NT advice for ADHD'ers: If you need to remember it write it down.

Me, leaving the room to find a rag: 🎵I need a rag, rag, rag, rag, rag🎵

Me: *holds dead batteries as I get the new ones so I don't forget*

Me: *leaves stuff directly in line of sight so I'll see it later*

Sometimes using the best ways of navigating executive dysfunction, meltdown, burnout (or any other neurodivergent barrier) isn't sustainable or accessible.

Doing what we actually can do is always going to be better than waiting until we can use the best practices

ADHD hyperfixations are wild.

They are filled with intense, consuming interest that feels rewarding and exciting. They can lead us to learn skills and develop relationships... and then they can just end.

And when they do, all of the interest, rewards, and relationships can too

Growing up, a lot of autistic and/or ADHD people are frequently told that our experiences aren't our experiences.

e.g, we're told we aren't struggling start tasks, we're just lazy.

This makes developing self-awareness harder, and can teach us not to trust our own experiences

Growing up, autistic children experience psychosocial development at a different rate than allistic children. Developmental differences can be delays, but they can also be ahead of their peers. Differences can differ in size or direction, skill to skill or timepoint to timepoint.

Interest is a powerful motivator of action for people who struggle with executive dysfunction. A special interest is that on another level entirely. Special interests can be so motivating that they can be nearly impossible to put down, not bring up, or not engage in.

One of the reason that different autistic people can have strikingly different support needs is that autism very often co-occurs with other physical and mental health issues. This constellation of co-occurring conditions differs from person to person, so do their support needs.

Autistic sensory sensitivities are usually more than 'just being uncomfortable.' Sensory issues, such as loud noises, can be physically painful, can trigger automatic behavioural responses, can impact executive function, and/or have serious emotional impacts.

Even though MANY autistic people also have ADHD, there are many ADHD traits that seem like the exact opposite of autistic ones. As AuDHD'ers can attest, this makes navigating our changing struggles and support needs a wild, unpredictable ride at times.

Different autistic people can have very different support needs. What's right for you (or your autistic friend/family member) may not be right for any other autistic person, and that's okay.

Autistic special interests can be intense and intrusive. Strangely, when these special interests align with expectations of our society, they can also be completely missed by the people around us.

Accepting autistic people means building a safer world to be autistic in. Safer to access healthcare, safer to interact with authority figures, safer from bullying, safer to be who we are.

A lot of spaces are inaccessible to autistic people, and often the barriers aren't immediately obvious to NTs.

Spaces with sudden, unexpected, and/or intense sensory experiences, unpredictable changes, or unclear expectations are accessibility barriers that might go unnoticed

A significant percentage of autistic people also meet the criteria for an ADHD diagnosis, and being both ADHD and autistic changes our experiences and barriers in fairly significant ways.

In some ways, they are opposing forces. In others, they seem to tag team my functioning