Neurodivergent Psychologist

31/05/2024

Happy Pride Month 🌈🌈🌈🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🩶🤍🤎🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

16/04/2024

Thanks to Stickman Communications by Hannah Ensor for helping normalize and communicate anxieties around food and eating…. 🌈🥄🥄🥄

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who gave feedback and helped us to create this card around finding eating challenging - whether it is due to an or something else, this card can help people around us to understand and give the right support.

The back of the card has a blank space so you can write whatever info you need to - like any specific strategies or instructions that will help you. And if there are parts of the message on the front that aren't relevant, they can be crossed out.

You can buy them here: https://stickmancommunications.co.uk/product-category/condition/eating-disorders/

12/04/2024

I highly recommend this resource! 💛💛💛
Yellow Ladybugs

09/04/2024

💛✊solidarity Yellow Ladybugs

21/03/2024

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

Be careful where you get your information.

Many, many organisations and professionals are still pedalling a thoroughly harmful narrative about Autism and neurodivergence.

There are plenty of possible reasons:

Because it’s profitable.
Because it suits them to maintain neuronormative superiority.
Because ableism is alive and well.
Because unlearning is hard and people don’t like to admit they are wrong.

For the right info, it’s important to listen to neurodivergent voices.

There are plenty of Autistic professionals doing really great work in this space. Tag your favourite Autistic accounts below.

Who can help me rock this boat?

Em 🌈

12/03/2024

Whatever the diagnosis, having a ‘script’ to explain how this impacts you to others is vital. I love Stickman Communications by Hannah Ensor, and their post below:

[For some people, and are misdiagnoses (especially common where there is undiagnosed autism) - then it's unhelpful - even damaging. But for other people it can be a diagnosis that fits - and that helps them understand themselves and empowers them.

Image description: BPD EUPD card with plain lilac border. Text: I have borderline personality disorder (BPD) aka emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD). This can cause intense emotions which change quickly, impulsiveness, fear people may abandon me, thoughts of su***de and self-harm, and a poor sense of who I am. When stressed I may experience paranoia or dissociation. I may appear rude or standoffish when I’m struggling. It affects everyone differently. I cannot choose how I feel. Minor emotional events for others may be extreme for me. I may need more patience and support during emotionally turbulent times. Please see the back of this card� for things that help me. ]

For some people, and are misdiagnoses (especially common where there is undiagnosed autism) - then it's unhelpful - even damaging. But for other people it can be a diagnosis that fits - and that helps them understand themselves and empowers them.

[Image description: BPD EUPD card with plain lilac border. Text: I have borderline personality disorder (BPD) aka emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD). This can cause intense emotions which change quickly, impulsiveness, fear people may abandon me, thoughts of su***de and self-harm, and a poor sense of who I am. When stressed I may experience paranoia or dissociation. I may appear rude or standoffish when I’m struggling. It affects everyone differently. I cannot choose how I feel. Minor emotional events for others may be extreme for me. I may need more patience and support during emotionally turbulent times. Please see the back of this card� for things that help me. ]

12/01/2024

🌈⭐️🌈⭐️. By Rebecca Burgess () Via I CAN Network Ltd

15/12/2023

💛💛⭐️⭐️💛💛
Yellow Ladybugs

20/11/2023

Focusing on reconnection and attachment with our children is a lifelong process…. 🩷

10/11/2023

🌈🌈🥄🥄

10/11/2023

Wonderful reframe!

08/09/2023

I love this so much
🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🩶🤍🤎

Neurobeautiful

The more you learn about autistic brains, the easier it is to understand autistic behaviors. So, here's a brief intro to autistic neurology!

MISSING WHAT OTHERS CATCH:

In autistic brains, some neural pathways are weaker. This can make it harder to notice implications, expectations, facial expressions, and body language.

CATCHING WHAT OTHERS MISS:

In autistic brains, some neural pathways are stronger. This can make it easier to notice errors, patterns, sights, sounds, textures, pain, and beauty.

FOCUS ON DETAILS FIRST:

Autistic brains tend to gather details before drawing a conclusion, and we're less likely to jump to conclusions based on intuition alone. This often makes us less biased, but worse at figuring out what others consider relevant.

FOCUS ON ONE THING AT A TIME:

Autistic brains naturally slip into intense focus, not shifting quickly from one thought to another. This can be pleasant and productive, but also makes it hard to multitask or face interruptions.

EVERYTHING IS MORE INTENSE:

Autistic brains take in a lot of information at once, especially sensory information. This can feel overwhelming and difficult to process. Autistic movements are often an attempt to help our bodies feel more grounded.

EVERYTHING IS MORE SURPRISING:

Autistic brains make fewer predictions about what will happen next. We take life as it comes, and it often comes too fast to handle. Sometimes we react in ways that anyone would under stress. Plans and routines reduce that stress by making life more predictable.

This is only a summary of various theories that have helped me to understand autism. It's not a summary of my whole book – at best, it borrows from half of chapter 2 and part of chapter 9. In the rest, I explore what this framework looks like in practice, and how it's helping me to build a beautiful life.

Available here: neurobeautiful.com/book

Image description: "What I Mean When I Say I'm Autistic" is in rainbow text on a black background. It's surrounded by short quotes from the post in white text, pointing to the title with gray arrows. Additionally, some technical terms are in parentheses: Bottom-up processing, Monotropism, Intense World Theory, and Predictive Coding Theory.