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nepenthendline · 4 years ago

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A Characterisation/Writing Guide - Autism and ADHD

Hi everyone! This post is going to be a guide on how to accurately write characters with Autism and ADHD. I have been so many works where Autism and ADHD have been terribly written - using so many stereotypes and just nonsense that has nothing to do with neurodivergences, so I hope this helps educate writers and give them more confidence to write such characters.

For reference, I have Autism and ADHD, as well as many friends with either, therefore this information is coming directly from a neurodivergent.

This guide will be split into three parts: characterisation in both Autism and ADHD, Autism chracterisation and ADHD characterisation. This being because Autism and ADHD, while two different disorders, do have some overlaps.

TERMS:

Neurodivergent - describes those differing in mental or neurological function from what is considered typical or normal

Neurotypical - describes those who are considered normal and do not differ in mental or neurological function

NOTE - Not everyone is the same. Everyone is different and will act and feel in different ways, this is simply an overview of how Autism and ADHD typically can be characterised

MUTUAL CHARACTERISATION OF AUTISM AND ADHD:

As mentioned before, both Autism and ADHD do have overlapping traits that can make them look similar at times, although it is important to remember they are two very different disorders.

Autism and ADHD are NOT mental illnesses or learning disabilities. They are neurological disorders that people are born with, and cannot be treated or cured. Neurodivergents can learn techniques to help manage their difficulties, however. It is important to note that while these are not mental illnesses, it is very common for neurodivergents to have mental illnesses (particularly anxiety or depression) or struggle with learning as a result of their difficulties.

MASKING:

Masking is a technique that neurodivergents develop in order to act or speak in a way that is ‘socially acceptable’ or neurotypical by observing and replicating neurotypicals in different situations. This includes subjects such as not stimming/keeping still, not saying particular things, following social cues, speaking with specific tones at specific times and so on.

Not every neurodivergent will mask but most do. Everyone does this to a different extent; some mask 24/7 to the point where you would barely be able to recognise any ‘abnormal’ traits, whereas others only mask in more serious or professional situations and let loose around friends or family. It is up to you as the writer to decide how your character will mask, however there tend to be some trends. For example, those with high-function Autism (especially girls) are much better maskers than low-functioning Autism (especially boys).

Masking is exhausting; it takes a lot of effort to, essentially, act as a completely different person for the entire day. This does not mean that neurodivergents are two-faced in any aspect however. Neurodivergents simply tweak their existing personalities to ‘fit in’ with the people or situation.

Masking in writing:

It is quite difficult to write masking as the person is essentially just acting like ‘normal’. However, there are some things you can include that help demonstrate masking:

Adapted stims* that are much smaller and undetectable than a person’s usual stims, such as fiddling with their fingers or edge of their sleeve, looking around often or slight movements such as swaying or playing with jewellery they are wearing

Speaking more or less than usual and with much more changes in their pitch and tone

Slight cracks in a character’s masking, such as stimming when others aren’t looking, not holding eye-contact when speaking, face or tone falling flat at points

*Stims will be explained in the next section

STIMMING:

Stimming refers to self-stimulating, repetitive behaviours that are done to often calm a person down when in stress, or to show high levels of emotion such as happiness. Both neurodivergents and neurotypicals stim, however there are some difference.

The most common examples of stims are bouncing your leg when sitting in a chair, clicking your pen repeatedly or tapping on a table, which are things that most people have done at some point. The difference is that neurodivergents have a lot less control over their stims, and they tend to be much ‘bigger’, louder, distracting or harmful. It is also much more difficult for a neurodivergent to stop or ‘hold in’ their stims, causing more stress and agitation. Some people have small stims like fiddling with their hands, others have much bigger stims like waving their arms around, and some have harmful stims such as scratching or banging their head against a wall.

Stimming in writing:

If you are ever asked to write about how a character would help someone else/a reader with their stimming, please never ever write about the character stopping the other person/reader. This is extremely harmful for the stimming character and projects a view that stimming is bad or ‘naughty’, and many people have faced trauma over being forced to stopped stimming as it is seen as disrespectful or distracting. Stimming is often one of the only ways neurodivergents can clearly express their emotions. If you stop a stim, the person will simply stim in another way. Instead, try these ways:

Stim toys that the character can use, these are often small and discrete, and can allow the character to stim without harmful, loud or large movements

Distracting the character with something else, possibly an activity, something to hold, or audio/visual distractions

Reassure the character that these stims are ok and they are safe to do around other characters

Take notice of the situation the character is in, why are they stimming? Are they anxious? Are they excited? It is better to prevent the situation in the case of stress rather than try and stop the person from stimming, and allow the character to stim when feeling happy

In romantic situations, allowing the character to stim with their partner shows high levels of trust and acceptance, and it is also comforting for the stimming character to often use aspects of their partner to stim, such as playing with their partner’s fingers or hair

Exercise is a great way of helping those who stim often to release pent up energy

Stimmers can trigger other stimmers, so if you have two stimmers in a room together, chances are they will stim together, getting louder and bigger than usual

SENSORY SENSITIVTY:

Both those with Autism and/or ADHD tend to struggle with sensory sensitivity. This describes how people are easily affected by sensory input (sight, sound, taste, touch and smell). Most cases of sensory sensitivity end in distress, fear, panic and overload, however there are some people who feel comforted by high levels of sensory input. When people deal with too much sensory input, they often go into a ‘meltdown’. This is different for everyone, but often includes irritability, panic, shutting themselves off from others, extreme stimming and a feeling of being severely overwhelmed. Some people cannot speak at all during these episodes. while others may shout or make noises. They are often mistaken for tantrums, bad behaviour or just being grumpy. Young people tend to have much more active meltdowns, such as shouting, stimming, running off etc, however older people (especially girls) then to be more quiet, shut off and unable to continue speaking or doing tasks. That being said, everyone is different and anyone can have a different meltdown.

Sensory sensitivity in writing:

The best way to describe sensory sensitivity in writing is relating it to pain or panic. Often those with low tolerance to sensory input describe loud noises, for example, as physical pain in their head, or certain materials as making them feel faint or nauseous.

Sensory sensitivity relates to any sense, so some people may be terrified of certain noises, feel panicked by certain smells or feelings or feel sick/vomit from certain tastes - please understand the severity of this for some people

Neurodivergents often find techniques to help them with this, such as wearing noise cancelling headphones or playing music or audio to distract them

The best way to help someone during a meltdown is to help them out of the situation and leave them to decompress. This might include letting them sit in a dark room for a while, laying in silence or touching an item/smelling something that brings them comfort

Describing a meltdown for a character can often be similarly written like a panic attack, and often meltdowns can lead to panic attacks for some people, such as an increased heart rate, sweating, crying, hyperventilating/heavy breathing etc.

Struggling to write sensory overload? Try and think how you would feel if you had 30 different voices screaming at you at once, with bright lights and super itchy clothing. Really panicked, scared and overwhelmed right?

Those who are sensitive to sensory input often hear/feel/smell/see things much louder/easier/more extreme than others, so while something may be quiet to one person, it seems really loud to another

HABITS AND COMPLUSIONS

Neurodivergences come with a lot of habits and compulsions, somewhat similar to traits of OCD. These are things such as having to have particular routines, having to carry certain items with them at all times (mine are my BTS water bottle and earphones lol). Without fulfilling these habits, compulsions and comfort items, a person can become extremely stressed, panicked and overloaded.

Habits and compulsions in writing:

Writing these can go from very subtle to extreme, it could be that someone has to get ready in the morning in a particular order, eat their food in a certain way/order or follow a particular route to get somewhere

The odd thing is that neurodivergents are actually pretty bad at developing habits, a neurodivergent could do the same thing over and over every single day, but completely forget to do it one day and never do it again

When writing for characters, some characters may be able to mask their distress when their habits/compulsions are not fulfilled, however others can not do so at all, but either way this sends the character into feeling of panic and distress

A character may develop certain habits/compulsions for different reasons, it could be from experiences, completely random, comforting senses or familiarity and fear

For example when walking into my nearest town I have to walk a very specific route on a specific side of the road or I freak out, this is because it’s what I’m used to and I struggle to deal with change

Speaking of change, a character can be written as anxious or irritated when plans are changed

SPECIAL INTERESTS/HYPER-FIXATIONS:

Probably my favourite topic - neurodivergents often develop special interests and hyper-fixations. These relate to specific subjects or activities that a person will learn about or engage in with extreme focus and dedication. Some common examples are trains and butterflies, where a person will learn and memorise every type of train, or every type of butterfly to exist, and how different trains work or the life cycles of butterflies. This can be of any topic though, as a child my personal special interest was Ancient Egypt and I spent all of my free time learning about the history. As I’ve gotten older, this has changed and my hyper-fixations have been mostly BTS and Haikyuu (with some short ones in between).

Special interests/hyper-fixations in writing:

Info-dumping! Characters with special interests can often be written with moments of info-dumping, where they will talk about their special interest for a long period of time to someone else. They are often very excited, talk quickly and possibly even seem a little frantic when trying to explain their interest - this is something they have little control over and tend to talk for too long or at inappropriate times

Stereotypes are often written in special interests, particularly the example I gave about trains - not every neurodivergent likes trains, please be creative when thinking about what special interest your character may have, if they have one at all

A character may have one long-standing special interest that they’ve been learning about for many years, or they can flutter between multiple hyper-fixations in the span of a few days

Hyper-fiaxtions can affect a character in ways such as forgetting to eat or sleep, forgetting to do other commitments or becoming extremely upset, stressed or unmotivated when that interest is no longer doable (such as if a TV series ends)

Some characters may be embarrassed about their interests, whereas others will happily info-dump with no concerns

FRIENDSHIPS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Both Autism and ADHD can cause difficulties in making and keeping friendships or relationships. This is often due to struggles in communication, forgetting to speak to people, getting bored of social interaction, getting overwhelmed and feeling too ‘different’ from everyone else. Some people, however, can make friends every easily, particularly more extroverted and confident types. Autistics in particular tend to have small groups of friends that they feel truly comfortable with, and may struggle to understand why a person needs other friends/ a large group. This can lead to feelings of ejectment or jealously. A neurodivergent will often struggle to know how a person feels about them without being directly told, and will need frequent reassurance that this feeling is continuous.

AUTISM CHARACTERISATIONS

Talking too much or very little - about 40% of people with Autism are mute, meaning they cannot speak. Characters could also be selectively mute, meaning they can only speak in situations they are comfortable with, or certain people

Autism is a communication disorder, majorly affecting a person’s ability to communicate and understand socialisation. Here is how to characterise Autism:

NOTE - I have used functioning labels here as, personally, I prefer to use them and is more often used where I am from, however some people prefer not to, please keep this in mind

Speaking out of turn - this is either because they do not understand the social cue of waiting until someone else has finished to talk, or because they will forget what is on their mind if they don’t say it immediately

Taking jokes or words literally - this can cause character’s to become distressed when they do not understand a joke, or end up doing a task that was not meant to happen because they took a conversation literally. This also include having difficulty understanding figures of speech such as ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’

Having difficulty understanding the rules of social interactions - this covers a range of things, from struggling to know what to say when speaking to a cashier at a store, to not knowing what to say in certain situations. An example of this is if someone said ‘hi, my name is ....”, the social cue is to respond with ‘hello, it’s nice to meet you, my name is ...”, however those with Autism tend not to understand this and may reply with something else. In my experiences, I often panic and say ‘thank you’ instead, despite this not being the ‘correct’ reply

Expressing the wrong emotions - Autism makes it very difficult to understand emotions, either from others or expressing them yourself. While others immediately know a smile means someone is happy, this is not something that is easy to understand in Autism. An autistic person may laugh or smile during negative situations, or look upset or mad in happy situations as they are either unaware of how they are carrying their body language, or simply do not know what body language fits with what emotion

Difficulty understanding emotion of others - whether it be verbal or non-verbal, it can be very difficult for those with Autism to understand what others are feeling and can often jump to the wrong conclusions

Using the wrong tone of voice or having a ‘robotic’ tone - For the same reason as the last point, those with Autism tend to either sound robotic at times, or use the wrong tone in the wrong situations, such as sounding angry when they are not, however they are often unaware of this when it happens. This also means they tend to be more blunt and literal in their own speech

Not understanding hints - those with Autism often need to be spoken to very directly as they struggle to understand hints or ‘read between the lines’. This could be anywhere from not understanding hints of romantic feelings, to someone mentioning that the trash is getting too full (as a hint that it needs to be taken out)

Difficulty with focus and following lists - this is an overlap with ADHD however the reasoning is often different, autistic people are often perfectionists, so if you give them a list of things to remember, they will focus so hard on remembering the first thing correctly that they forget the rest. Difficulty to focus is often due to a lack of interest in the topic

Attention to detail and ‘all or nothing’ - Autistic people are great at paying attention to small details and often focus on that more than the big picture. They are also very ‘all or nothing’ with how they delegate their focus, if they are interested in something they will put their entire energy and focus into it until its perfect, if they aren’t interested? They probably wont do it at all, this often means that some Autistic people struggle academically because they don’t feel interested in the topics, and therefore have no motivation to do the work

Great at following rules and instructions - despite being bad at lists, Autistic people tend to be good at following rules, this is because they are often black and white, literal and easy to understand, they like structure!

Increased skills and abilities - those with autism are often more creative and intelligent in a wide variety of skills that neurotypicals, in fact to be diagnosed with high-functioning autism, you must have a higher-than-average IQ. Unfortunately the stereotype is that Autistics are dumb or stupid - this is not the case at all

Boys vs girls - everyone is different, however boys and girls tend to act very differently. Boys tend to be more extroverted and loud and particularly struggle with understanding emotions or talking in turn. Girls tend to be more introverted, quiet and can mask much better, but struggle more when knowing if it is acceptable to speak

No empathy? - this is what people often relate to Autism, however this is inaccurate. People with Autism can and do feel empathy, however it tends to be slightly different. For example, if a neurotypical told another neurotypical about a bad situation they went through, the other person would often reply with ‘I’m sorry that happened to you, I hope you feel better soon”. A neurodivergent, however, would often reply like this, “something similar happened to me once.....”. This often comes across rude to neurotypicals, however it is much easier for a neurodivergent to relate the person’s feeling to their own experiences, and share comfort by letting the person know they are not alone

Difficulty with eye contact - good body language often explains that eye contact is key, however this is extremely difficulty for neurodivergents

Forgetfulness - to be honest I don’t know why this is, autistics are just really forgetful. You need to repeatedly tell them to do something or they wont do it

Planning - autistics often need and enjoy planning their schedule. They find comfort in knowing exactly when, where and how things are happening and with who

Shyness and introverted? - many autistics will be shy, introverted and struggle with social anxiety, but this is not the case for everyone. A person can be autistic and be super confident, loud and extroverted - it is a stereotype that being autistic makes you shy and quiet

REMEMBER - AUTISM IS A SPECTRUM DISORDER MEANING PEOPLE CAN RANGE FROM MILD TO SEVERE TRAITS, NOT EVERYONE WILL HAVE EVERY SINGLE TRAIT

AUTISM STEREOTYPES:

Everyone likes trains

They are rude and blunt

They are stupid/unintelligent

They cannot understand rules

They cannot feel empathy

They are quiet and shy

They are disruptive

AD(H)D CHARACTERISATION

ADHD is a condition that affects the focus and attention of a person. Here’s how to characterise someone with ADHD:

Not everyone is hyperactive - firstly, the ‘hyperactive’ part of ADHD doesn’t often mean physically hyperactive, but a person can have ADD where they do not show hyperactive traits

Difficulty focusing - this is much more than just not being able to focus, there are many reasons as to why this is, including getting distracted easily (by external sources or their own thoughts). finding it difficult to understand social interactions, feeling overwhelmed

Hyperfocusing - on the flip side, ADHD can cause people to hyperfocus on certain things, where it takes all their time and energy and they forget to do other things such as eat or sleep

Difficulty with eye contact - good body language often explains that eye contact is key, however this is extremely difficulty for neurodivergents

Difficulties controlling emotions and mood swings - this is often comes out in anger and frustration. This can be for various reasons: they are frustrated that they cannot focus like others, a lack of motivation, get easily stressed and insecurity

Restlessness - this is often seen as being always ‘on the go’, they need to be busy at all times doing different activities. In writing this can be shown as excessive talking, fidgeting, getting bored easily or taking risks

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria - this is an emotional response to rejection or criticism which often looks like insecurity and anxiety. This could be real rejection, or perceived rejection, for example someone saying they are too busy to hang out may trigger an emotional response of rejection, low mood and anxiety in someone with ADHD. This can also lead to anger or panic, and causes people to become ‘people pleasers’ or not try at all

Poor organisation - the opposite of Autism where those with ADHD struggle with planning, organising, misplacing items and keeping things tidy. It is difficult to understand priorities, separate relevant and irrelevant information and time management. Those with ADHD often begin tasks and do not finish them due to restlessness, distractions or feeling overwhelmed by the task

Difficulties starting tasks - ADHD can make it very difficult to begin tasks as they feel too overwhelming, difficult or take too much focus. Breaking down tasks into smaller sections can help this a lot

Forgetfullness - out of sight, out of mind is often the case with ADHD, and so things like post-it notes and reminders can help people remember things they need to do

Multiple thoughts at once - neurotypicals tend to only have one thought/idea in their head at a time, however those with ADHD often juggle multiple thoughts which can lead to distraction and frustration

‘All or nothing’ - Those with ADHD tend to be ‘all or nothing’ with how they delegate their focus, if they are interested in something they will put their entire energy and focus into it until its perfect, if they aren’t interested? They probably wont do it at all, this often means that those with ADHD may struggle academically because they don’t feel interested in the topics. Unlike Autism, they tend not to focus well with repetitive tasks as this lacks simulation

Medication - unlike Autism, ADHD can be helped with stimulant medication that allows them to focus a bit better. This is not a cure as ADHD cannot be cured, however it can be beneficial to some to help manage their struggles

Acting without thinking and being impulsive - to find some stimulation, those with ADHD may act without thinking of their consequences, or can engage in risky behaviour as other avenues may seem boring, please note this is not the case for everyone, and these ‘risks’ may be very mild like trying a new flavour of ice cream. They can act impulsively too and struggle to wait their turn

Communication difficulties - while ADHD is not a communication disorder, it can have affects on communication such as talking out of turn, starting conversations at the wrong times, being insensitive to particular topics or getting too distracted to focus on the conversation

Need reminders to take care of themselves - due to a mix of hyperfocusing and not focusing well, those with ADHD may often forget to do things such as eat, drink, sleep or shower

Quite easy to get their attention - when someone with ADHD is daydreaming, getting distracted or not focusing, it can be as simple as giving them a tap or a smile to bring their attention back to the matter at hand, even if these needs to be done multiple times

Rewarding behaviour - this technique works well as rewarding good behaviour releases dopamine, which is the hormone often lacked in those with ADHD, this allows people to connect activities and behaviours with positive feelings and are more likely to do it again in the future

ADHD STEROTYPES:

ADHD is ‘diet’ Autism

Those with ADHD cannot sit still

They are disruptive

Everyone with ADHD is hyperactive, loud and extroverted

#autism #asd #adhd #writing #neurodivergent #haikyuu #haikyuu!!#haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu imagine #haikyū!!#haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu drabbles #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu fluff #Fanfiction

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blue-shaded · 5 years ago

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(1/9) i know there's speculation (from community and sean himself) that sean has ADHD, but i think he has something else. i have ADHD, but i also have nonverbal learning disability (NVLD), and his behavior is actually way more in line with NVLD to me. it's not commonly diagnosed because it's not officially in the DSM/ICD at this point and it requires a huge battery of testing, but the best brief way i can think to describe it is that it's kind of a cross between autism and inattentive ADHD.

(2/9) the basics of NVLD: stronger verbal than nonverbal abilities (e.g. chatty but poor abstract reasoning/math skills), better with auditory than visual info, need for familiarity/routine, bad with social cues, disorganization, poor planning skills, focusing on details + may focus on the wrong stuff, tendency to internalize negative emotions (and can develop depression/anxiety as a result), strong memory (often for odd things), and possible motor/spatial awareness difficulties.

(3/9) sean does have traits of ADHD, like disorganization, chattiness, short attention span and need for stimulation, but there's so much overlap between ADHD and NVLD that a lot of cases of NVLD end up misdiagnosed as ADHD, or they're diagnosed together. and there's this lack of an ADHD quality that he has, i don't really know how to describe it but he lacks a certain energy that mark and a lot of other adults with ADHD have, and he needs mark (nobody else works) with him to get that energy.

(4/9) there's also just some very not-ADHD stuff he does. he's stuck really firmly to a schedule with no real assistance and prided himself on his work ethic, which isn't usually an ADHD thing, but it fits very much with the routines and need for familiarity present in NVLD. he lacks the out-of-the-box thinking that's present in a lot of people with ADHD, and he seems almost afraid to try anything new if someone else doesn't do it first. he seems oddly wobbly/unstable when he walks around.

(5/9) robin's apparently complained about sean being shit at timing things. sean's described things in incredible detail, like talking about where he was in his video game when mark followed him on twitter or telling that story about breaking his crush's ankle when he was 12. he overlooks visual stuff in his games (like his first Papers Please series) and had a really hard time with the math classes in Bully (though that could be a LD but it's hard to say). on to social stuff:

(6/9) he overshares A LOT. he claims to be good at reading people, yet he hangs out with felix, gab, nopeify, and the game grumps (who aren't quite as bad as the rest but it looks like they talked up gab to sean while he was still with signe). the relationship between him and mark is weird - sean was practically glued to him and now seems to hate him, though i don't really know what that's about. he interrupts at times and seems to struggle reading the mood of a situation (e.g. interviews).

(7/9) then there's just the fact that he seems to be able to slow down and "put on the brakes" and act normally as needed, which mark, who has ADHD, has never been able to do. he can go on a ramble but then pull back around to the original subject. he's not good at coming up with stuff on the spot, either, but everyone i know with ADHD is really fast at that. people with ADHD often switch careers/ideas a lot - sean does the same thing repeatedly even if it's not working.

(8/9) then there's the internalization, which, well, it's obvious - blatant depression and lack of self-care, he's mentioned having anxiety attacks and being anxious to please everyone, etc. at this point i've been writing these asks for over an hour and am practically writing an entire thesis at you, so i'll wrap it up with one more ask, but there's probably a bunch of stuff i've noticed and am forgetting to say.

(9/9) it's really speculation and i don't want to say it as "oh he definitely strikes me as this", because NVLD really NEEDS the clinical battery of tests to rule out other conditions and determine the person's strengths and weaknesses, but it seems like a legitimate possibility to me, and i think that should be brought up rather than ADHD because NVLD and ADHD tend to use different management strategies and NVLD doesn't respond to ADHD medication. it's worth thinking about at least - I feel like atleast if he talks to a therapist or psychologist he could get his actual diagnosis figured out. I really don’t know what’s holding him. Plenty of people get diagnosed at a later age, it’s normal. A lot of parents were not interested in getting their child’s diagnosis at a young age, to deny anything was wrong with their child, or not being able to afford it. If he really wants to preach mental healthcare and yet does nothing of the sort himself.. He MUST stop preaching it now until he has had his own tests, his own diagnose, and his own method of dealing with stuff. A lot of what you say anon really does make sense. I’m no expert on mental illnesses but it all does make sense.

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moggieblanket-blog · 6 years ago

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I Do Not Have ADHD, And If You Self-Diagnosed It, You Probably Don’t Either.

In my introductory post on this blog, I stated that I was being evaluated to see if ADHD explained my inattentive and hyperactive concerns. I went back to the same place that did my autism assessment four years prior. Those of you who read my post about what my autism evaluation was like know how thorough and detailed it was. The ADHD test was equally so, including the same IQ test that I’d taken four years ago, as well as reports for my parents to fill out about my childhood, self-reports on my symptoms, a detailed interview, and two different computerized tests to measure my attention and focus.

I received my results today, and the eighteen-page report I got and discussed with my assessor stated that I did demonstrate marked impulsivity in one of the computerized tests, my scores on the self-test and in the interview were very high and consistent with ADHD, and my parents endorsed a few clinically significant traits in my childhood. Even with all that though, I did not receive a diagnosis of ADHD. Why not? Because one computer-based test picked up high impulsivity, but neither picked up high inattention. My parents endorsed a few clinical traits and a number of sub-clinical ones, but only the clinical ones count (see my angry rant about conditions needing to be disabling to be diagnosed), and they did not perceive enough clinical traits to meet the cutoff. My self-tests were just that, tests that I filled out based on my own feelings about my symptoms. I felt like I struggled an inordinate amount with inattention, but the computerized tests and my assessor’s real-time observations of my ability to focus on the tasks we were doing both showed objectively that I have a very good attention span. My perception of my difficulties was inaccurate. I’m going to say that one more time for those in the back. MY PERCEPTION OF MY DIFFICULTIES WAS INACCURATE!

This is incredibly important, because by far the biggest justification that I see here for self-diagnosis is, “I know myself better than a doctor!” No. You don’t. You do not have the ability to assess your strengths and deficits in an accurate and objective manner. None of us do. We filter our reality, see what we want to see and disregard the rest. A computer spitting out numbers from a standardized test, and even an outside person observing your behaviour are both far more objective and accurate measures than your own perception of your abilities and inabilities. I also want to note that I took a number of those online quizzes that self-dxers love. Every single one of them said that I had a “high probability” of having ADHD. Keep that in mind.

If I had decided to pull a tumblr and do some research, take some quizzes, and deem myself “self diagnosed with ADHD” I would have been wrong. I would have sought out groups and self-help strategies that were inappropriate for my needs.

The evaluation stated that I did not have ADHD, but that my impulsivity and inattention were better explained by my PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder. It’s hard to pay attention to anything when you’re too busy paying attention to everything, scanning an area for threats all the time. Of course a person who has anxiety and worries about seeming slow or about not keeping up is going to rush things and make decisions impulsively. I have a bachelors degree in psychology, and a special interest in psychological disorders, and I did not know that impulsivity and inattention could be symptoms of anxiety disorders.

My evaluation is a perfect illustration of why self-diagnosis is so flawed. We do not and cannot know ourselves as objectively and accurately as we think we do, and disorder traits often overlap subtly with each other, and in combinations we may not have known existed.

I don’t care if you “can’t get a diagnosis” for any reason at all. Please, please don’t claim you have a disability if you haven’t spoken to a doctor. Research it, chat about it with those who have it, explore self help options as much as you want, but don’t say you have it without a diagnosis. You are doing yourself an incredible disservice.

#adhd #self dx #prof dx #attention #ptsd #anxiety

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squirenonny · 7 years ago

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i have been reading your duality verse full time and i love it, esp seeing all the neurodivergence of the cast! reading how you portray pidge and keith reminded me A LOT of a friend of mine and I feel like they could be autistic as well? I don't want to superimpose anything on them or idk patronize them or like do anything bad bc there is a chance my hunch is wrong and??? but I think they would benefit from looking into neurodivergent resources but idk how to tell them 1/2

2/2 bc just going like HEY FRIEND I THINK YOU MIGHT BE AUTISTIC AND THERE ARE COOL RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET YOU MIGHT PROFIT OF just seems offensive and tactless and??? like this is not meant to come off as an offense/criticism of them as a person but could easily be read as such probably if approached on the wrong foot??? do you have any advice on how to reach out to my friend on this??? is this something i should do at all?? i am so sorry to bother you thank you and good bye

Hey! And thanks! I’m glad you enjoy the series and especially the neurodivergence. That’s a huge part of why I’m so invested in this story and it always makes me happy to see it resonate with readers!

As to your question--that’s something that’s really hard to answer without knowing you or your friend personally, so I can’t give you a straight “yes you should do this” or “no, better not.” A lot of autistic people, myself included, are much happier for having discovered the autistic community, and your friend might appreciate someone pointing them toward it, but other people may not feel the same--or it may take time for them move past the initial pushback of denial/self-doubt/fear that hits a lot of us when we’re first presented with the question (from ourselves or from other people) of whether or not we might be autistic.

Ultimately, your friend will probably have to do their own research and reflection before they self-identify as autistic or seek a diagnosis. So even if you decide to strike up this conversation, don’t push. Let them take it at their own pace. Other things to consider (below the break cause this got a little rambly)

1) Do the two of you talk about neurodivergence (be it politics, representation, or just in general) at all? This conversation will probably go better if you’re both on the same page and you can be confident that your friend isn’t going to misinterpret your comment as an insult or otherwise offensive. If you don’t already talk about neurodivergence and you don’t work up to it, you’re going to want to be very careful to make it clear that this isn’t a judgment or a criticism because you’re right. The unfortunate reality is if you’ve only seen Hollywood autism (the “genius asshole” or the ~poor little kid trapped inside his own head~) then “autistic” can sound like an insult.

2) Is there something specific you’ve noticed or better yet that your friend has told you about (sensory overload, meltdowns/shutdowns, ect) that you think your friend could benefit from knowing about/having access to resources? You could start there--it would be a way to introduce the topic of autism in a way that lets your friend know that you just want to help them--and since a lot of autistic traits overlap with other forms of neurodivergence (ADHD and anxiety just to name a few) it’s possible that you’re close but not quite right in thinking your friend might be autistic. That’s okay! You can’t possibly know every facet of their experience, so starting with something concrete might be easier for both of you than coming right out and saying, “I think you might be autistic.”

3) How much do you know about autism? If you want to have this conversation with your friend, it might help to do some research on your own so you can articulate your thoughts and point your friend toward resources they might find helpful and also because your friend might have questions. You don’t need to have all the answers, obviously, and if your friend is anything like me odds are they’re going to go read everything they can find on autism for themselves, but it might help to be able to provide some basic facts to illustrate what you’re trying to say. Alternatively, if your friend is open to it, research together. Say basically what you said to me--something like, ”I was reading a story with autistic characters that reminded me of you and now I can’t stop thinking about it. Did you know [thing that reminded you of them] is common in autistic people?”

4) If you aren’t sure about having the conversation point blank (either because you’re worried your wrong or because you don’t know how your friend would take it) then make it not about them. Encourage them to read something with autistic characters that remind you of them. If they aren’t into Voltron fic, try:-the second Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (starting with Alloy of Law.) Steris Harms is autistic and she really shines in the sequels especially-The Stormlight Archive also by Brandon Sanderson. Renarin Kholin is autistic. He’s a relatively minor character so far, but I love him.-On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis. Denise is explicitly stated to be autistic in the text. She’s also the main character and holy crow is she #relatable.You could also share autistic headcanons posts for characters you both know. There are lot of them out there (just google “autistic [character/fandom] headcanons” and odds are you’ll find something.) Honestly, when it comes right down to it, if your friend is autistic, the right kind of representation is going to resonate with them and there’s a good chance they’ll go digging on their own.

5) Most importantly, be on the lookout for signs that your friend is uncomfortable with the conversation and if they are, drop the subject. Nothing good is going to come of pushing, and neurodivergence is a very personal thing. It may well be that they’ll come back to you sometime later and initiate the conversation when they’re ready for it. So just be there for them and let them take it at their own pace. I’d been researching autism for six months before I even let myself think the words, I might be autistic, and it was over a year before I said anything to anyone else. So be patient, and focus on being a friend no matter what does or doesn’t come of this conversation.

#i hope this helps #i know conversations like this can be intimidating #but it's obvious you care about your friend and want them to be happy #so that's a good place to start #anon #actually autistic #autism #answers

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guardevoir · 7 years ago

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Day 15 - Do any of your characters have a disability or mental illness? If so, how does that affect their development throughout your story?

1) DOAMS: -Not that any of them are named, but Gus definitely has some things going on: Depression, definitely, most likely some sort of anxiety disorder, probably mild PTSD, a bunch of phobias, maaaaaybe the vampire equivalent of an ED, but the underlying mechanism is at least somewhat different, and it also overlaps with the phobia and PTSD stuff as well as allergies. It all causes a bunch of problems during the story, and by the end of it, he at least acknowledges that he may have a few problems he should get help for, and he even begins dealing with some of that stuff on his own. -Jaime probably has ADHD, if you want to count that. Mostly shows up very subtly in the form of character traits... but Jaime is a first-person narrator and not a very reliable one, either, so things do get glossed over on occasion. -Astrid is just a minor character, but she has a leg injury that never quite healed; not sure if hip, knee or ankle, though.

2) Equinox: -Not that I can think of, but there’s probably something I’m forgetting. -Absalom might have a very mild form of autism?

#guardy talks about stuff

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plantanarchy · 7 years ago

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do you think you could talk a little about being autistic? im wondering if i might be autistic and im still not sure bc i like pass as neurotypical rlly well so far and i thought it would help to hear about actual people's experiences. you don't have to though and im sorry if this is weird!!

This has been in my inbox for a bit, I’m sorry! But yeah, I can talk about it. Keep in mind that everyone’s experience is different and its less of a “spectrum” from mild to severe/low to high functioning and more of a complex where different people have different experiences. A lot of people use functioning labels to dismiss the experience and opinions of “high functioning” folk when it comes to being autistic because tjey “don’t seem autistic” or “aren’t like those other low functioning autistic people”, but really “function” is relative and can even change day to day… on someone’s bad days they could be totally nonverbal rocking back and forth and on good days pass better at neurotypical than I do…

Ok so, I was diagnosed with Aspergers when I was ~10. I was essentially non-verbal in school and other high stress social situations and had been since I was very very young. This was interpreted as “very shy!” despite me having severe difficulty from a young age in saying anything at all to teachers, doctors, church people, even many of my peers, etc and often feeling like i was physically unable to speak but you know… because I spoke at home and with my neighborhood friends, I wasn’t considered non-verbal at all. Or I guess selective mutism is the correct term which is something I definitely still struggle with. Like when I was in middle school, I spent a few years literally being known by my mom’s friends and by some people at school as “Meep” because thata fuckin all I could physically say when somebody tried to talk to me haha

BUT ok that got away from me, point being: i was diagnosed with Aspergers at a young age which is a diagnosis that no longer exists/has been absorbed into the greater Autism diagnosis. Aspergers was separate for a long time because it was basically used to say “these kids are high functioning and different than those low functioning non communicative kids!”. Basically because I had most of the “cool and good” autism traits, my “not as cool and kinda crippling” autism traits and needs got shoved aside and essentially ignored for a long, long time. Which I think happens to a lot of kids! Even to the point of not getting a diagnosis at all or getting a wrong diagnosis and only realizing later in life what may be going on and what was missed.

Whoops before this becomes a bitter tangent, back to my experience of autism I guess. Ok, so on top of still being selectively verbal/mute (some days are worse than others and sometimes it isn’t even directly anxiety related it’s just a mostly mute day), my other symptoms include 1) it’s almost physically painful to make eye contact with anyone 2) formal social situations are beyond me, I never know what is correct or what’s coming next and usually I survive informal social situations by cracking jokes and making weird references to shit or being obnoxious and just accepting the label of “weird ass obnoxious kid but that’s just bre” 3) usually feel like I’m just two steps away from understanding what’s going on in some social situations lol like sometimes i have good intuition, can read people, can guess at what they’re thinking and then something happens that makes me question my entire interpretation of the situation and I realize maybe I wasn’t reading them correctly the whole time!!!! It’s the social equivalent of being the only one to get a wrong answer on a math problem and frantically rechecking your work lol 4) sensory overload yayyyyy when too many things happen at once (which can be like… 2 thing), I zone out and feel like my environment is unreal or blurry (fun and cool dissociation) and I can never predict what will cause that overload or when but also a lot of people have the very dramatic “autistic child screaming from sensory overload” image in their brain and thats not always accurate… my overload results in shut down 5) also along with that, I have sensory issues such as texture, sounds, etc. Certain fabrics as a kid would legit make me cry if I touched them or if my mom made me wear them (WINDBREAKERS ARE SENSORY HELL) and that still happens lol also with stuff like… chewing sounds, shoes that touch my toes in any way, loud music/bass, etc 6) along with that and with sensory overload… stimming. Stimming is basically a self-regulatory response to overwhelming stimuli and plenty of non-autistic people also do similar things when faced with high anxiety situations. Like foot jiggling, pencil tapping, nail biting, pencil chewing, etc it’s basically a soothing compulsion and not always something many autistic people can control without great effort and that control comes at the cost of not regulating anxieties or sensory overload well. I’ve got and always have had a lot of verbal/language stims and am very reptitive in my speech and writing patterns (y'all and lad anyone???) which is kinda self soothing. I have literally always had catchphrases. When im on my own i also do rock baxk and forth and other repititive body motions, also fidgeting with objects, especially cool round objects 7) catalog all the useless info in my brain!!! I can memorize information very well (not numbers though) and when I was a kiddo that got me labelled as #gifted and I was “savant” level in reading and writing but that is less cool and fun to people than beinf a math or science savant or something. 8) anyway related to that, as evidenced by this blog, I get VERY INVESTED in certain topics/ “special interests” to the point that it eclipses all other thoughts in my brain yay!!! Which isn’t a bad thing, I mean it gets me through and also if you have “good” special interests, people think you’re smart and interesting and ask your advice about stuff lol

Symptoms I don’t have that a lot of people think of when they think of an autistic person 1) I am horrendous at math I fuckin hate it numbers are the devil!!!!!! 2) 99% of my humor is sarcasm and I can understand it and figures of speech lol though sometimes i do get it wrong if i can’t read you otherwise 3) I don’t have “zero empathy”, I can feel for the plights of others VERY strongly, and can usually see any (most) POVs if it’s explained to me

There are others probably and there are certainly autistic people who have thise traits and who have different traits than I have. There are LOADS of different ways to be autistic. But also, there’s a lot of overlap between autism and between other things like ADHD, anxiety disorders, etc! So keep that in mind. Some people are strongly anti-selfdiagnosis of autism but knowing how easy it can be for kids who don’t present 100% stereotypically to slip through the cracks, I am all for it. I pass a lot of the time as neurotypical and can do most society things ok, though I have a steep learning curve compared to others… and with passing as neurotypical comes the frequent dismissal of my opinion on autism related topics and the lack of acknowledgement that actually I often DON’T pass as neurotypical and at those times my lack of passing is interpreted as rudeness, deliberate lack of effort on my part, stubbornness, lack of intelligence, lack of professionalism, an assumption that I’m angry with someone or don’t like them, etc etc. It’s an endless, awful cycle!

And I don’t really have too much personal advice for figuring out if you’re autistic or not… I did go through a point in time where despite being diagnosed I strongly denied that I was autistic and kind of had to come back to that as a near adult and realize nope… definitely autistic. And then knowing what to do with that info once youve figured it out is just… I mean there’s not much. There are little to no resources for autistic adults, very few support groups made up of autistic people and led by autistic people, very little resources directed at autistic people themselves in general, usually the focus is on the parents or guardians and talk aboit autistic people as abstract concepts… whoops, can you tell I’m bitter haha gonna end this before I go full “mental health professionals failed me and I’m a mess” etc

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