or you just don’t like them. for me i love kids and my best friend (Audhd) does too. but my other best friend (autism) despises kids (i literally don’t see how they’re just joyous balls of innocence!! yes they can be loud n sticky but they’re so fun to play with).

just a little shower thought i guess :3

i always get told "stop flapping" or "thats weird".

but honestly the older i get the more i feel proud of it.  

curious if others here feel similar? or do you mask it even if u dont want to?  

I'm kind of unevenly split between them, leaning towards crunchy.

Some foods like vegetables, I prefer them having a bit of crunch, if they're mushy they're basically inedible for me.

On the other hand, some foods, like potatoes, I like them a bit softer, but not straight up mushy.

How about you?

My Asperger's diagnosis, for me, is just a sentencing. That I'll always be different, never fitting in, always having to think so much before talking, before acting, never able to just be myself, because people won't like me. I don't have a forecast, or a problem, or a treatment. I'm just built different, in a way that most people find off-putting, and on the cases where I open about my neurodivesity, it changes into pity, into an acceptance in a way like you accept that somebody has a condition that makes them stink, and there's nothing they can do about it. And, unfortunately, I also have very high social needs. I love people, friends, and such. I thought I had found my people in academia, where my hyperfocus is shared among my cohort, but I haven't. I'm still driving people away. I'm still lacking fundamental connections. And it's just because I can be tone deaf, and too honest about things that maybe I shouldn't have been. But I can never tell when I should be blunt and when I shouldn't. I was just worried that somebody was going go get hurt, and tried to warn them. I was trying to protect them... I was caring. In my way, that can be blunt and tine deaf, but was caring. And it turned them away. And I thought I had a friend. Somebody who truly saw me, and accepted me, and where I could be me and relax. I'm always tense. I'm always afraid to say the wrong thing. I'm tired. I wish I was born differently. I wish I was normal.

First I wanna say; I know how to eat. That was a typo lol.

Hey yall, I have inattentive type ADHD and I have a few questions for you if you do too!

1. How do you remember to eat? Do you deal with hypoglycemia? I have been struggling with eating lately due to not recognizing hunger cues and recently my fingers went numb and I started sweating, etc. I saw a doctor and they’re doing some tests but they told me I probably need to work on my diet. How do you remember to eat??

2. Do you deal with hypermobility and / or tachycardia? Just saw the doctor today about some of my concerns and it’s the first time they acknowledged my hypermobile disorder because I brought up that my heart felt like it was racing all the time. Apparently my heart has been in tachycardia essentially for 12 years or more! They said people with adhd often deal with hypermobility and tachycardia, so I’m interested if anyone else deals with that!

Thanks everyone 💞

I was having a conversation with my family members, my cousin and aunt. Both got diagnosed ADHD recently, they talk about their neurospicy self, and I fell like sometimes if I speak about mine. It gets ignored , or looked at different. Because I have dyspraxia , and they think I won't relate because it's not " ADHD "

I got diagnosed dyspraxia since I was born, and ngl. It kinda annoys me a lil. I've had to go through challenges myself. I too am also neurodivergent and I feel dyspraxia , needs to be brought up in conversations too !

I have noticed that when I say things like "Thank you for the reminder.", people misunderstand this as mockery of them and so they would antagonize me. This is just an example, but at work basically a lot of such interactions happen and I try to be polite and almost always it gets misunderstood.

I don't know what to do in this regard. I could reduce my thankfulness and gratuity but that's just who I am, like sometimes I really appreciate small things.

How can I avoid this being misunderstood and make sure the person accepts it as truthful?

By the way, this happens in all 3 languages that I speak with literally 3 different locales and cultures. So it's not the people, it's me. :( I just hate this so much. I wish I was normal. I at least accepted that I cannot understand humor, but this? Like what am I supposed to do anymore?

I’m working with my psychiatrist and testing will be done, but I know Reddit has an abundance of information and anecdotal experiences, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to come here and discuss my theory. I do not expect anyone to 100% diagnose me. I guess I’m just trying to rationalize it myself and talk it through with others who may get it.

I’m 31, almost 32. I’ve always felt “different”, misunderstood. I love too much, I feel too much. I can never get out of my head. I’ve dealt with mental health issues ever since I was a teenager… now I think it’s because I never felt seen or truly understood.

I’m a parent now and my child is 6. They were diagnosed with Autism, level 1 high functioning, around 3 years old. They were speech delayed and their lack of social skills was very apparent when they were younger. Through therapy, they have excelled and we actually just dropped their IEP (for now) as they go into 1st grade.

They’re exceptionally bright; reading chapter books, becoming more creative everyday, their closest friends are older kids, 8-10 years old. Every parent thinks their kids are amazing, so I asked her doctor if she was seemingly hyper-intelligent as I suspected, or if I was just a biased parent. The doctor saw what I see, which has been validating in itself.

I wonder if I am similarly level 1/“high-functioning”

My child’s Grandfather (not on my side) has what was formerly known as Asperger’s, but he was never diagnosed because it was a different time. He has most if not all of the associated traits. I initially thought he may be the “link”, if anything.

But now… I wonder if it’s me. Earlier this year I got TMS therapy as I wasn’t responding to my anti-depressants, I’ve tried everything under the sun. TMS saved my life. I’ve slowly weaned off the anti-depressants. Life is loud and hard, but I’m trying to be intentional with slowing things down and taking it one day at a time.

In past relationships, I allowed myself to be emotionally abused because the people I dated I felt “saw me” and I didn’t want to lose someone who “loved me.” I adopt a “I will go down with the ship mentality”; with the exception of infidelity and physical abuse. I’ve done a lot to unpack that and I’m hoping I’ll be better prepared for future relationships.

At work, I’m a perfectionist. I work a high stress, high stake job (law enforcement adjacent) and I very much struggle (internally) if I get criticism for my work. My evals have to be cohesive and close to flawless, or I feel I’ve messed up and am being judged accordingly.

I keep to myself at work and that’s made me feel anti-social and weird. “Why are all of my co-workers chummy but not me? Why don’t I have very many friends here?” But then again, I also come in, do the work, keep to myself, and go home. I engage, but not as much as my peers.

I have friends, but it’s a very small circle. I’ve always wondered why I didn’t have more friends and why people may not like me. While everyone’s inner critic is the loudest, it feels like mine is on full blast 24/7.

I have a cousin that I’m very close with, despite us living on opposite sides of the country, because we’re very similar people. Quiet, keep things close to the chest, but love the people in our lives fiercely. He’s never had a romantic relationship and he’s almost 40. I couldn’t help but laugh thinking the other day, “wait, could we both potentially be neurodivergent and that’s why our bond has been so tight all this time?! Because it was a different time and we never got properly assessed, so we’re just going through life like this because it’s our norm?”

I just feel like I’m looking at things through a new lens and it’s all kind of adding up.

Would love to hear any thoughts. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and reply.

I haven't been diagnosed yet, but in my late 20s and looking back I think I probably have ADHD. I read posts that resonate so strongly it is hard to deny. I see a lot of these traits in my dad too, so maybe there is a genetic link.

After years of frustration I felt relieved to have a possible explanation. I always thought I was dumb or lazy and it hurt my self esteem. Most of my friends are graduating, finding partners, and planning their futures, while I'm behind at university and struggling just to finish. It got so bad I deactivated my social media. But realising my brain might be different felt like part of a burden lifting.

Today I read about a prodigy and got curious. I wanted to learn what made those kids so advanced. I found an article linking the trait to an accelerated working memory. I remembered that working memory is often an issue for people with ADHD.

Reading that made me feel stupid again. If high working memory is tied to intelligence, where does that leave someone like me with poor working memory? I can't fully explain how I spiraled back into feeling low. I wish someone could help me see a silver lining in this condition, if there is one. Sometimes I worry I will never be comfortable with the idea of being disabled.

My whole life I have had very severe ADHD, auditory processing problems, and moderate to severe anxiety. When I reflect on my life, I find that I have had difficulties taking responsibility for some things that I've done and have in some cases shifted the blame to others.

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else feels similarly.

Thanks all,

My brother (25/m) is an incredibly talented self-taught artist and jewelry maker. He has ASD and I think he has the loveliest, most creative mind. I know he knows my mom and I support him wholeheartedly but I’d love for him to feel that love and support from strangers for his new Etsy shop. 😊 You can find it here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/wirethreadscreations/?etsrc=sdt

Heyy, I recently started college, and I'm having alot of fun. However, I am afraid I'm going to get into a burn-out again. It happens almost every year when everything goes well until I burn out again, because I don't know how to calm my nervous system down. Social interactions exhaust me alot. Any tips on how to handle this?

So asking because I’m diagnosed with ASD and ADHD but I’ve always exceeded in tech sales where I can work remote and do cold calls and cold emails. For me, I love it because it creates little challenges I have to constantly overcome and constantly provides me a reward system for big commission checks.

Just curious if anyone else in here is in the industry

My last friend doesn't talk to me anymore. We are very different.

We started working together in 2020 and she loved how nice I was.

Getting to know each other more, we have similar traumas but very different.

I'm 40 now and WFH. The only thing I have to my name is s car.

I got really close to a man overseas but we stopped talking because he has health issues and he says I'm too stressing.

I'm jealous of NDs who have a partner, someone who supports them. I feel like my exes all used me or I was the one who was supportive.

I'm tired and yes, lonely at this point. I'd rather be alone than hurt again. I guess I wonder why I can't find anyone that truly gets me or wants me.

Is it the burn out? Is it something else? We’ll never know…just needing the support today friends. 🙃

I personally can’t put a time frame on it myself.

The best I can say is that it was always that way but I didn’t realize it myself until I was older and got a better understanding of people and society as a whole.

I’m F22 living with my parents and my dad has been helping me manage my finances since forever (I’m ok with this btw. This isn’t a control thing.)

I want to be able to manage my own finances in the future obviously, but I genuinely have no idea how to navigate banks and all the bs that comes with it. My brain just can’t process half the stuff they tell me and it’s a struggle because I have no way to visualize any of it.

Am I alone in this??? It’s insanely frustrating and just feels like another roadblock for when I have to move out and become independent. How am I supposed to live on my own if I literally can’t understand how banks work??

Stumbled on Dr Amen's controversial "7 Type of ADHD" model.

So I threw together a quick interactive quiz for myself, found the results interesting, and thought maybe others would too.

I did this just to help people struggling with ADHD. Even though these 7 types are not "officially recognized" at the moment I still found the info interesting.

Full transparency...

• You don't have to provide any info to take the quiz
• You don't have to provide any info to see the quiz results
• Your results are yours, and yours alone
• No information is stored
• No information is shared
• No tracking cookies are used
• I have no relation/connection to Dr Amen
• I'm not paid by anyone

I did this purely to help.

Now that that's out of the way...

You can take the quiz here:https://professionalcrastinationco.github.io/adhd/

Please share with anyone you think this may help.

almost? Like its squishy yk? Especially from the bottom/. Wonder how it would feel if i had a nose ring or piercing

Anybody have Low Latent Inhibition?

I have been struggling to sleep and focus basically my entire life. From when I was a kid I remember being an extremely light sleeper. I could not get to sleep because my mind was distracted by the noises within my house, the feeling and sound of my head against the pillow, and the mamy thoughts racing through my head. To this day I still have this problem. I was even prescribed Melatonin every night and I still wake up in the middle of the night always thinking. I went to a therapist and she said it is probably anxiety. I told my therapist I only think about past sad things that happened to me, but nore things go on in my head that I find difficult to describe. I notice the patterns and behavior in people, shift in attidue and emotion, and there movements. It takes concentration for me to move my brain off of it. I am very good at recognizing patterns and seeing little details.

I am starting to beleive it could be something else. It has began affecting my mood and motivations for academics, as well as my hobbies. I often worry and can get overwhelmed by noises in my environment. This happens a lot when I am in Church. The songs get really loud. I have to leave the room and go sit on the toilet because that is when all the thoughts come on. I notice the movement of the lady in the next row, the crying of the baby behind me, and the strumming of the guitar all at once. I have to constantly glance over at the things and people I see. I can't help it and people call me a weirdo for staring. I have to put my head down and cover my head. The only time my brain gets rest is when I have not slept well for a couple days. I am not even able to fully focus on conversation without trying really hard to focus. I am very distracted and stressed in environments where I am forced to focus on a singe task. Especially in school. I get lost in thought and lose the topics of the lesson. I have to put a lot of effort to focus. Can anybody else here relate? I have not been diagnosed, but I am struggling.

This is partially connected to my previous post telling that whole sob story. Asking this because I went to the doctor's today and the nurse that had to deal with me was pretty upbeat and chatty once I started talking to her. A few minutes into the conversation, she revealed that she was a high-functioning autistic.

And I just thought, "oh, now it all makes sense, that's why you're so happy to be around me". Because looking back on my life, the only people I was somewhat "friends" with who weren't constantly so blitzed out of their fucking minds they'd be best buddies with anyone were really nerdy autistics and attention-deficits, most of which became really distant and even hostile towards me over the years in some cases because I kept getting in fights and hanging out with losers.

This also extends to me in online spaces, the only people I have close civil relationships with on Discord servers and what have you are neurodivergent to some extent, and some of them have told me in the past that I seemed ND. These are people who I've never talked to or even seen in real life, they've never seen body language, mannerisms, even what my voice sounds like. All they know of me is what I talk about and my typing style, and one of them just straight-up told me that I'm autistic, they should know because they've been diagnosed for 10 or so years.

And personally...I kinda see it. I relate to "everywhere I go, I make people hate me. Every room I walk in, it's like landing in a fucking viper pit, even the air is unremittingly hostile towards me. And most everyone I meet sees me either as a circus freak or a threat." It doesn't matter if I don't do anything, I don't even need to say a single word to know that nobody in my surroundings sees me as one of them. It's just something I feel.

I've been called paranoid, etc, before, but jesus fuck, I used to get figuratively and literally badgered into a corner and nobody would fuck off until I lashed out at them pretty much every week. People do hate me, and every time I told someone to go fuck their mother, it was yet another mark on my record and yet another excuse to keep going after me.

When I posted the linked post on offmychest, advice, etc, I got a surprising amount of comments and chats of ND people sympathizing and saying I may have ADHD or autism, and I'm just one of those types that didn't mask or hide themselves and always fought back. I had someone tell me, I'm not really a lost cause, I've just been in survival mode for so long that I don't really know anything else, and fuck, that really stuck with me.

I'm still on the fence on whether I am actually neurodivergent or just a fuckup that likes nerd shit and finds it easier to talk to ND people because they're more direct and less closed off. That's why I'm posting this here, I'm wondering if the handful of NDers replying were the odd ones out or if this is some kind of "ND experience" and is somewhat "normal" for neurodivergents, albeit a rather extreme example (highly doubt a whole lot of people got kicked out of school twice).

Thank you for any response. It means a lot to me, I'm just trying to figure out my fucking steaming train wreck of a life here.

hello so I'm not diagnosed but I'm pretty sure I'm neurodivergent I'm seventeen years old girl and i don't have any irl friends at all since 2020 and that made me feel like I'm an alien because the way i acted and i felt and i still feel like other people are npcs, so that made my brain weaker and people my age treat me like I'm less than them also the teachers, i also have social anxiety even online and Im afraid that will affect the future, how can i heal? i wanna have jobs

: my first language isn't english so don't be harsh on me

☆ Flapping my hands
☆ Saying certain words over and over
☆ Rapping or singing my favourite songs
☆ Repeating lines and monologues from my favourite musicals
☆ Clapping ☆ Making "blebleble" noises or other meaningless phrases with my mouth
☆ Tapping my body with my hands
☆ Moving my fingers
☆ Using stim toys or other fidget toys
☆ Rubbing my hands on my body, but specifically on my face
☆ Pressing my hands together
☆ Rubbing my lips
☆ Lying down and having pressure on my body

Please don't comment harmful stims like skin, cuticle, or nail picking, or any that hurt or damage yourself, others, or other objects (except for stim toys like picky pads that you're supposed to damage hehe)

As the title says I'm having a really hard time making friends. I'm a girl, 18 and in college. I've struggled with this for quite a while now. i do have couple of friends, but before i got to college i really thought that i would meet new people ( and i did meet one new person, and she's really nice) still, my situation makes me feel like something is wrong with my looks or even my vibe 😮‍💨 or even my social skills.. I'm not sure.. Also it's really rare for me to initiate contact first because I'm not great at starting conversations. On top of that finding people who have the same interests as me is absolute hell. Whenever i do talk to someone it's always people who I don't have anything common with. New semester is starting soon and i just want to hear tips on how to start up a conversation and make friends:) thank u!!

TLDR: my memory is garbage - negatively affected my entire life. I feel like the character from 51st dates that forgets things instantly. - any tips?

Wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

I (31m) have been struggling my entire life, specifically with school and at work. From as early on as I can remember I have had trouble in school - and it has always been blamed on my ADD/ADHD. I agree that my behavior in class (making trouble, class clown, spacing out, talking to other students, failing…) did not help my situation. IMO that was a result of me being a bad student, not the cause.

I started taking medication like Concerta, Vyvanse, and Adderall at a young age, but it was prescribed more to get me to "shut up and sit down" than to help me succeed in school. In 11th grade, I finally learned to control myself and stopped taking the meds regularly. I was still a bad student. Even in college, when I tried my hardest, I still struggled. The same thing happens at work—no matter how hard I try, I'm just not up to par.

I've finally realized that my struggles aren't due to my inability to focus; they're due to my memory. I have an extremely difficult time remembering anything. I can study for hours and not retain the information, practice the same math equations for days and still forget them, and take the same train route for years without remembering the stops. There are times I have to read a page in a book 7 times before I can move on. I can listen to the same band for years and only remember a handful of their songs.

It's frustrating, embarrassing & mentally draining.

Has anyone else dealt with something like this or have any suggestions? Thanks for listening.