AuDHD Flourishing7 Heinä 2023

05 Autism Without the Disorder with Nat Smith

Nat Smith is a vulnerability coach, playwright, and connection witch. They're also my sibling, so you'll hear stories about our childhood.

Nat has known they're ADHD for years, and only recently has been exploring the label autistic. One reason it's been a slow realization: they don't experience it as a disorder and don't need a lot of external support day-to-day.

Because of that experience, we also touch on the "levels" of autism currently being given in diagnosis. Many Level 1 folks are never diagnosed. And while I would probably be labeled Level 1, I'm actually more Level 2... I've just managed to have family and partners meet my daily needs.

Nat's perspective is incredibly helpful for anyone who wonders what autism looks like when it's NOT an obviously disabling condition. This is where the word "Neurotype" is so useful!

Disclaimer:

And I would hope it goes without saying... every autistic person is different and has their own experience! Many if not most autistic people (and especially those who receive an official diagnosis) do experience autism as a disability for many reasons.

Nat's experience does not at all detract from that! AND I feel it's important for more autistic people to be "out," even if they have a less common presentation.

Resources:

Nat mentioned Devon Price's book Laziness Does Not Exist and the article of the same name.
Nat's Substack newsletter/articles
Nat's Facebook
AuDHD Flourishing newsletter

Full Transcript here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(171)

You Are Not a Burden - Repost

The story of a meltdown. For me these days, that includes some intrusive thoughts around being a burden.You are not a burden. And even if we are sometimes, that's okay. I want to be a part of communit...

2 Touko 28min

When the Body Simply Cannot - Repost

This week I pushed my body way too far, even though I was having trouble parsing that in the moment. The story is also a great analogy for how other ND internal needs feel (including PDA).Even with al...

25 Huhti 30min

139 Alexithymia - Feeling While AuDHD

Alexithymia is common in AuDHDers, and involves having trouble identifying and communicating emotions. There are a lot of reasons this can be the case, including: interoception differenceslack of usef...

18 Huhti 35min

138 Your Money Big Picture

I would guess that most AuDHDers struggle with money in one way or another. Saving or planning for the future can be particularly difficult to emotionally attach to in the same way we connect with wan...

11 Huhti 29min

137 Spending and Money Unfairness

This & next week are two episodes on money & finances as a follow up to last week's interview (more from Hyperfocus here).Justice sensitivity can highlight the unfairness we often feel between our fin...

4 Huhti 25min

136 Financial Therapy with Christine Hargrove

Thanks again to Hyperfocus with Rae Jacobson for sharing this interview with financial therapist Christine Hargrove. She shares ADHD-focused advice that is useful for AuDHD folks as well! And the next...

28 Maalis 33min

Paper Planners & Tasks Feeling Real

I just started using a paper planner again for the first time in many years, and the coolest thing is noticing that calendared blocks of time feel more "real" to my brain when I've written them by han...

27 Maalis 6min

135 Slow Processes are Frustrating

Sometimes... a process is happening, internally. It can be integration, change, growth, positive disintegration... and sometimes it's unclear. Either way, the uncertainty can be disconcerting and frus...

21 Maalis 23min