Praxis für Psychotherapie Sonja Sorg

18/07/2025

18/07/2025

At some point in my life (possibly in childhood), I slipped into a state of hypervigilance without even realizing I was doing it.

Years later hypervigilance was my normal & I knew nothing else.

Now that I’m shifting out of it, it’s wild (& heartbreaking) to imagine living that way all the time.

18/07/2025

18/07/2025

I’m not going to apologise for this or water it down (as I have been tempted to do) because it’s important.
There are so many people who are struggling through life, vulnerable and completely unaware that they are not broken or less… they are actually amazing neurodivergent people. Understanding that you are actually autistic or neurodivergent can be a huge relief. It can bring understanding and healing.
Learning that you are autistic/neurodivergent can save lives.
(Photo of me 10 years ago)

18/07/2025

I was diagnosed with Autism & Social Anxiety Disorder/Social Phobia on September 12, 2016.

Though I didn’t know it, I have always been Autistic (I can see it in my earliest baby videos, and so could the doctor who diagnosed me). However, I did NOT always have Social Anxiety/Social Phobia (even though I’ve seen and heard many people say “social anxiety is typical for Autistic People”).

For me, social anxiety was a learned response, resulting from trauma. It was a phobia that grew increasingly worse the more negative encounters I had with people, until I became phobic of social engagements (due to repeatedly being poorly treated by people).

While it was easy for me to embrace the label “Autistic,” I struggled to claim my “Social Phobia” with the same enthusiasm.

Saying I had “social anxiety” felt like a miss.

This label “social anxiety” or “social phobia” made it sound like I was the problem, that I was to blame for my own fear of people.

I was also encouraged to socialize less (so as not to aggravate my condition, so I started to self-isolate) - a suggestion that didn’t address the systemic issues (and ignored the fact that I was afraid of engaging with people for good reason, because people had hurt me).

I developed social anxiety because I didn’t know how to determine if people were safe people (or not), and kept sharing with, getting close to, and being hurt by people (because I couldn’t sense what people were genuinely kind and actually liked me, vs those who were only “being nice” because they wanted something from me).

I didn’t need to isolate to avoid aggravating my phobia; I needed to find safe people and relationships so that I could heal my social relationship trauma (but I didn’t know how).

Excerpt from today’s Substack post.

Story: https://neurodivergentrebel.substack.com/p/i-was-diagnosed-autistic-at-the-age

This post is also on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/134429361

18/07/2025

NeuroWild thank you

13/06/2025

.llc

17/04/2025

LiL Penguin Studios / Autism Happy Place

09/04/2025

neurodivergent_insights

09/04/2025

I hate the phrase 'make a good choice', because it's often said to overwhelmed neurodivergent kids.

Like, 'do better with the zero resources you have right now.'

Instead of giving them yet another expectation, we need to reduce the other stuff that's draining their capacity. Then they can more readily access *all* their skills.

Yeah?

Em 🌈