dehumanise anyone not like themselves.

Co-morbidity: A co-morbidity is the term used for a condition that is regularly seen in conjunction with another condition. For example, autism and ADHD are often seen together. However, it can also be used to simply describe someone who has more than one condition (physical or mental).

AuDHDer: Someone with autism and ADHD. Just a shortened way to refer to people with both disabilities.

Selective mutism/Situational mutism: When an autistic person (or other neurotype) experiences periods of being unable to speak or communicate. This can often occur in stressful situations, like before tests or during doctors appointments. It is officially referred to as ‘selective mutism’ but many are trying to change it to ‘situational mutism’ as the individual does not willingly choose when they go non-verbal.

Alexithymia: Alexithymia is typically described as the inability to define and/or describe ones emotions. So you may often feel a type of discomfort, but not be able to label what it is. Not being able to distinguish between anger and irritability. Or not knowing if you feel sad or confused. It can make seeking professional help for many conditions really difficult, as you are unable to put your experience into words. It can also be similar to hyposensitivity in the way that it makes it difficult to understand what you body is feeling.

Dyspraxia: Dyspraxia is a disorder that affects co-ordination, movement and balance. It can make things such as sports, driving, cooking and writing difficult. It is fairly common in autistic people.

Prosopagnosia: The inability to recognise/remember faces. It is more common in autistic people.

Synesthesia: Synesthesia is when one form of sensory input is sometimes also experienced as another. For example, someone with this condition may see colours when they hear someones name. They may hear a song and get a taste in their mouth. This is also more common in autistic people.

FINAL NOTE: Autism is a spectrum and you may not experience all of these different terms, or you may not experience them in the way I described them. That does not mean you aren’t autistic. This is not a diagnostic tool. This is simply a guide to learning the terms you may often hear when discussing autism.

[brightlotusmoon]

[mischiefmanifold]

what do you mean by “adhd paralysis isn’t real?” like in what way? this is a genuine question and i’m trying not to let my hurt feelings affect this bc i’m trying to learn and i don’t know everything.

if you don’t feel like answering that’s cool too, but can you direct me to who was talking about this?

Hi! Paralysis is a permanent state. When used in terms of bodily functions, it means "loss of [muscle] contraction due to interruption of one or more motor pathways from the brain to the muscle fibers." Paralysis/plegia (e.g., hemiplegia) is used to refer to complete or severe loss of muscle strength, while paresis is used to refer to partial or slight loss of muscle strength. (source)

ADHD does not include loss of muscle strength (paralysis), and if you're attributing paralysis to ADHD it means you really need to see a doctor. What ADHD does include (that many people seem to confuse for paralysis) is executive dysfunction, which can make it difficult to move at times but never causes permanent loss of muscle strength. Another thing that people are confusing for paralysis (which very much isn't) is catatonia, and I've seen people describe catatonic episodes as paralysis. Catatonia is a feature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (most often schizoaffective, schizophreniform, and schizophrenia) and can occur alongside autism spectrum disorder, but does not occur as part of ADHD.

Claiming that you are experiencing "ADHD paralysis" is offensive to those who actually are paralyzed, especially with what I've been seeing on actual paralyzed people's blogs from people with "ADHD paralysis."

Additionally, if you search "ADHD paralysis" here on Tumblr you'll get a whole bunch of posts about people talking about their executive dysfunction. This is fine, in general, but they're misusing medical terminology and it is harmful.

[motherlarkspur]

As a neurodivergent scientist, I think it is funny that I have executive dysfunction on an atomic level as well.

[thedreadvampy]

my therapist spent today's session making Faces at me about getting an ADHD diagnosis

which

I can honestly say I have never seriously considered the possibility of seeking an ADHD diagnosis but she might not be a billion miles off

I was describing how I get "fizzy bored" where I have no energy or ability to move and nothing holds my attention but I feel like my bones are trying to vibrate out of me with the desire to be Doing Things and she was like 🤔 and I got onto the fact that I often need to be doing 3-4 things at once to ease into focusing on one and she was like 🤨 and then I mentioned how I find it really difficult to start doing things but once I'm in it I'm super focused and she was like 😌 have you considered the possibility of an ADHD diagnosis?

and so I explained that I don't really see the point because even though, unlike EDS and autism, a diagnosis could suggest an actual treatment, I don't really feel like anything I've described is disabling me cause I have the tools to manage it now most of the time and I feel Fizzy Bored WAY less often these days. and she was like 🤨

and I was like yeah to be fair actually I did use to think that about chronic pain, trauma and having shit eyesight and doing something about them did really change my experience. and she was like 😌 and I was like and actually now we mention it the fact that I sometimes for NO REASON AT ALL simply put off doing things even though they would be really easy to do and I want to do them for LITERAL YEARS is maybe. A thing that it might be nice to change if I could. And she was like 🤔 and I was like OH FUCK I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GENUINELY CONSIDER THIS POSSIBILITY AREN'T I?

anyway after talking a mile a minute and overrunning by 15 minutes I then got a quarter of a mile away on foot and realised I'd left my glasses on her table. she opened the door I went HEY SPEAKING OF ADHD

[terribleoldwhitemen]

"Enjoy lyrics on Spotify Premium" congratulations, I'm finally migrating ten years of music off your platform come this weekend

[sillycourtjester]

Me "i dont have sensory issues" vs also me "theres a tag There Is A Tag there is a tag THERE is a tag there is A TAG get if OFF"

[whensuddenlycats]

It is with deep sadness and a heavy heart filled with RAGE and HATRED that I must bow once more beneath the spiky egg yolk of Endless Evil Chores and Other Nasty Responsibilities. I would like to thank Mindless Scrolling for enabling me to push off this momentous occasion for as long as humanly possible. You will be missed. Until the next short break that ends up stretching on till 3 AM. A moment of silence to respect the aforementioned Mindless Scrolling. And another. And another moment of silence for steadying, mindful breaths to ground myself. Wait what do you mean I have to actually finish writing this post to get started?? Do I barge into YOUR little corner of Tumblrington Dorothy Communism to tell YOU how to be productive?? Let me cook! I have a Process!! I'm not going to keep writing this post forever but I damn well WILL contribute to the Sacred Wall Of Text until I judge it to be the correct size! And girth! And shape! And color and whatever other adjectives I deem appropriate!! You cannot stop me!! You can push and shove at the inertia but you cannot make it roll!! I defy thee! I shake my thumb in defiance!! Of thee!! Begone, Wicked Voice of Reason!! I will stay on my bed hunched over in this uncomfortable position until- oh damn my joints are stiff and painful actually imma take care of that but WE ARE NOT DONE HERE I WILL FIND YOU later

[the-fictive-haven]

Want to do art, can't do art.

Want to watch shows, can't watch shows.

Want to play games, can't play games.

Ends up on Tumblr endlessly scrolling, watching the notifications like a hawk and desperately searching for social interaction all day.

And my sysmates can't even really do anything about it because my anxious ass keeps coming back to front every five minutes 😭

[sassycyborgninja]

meet the artist + sketch concept art of my avatar

ive made meet the artists every year so i had to make one this year as well but i added a new thing being my avatar, the sassycyborgninja from my username (the username itself is inspired by genji hence why the antennas and lowkey resemblance)

[brightlotusmoon]

Eat something eat something eat something eat something eat something eat something

[abandoned-as-mustard]

The neurodivergent self diagnosis journey is just one day thinking 'I wonder if X health thing is connected to this' and then it certainly heckin is

Why do we get the jackpot of side effects

[radishthefool]

ADHDealing with: Ruminating

Dealing with issues the ADHD way: creatively, experimentally, & socially

Recently, I was severely disappointed about a medical decision I disagreed with. I had been ruminating on it for several days, while I was ill from a flue. And I couldn't let it go even long enough to fall asleep.

Then a friend told me "I'm angry for you. But let it go for now, get better, then contact them (to explain why they're wrong)."

This advice wasn't new information to me. I knew I wanted to stop thinking about it for now, I just couldn't. But suddenly, surprisingly, I was able to put those thoughts and emotions to the side to deal with at a better time. Finally, I could sleep and rest and heal.

The main lesson I learned: sometimes it helps to get advice from outside, even if the information isn't new. Because at that moment it may be easier to put ideas into action when we hear them from others instead of ourselves.

And I wonder: would it also work to tell myself out loud to do something instead of just thinking it? Or what would happen if I set up spoken reminders instead of written ones?

I'm going to play around with these ideas: exploring possibilities, trying out stuff, reading up on topics, following hunches, letting those random crossovers happen.

And I'd love for others to add their ideas, tips, experiences, expertise, but also spontaneous thoughts, associations, vague memories, tangents, jokes, and other interests into the mix.

Let's cross our ADHD streams of thought, create wild tapestries of spreading activation, and find out what these connections can spark in us. I want to see what happens if we approach our issues in our own ways.

[je-mappelle-sloppy-tomato]

Hey guys! So, I kiiiind of need help again. I've discovered that the main reason school is so exhausting & stressful for me is because I don't get the proper accommodations and have to mask all day. But I've decided FUCK that, if they won't give me accommodations then I'll do it myself wether they like it or not. I can use earbuds in class and hide them with my hair, I can not look at the teacher when listening to them. But I need more help. I need to unmask- do you have any tips on how to unmask at school and make it less unbearable? Please? Thank you guys

[bearystarry]

i wanna get better at art so bad but it's so... difficult. (lies on the ground)