Tag: autistic burnout
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Growth Happens in the Rest — A Year After My Late Autism Diagnosis
A year after my late autism diagnosis, one person knows. What the year gave me, what it didn’t, and what training taught me about rest.
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Autistic Burnout or Depression? A Lifetime of Not Knowing
For years I couldn’t tell whether I was depressed or simply spent past what rest could reach. Here’s how I learnt to ask the difference.
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The Faults That Were Never Faults
My eldest would rub at a mistake until the page wore through. I had spent forty years calling the same thing in myself a flaw.
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The Silence Between Knowing and Writing: What Happened After My Late Autism Diagnosis
What happened after my late autism diagnosis: five months of silence, post-diagnosis depression, and the body-first way I processed grief before I could write again.
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I Didn’t Read Any Autism Books After My Diagnosis: What I Reached for Instead
After my late autism diagnosis, I didn’t reach for autism books. I returned to books from my palliative care career, about meaning and how to survive loss. The words hadn’t changed. I had.
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The Wrong Operating System: Being Gifted and Autistic Without Knowing It
What does it mean to be gifted and autistic, only finding out at 40? A personal essay on twice-exceptionality, late autism diagnosis, and the cost of masking.
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I Went In Expecting an ADHD Diagnosis. I Came Out With Autism: A Late Diagnosis Story
I booked an ADHD assessment. I came out with an autism diagnosis, and giftedness. The full story of my late neurodivergent assessment as an adult woman.
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The Demon Marks Were Always Mine: What K-Pop Demon Hunters Taught Me About Late Autism Diagnosis and Self-Acceptance
On receiving a late autism diagnosis at forty. The grief of finally understanding yourself, and what self-acceptance looks like after decades of not knowing.
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When You Stop Pretending You Don’t Need Directions: What an Adult Autism and ADHD Assessment Actually Feels Like
What an adult autism and ADHD assessment actually feels like. The fear, the tests, the tears, and what shifts before the results arrive. A personal account.
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Sitting with the Unknown: The Emotional Limbo After an Autism and ADHD Assessment
The assessment is over. The two-week wait begins. On circling thoughts, old self-doubt, and what surfaces when you stop moving long enough to sit with yourself.