So some friends are doing an ADHD bingo card, and well...um, I'll let mine answer all the questions ever about that. Including the blank for anyone that wants to look it over and do it for themselves. And yes, self diagnosis is valid. #AutismAwareness #Neurokin

Now for some cool facts about autism and ADHD both.

There's three versions identifiable in the DSM5; to date, this is still being researched so info may change as new break thrus arise.
Inattentive - often referred to as ADD.
Hyperactive-impulsive - referred to as ADHD.
Combined - combined ADHD demonstrate symptoms from both inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive ADHD equally. 1/2

There are positives of ADD/ADHD. Hyperfocus, resilience, creativity, hightened empathic nature, compassionate, versatile if spontaneous learners, and at times very high energy sort of people to be around. These are often referred to as our "superpowers", but these do come at an unequal cost to our health and well being. 2/2

The negatives are quite unequal, as for some of us we do suffer from social anxiety, or generalized anxiety, and a number of other comorbidity issues that exist from lack of supports and treatment when first diagnosed.

Now for some further hard facts: Truth is ADHD and ADD both were not fully understood in the early days of the internet, and for a long time what research was done, wasn't done in a way that could reflect male and female developmental stages with the disorder, so many of the missed signals over the years resulted in well...a lot of us going undiagnosed until our early 30's to our 60's and older. The unfortunate fact is, going undiagnosed and without treatment cuts off 14 years from our lifespan.

However, there is hope. Finding methods to manage the disorders quirks and barriers, as well as ways to visibly and audibly track notifications and newer technology used today has made workarounds significantly easier for many of us and improved our lives in ways that, in the past 30-40 years, were practically unimaginable.

One thing that seems to be a fairly common trait that appears to be widely shared among the ADD/ADHD community is body dysphoria and heightened empathy. For many of us we tend to mask in public spaces to appear "normal" or behavior within expected manners around people we do not know or trust. But stimming can display in ways that most would give us weird looks over, with recent stimulation toys, popit keyfobs and such, we can mask it better and keep it under better control.

But emotional deregulation is fairly common as well among the neurokin of the ADHD and ADD communities. Sometimes we can't control it, it has to come out somehow, and screaming and shouting doesn't always cut it. Sometimes we have to babble it out of our systems, sometimes it's a matter of going for a long angry walk to blow that steam, and other times a big deep compression hug helps get it back to where we can manage it better. Big feels, but few ways to display it as adults is REALLY hard.

It's hard to put it all into words that make sense to a neurotypical mind and experience, but I'm trying my best to frame it in a way that can be explained and understood. Imagine if you will, a balloon, no air in it or anything, just plain ol rubber bouncing about. But you put air in it, it pulls tight right and expand. Well, for us, emotional processing big things is like blowing that balloon up to the max, and straining it's very surface. It'll burst if you put anymore in!

We have to let it out somehow, right? Well, pricking it with a pin will only make things worse and destroy the balloon, so how else do we release it safely without ruining the balloon? By opening it up carefully, and letting it out a little at a time. For some of us, that's exactly what emotional processing can be like. Some burst so easily, while others hide it really well until they can't take anymore and explode and release it all at once. We're habitual about bottling things up.

Even choice paralysis can be really annoying to deal with. It often emerges in conversations about meals, or clothing choices, or little things throughout the day that we don't often focus too much on. It strikes a lot in this household, hubs and I sometimes have had arguments over it. "No you decide on dinner." "I'm out of ideas, what do you feel like?" Ect ect.