ADHD Interrupted

04/29/2026

If you have ADHD/Autism, DO NOT let crap like this steal all your dopamine (like I did today)!!

04/29/2026

04/28/2026

What’s in yours??

My “analog bag” has travel watercolor set, notebook, travel chess, a book, and some origami paper to make. Rarely used but what a thrill when I do!!

04/26/2026

Prison Break star Wentworth Miller received an autism diagnosis later in life.

This was after years of moving through the world without that framework for understanding himself.

A big part of his reflection has been less about the diagnosis itself, and more about how difficult the pathway to getting there can be.

He’s been open about the fact that the system can feel outdated when it comes to autistic adults.

He notes it's still heavily shaped around childhood identification, with long waits, inconsistent pathways, and barriers that mean many people end up self-identifying first or going without recognition for years.

That’s what he’s pointed to when describing the process as flawed and in need of updating.

04/26/2026

My mom was a lost girl

That’s the term we use for a girl who went missed in diagnosis for autism as a child

Because we wander the world lost, wondering why we are different but never knowing. Just wandering.

My mother grew up in the 70s and it looked a little different back then.

There were no screens in the palms of their hands,

No spin chairs,

Stimming was constantly criticized and looked down upon, so the masks were formed.

There were no autism assessments for little girls like my mom yet

No awareness spread through social media

It was just them, and the hand me down knowledge that came before them

Research on women and minorities hadn’t even been brought into the equation yet (1993 was the year that was finally changed)

But I remember how she was when she mothered me & my siblings through the 90s and up until 2005 when she passed

She was kind hearted.

She gave anyone who might’ve needed it 5 dollars when she only had 6

She experienced double empathy

She was a highly sensitive person

She cried when she was happy

When she was sad

When she was angry.

She got into fist fights

(So did I)

Being unable to express ourselves with words, and using our fists instead was something we unfortunately had in common

I’m not sure how it felt for her but for me, my sense of justice takes over and I bo longer feel justified with only using words

(I’ve gotten much better now)

She had collections of fine china - neatly stacked in a glass/wood cupboard where the china could be visible from the outside of the cabinet

She lined cookie jars up on our shelves

She had a particular way she organized her belongings

She held onto so many things of her past, I’d probably consider it hoarding

Most of all

She loved her kids

She loved us

And I know she just didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to be the mother she wanted to be after she became physically disabled.

And it became worse when she was addicted to substances.

It became worse when she regressed & hit burnout from the trauma and stress of it all.

She couldn’t fight. Couldn’t advocate for herself. It became impossible for her to live on her own. It was becoming impossible for her to care for herself

We are building a society that is going to continue to leave disabled parents to children behind, a broken generation who watched their sick parents die slowly in front of them - while they could do nothing but go to school the next day so that the state doesn’t come knocking.

Parents need to matter more. Without parents we have more children in an already shattered foster system.

No more lost generations.

It stops with us.

04/26/2026

Was this one of you??

04/26/2026

autistic regression and burnout in adults can look like⬇️

◾️ Being unable to go places by yourself

◾️ Being unable to drive

◾️experiencing perimenopause or menopause •editing to add• these can make autism hard to mask, it makes autistic traits prominent.

◾️Slowly becoming unable to cook full balanced meals, starting to rely on ready made or easy to make meals because of this loss of skill

◾️All signs of depression, anxiety, paranoia can become increasingly prominent during autistic regression and burnout.

◾️You might have children that are diagnosed with Autism. Many parents experience self discovery of their diagnosis through relating to a lot of what their children experience and some clinicians even tell you that it’s genetic in the education given at the time of diagnosis.

◾️Forgetting to eat, or being unable to eat from overstimulation.

◾️An increased need for sameness that becomes pervasive and pathological in nature

◾️Feeling the need to use accommodating devices like headphones or sunglasses - especially while grocery shopping. Forgetting can make you feel physically ill or even in a full blown panic attack by the time the activity or task is done.

◾️Emotional outbursts that stem directly from overstimulation from lights, sounds, too many people, food not tasting or feeling good, being touched too much, overwhelming smells.

◾️Depending on fast food, food delivery services, spending extra for services that allow you to avoid doing the task or have the least minimal social interaction to get the task done - (cleaning services, laundry services, etc)
Even if it’s at an unreasonable price.

◾️Cleaning and organizing become tasks that seem unimaginable to tackle. With children, the need for it is constant and your body starts struggling to keep up with this demand with no support.

◾️Never wearing uncomfortable clothes no matter how Adam Sandler you look

◾️Change in speech - (I cannot speak like I used to. I stutter a lot now.)

◾️Talking a lot less, or even having verbal shutdowns where you can’t speak at all (especially during periods of overstimulation) unless it’s to communicate or play with your children.

◾️Depending more on your partner to help complete tasks for the family

◾️Withdrawing from family / friend gatherings early - or ceasing to attend at all.

◾️Slowly starting to neglect your own hygiene - while focusing all of your energy on maintaining your children’s

◾️Slowly becoming less and less tolerant, and getting overstimulated more easily when it comes to the “normal sounds” of adulthood/motherhood.

◾️Stimming more frequently out of intense need for regulation

◾️Extracurricular activities become harder and harder to get through without having a meltdown or panic attack

Late in life Autism diagnosis for adults are starting to become common because of increased awareness, research and acceptance.

Autistic regression and burnout in an adult looks different, especially if you also have autistic children with unique needs too.

If you’ve read all of these and can relate - you may also feel intense shame regarding your loss of skill.

People around you may have started criticizing you.

The reality is there are little to no resources for autistic parents or adults in regression. (I will post any sources i do have below and if you can add to it please do!)

Regression and burnout can last for years if changes aren’t put in place to accommodate the disabled person.

Many who are unsupported lose their livelihoods, and their families, and may turn to substance use to cope resulting inevitably in even more severe issues

Many of them do not know they are autistic due to the lack of awareness and knowledge during their childhood, or told they “grew out” of their diagnosis so they never felt a need to prepare them in any other way.

You are always enough, just as you are.

You are not broken.

You just need someone to see you and understand where you need help and how to help you.

Autistic regressions can happen at any age - and having the knowledge of what is happening to your body vs receiving aimless shame will result in less severe mental health crisis incidents.

The blame belongs on the world and this insidious system. Not you.

Hang in there 🫂 im going through this too and so many others are. You aren’t alone

**disclaimer**

these are my personal experiences, i was diagnosed at 31 with level 1 autism and combined type ADHD - I just wanted to share my raw experiences that started affecting me way before my official diagnosis. I’m still working on climbing out of this rut too 💔💔💔

04/20/2026

My mother was a lost girl.

A Brown autistic woman medically gaslit and overlooked by a racist, misogynistic failing medical system

People would be confused when she would say a white sounding last name.

So they’d ask a second question.

“Maiden name?”

“Martinez”

The tone would change.

The conversation would detour

And my mother was left unheard

Unhelped

My mother was stuck in a cycle… her undiagnosed AUDHD helped make it easy for her to become addicted to the medicine she was prescribed after a major surgery (studies show that neurodivergent people are more at risk of developing substance abuse issues)

She was hurting in ways she felt only dangerous decisions could comfort

Addiction within neurodivergent individuals is a problem.

One big problem i don’t see talked about enough is that when they are sober, their stimming can be mistaken as relapsing

Their skin picking can be mistaken as “methmites” when it’s really just them trying to regulate their nervous system

Their rocking back and forth and other repetitive movements can be mistaken for withdrawal symptoms

I wonder how many times my mom asked for help and was accused of using again, just for that accusation to cause her to actually relapse

I wonder how many times she regressed in the midst of so much trauma, how many times she faced burnout alone.

How many times she couldn’t go on, melted down, and her life caught fire because of the domino effect unregulated emotions can cause - leaving a trail of chaos and regret behind her.

I wonder how many times she tried to leave her abuser

But stayed because her nervous system needed a co regulator

But stayed because change was scary

But stayed because no one would help her figure out a new way, a new life

Stayed because no one would help her with her children

Stayed because shifting the pen hurt more than sitting with the reality that the family the world promised she’d have fell apart in the palms of her fragile, weak hands.

Change hurt more than trying to fix it alone.

If I could hug my mama

I would tell her that it wasn’t her fault she was buried in shame

It wasn’t her fault she didn’t understand what to do when her body lost skills and understanding she’s had her whole life, and she didn’t even know why or how.

Her body worked in a way this world wasn’t kind to, and didn’t understand

Her death at 39 was ultimately a result of being missed in diagnosis of important disabilities that put her in positions to be abused, unsupported, unloved, unseen, and left to figure out impossible things that she was never going to be able to accomplish on her own without the help of someone else

I will die on that hill

In her last years, she was fighting for survival

Begging people to help her with her children so she could leave her abuser

Her brain and body worked too hard for too long

Through every single hour she still had hope that she would be happy again someday

But the stress kept triggering new health events inside of her sensitive body

The shame was unbearable for her.

The depression suffocated her.

And every single time she asked for help

She was either ignored

or told, “I’ve helped you so much already”

Not knowing

Autistic women can need substantial support

When their masks starts to fall

And their shortcomings aren’t hidden anymore

And people see the reality behind the strength it takes to keep that mask in place.

This world is unforgiving to autistic women

And Black & Brown autistic women are the most at risk for delayed truth in healthcare about their bodies because of systemic inequalities, cultural stigma, discrimination, and racism.

I was born in 1993 and that was the year minorities and women were finally allowed to be included in medical research

There was no way for my mom who was born in the 60’s to help herself at the time without rigorous help and care

And it left her children to experience the rest of their childhood with the very abuser she fought to get away from

I’ll never stop screaming that this world needs to care about autistic adults too. Including the ones diagnosed in adulthood.

& I’ll never let the world forget how it let down my autistic mother