Mastodawn

Despite numerous #kaleidotropic detours into other interests, I'm continuing to make progress through Steve #Silberman's #NeuroTribes (as well as other #autism and #ADHD literature). I'm currently going through Chapter 10, Section VI. It's infuriating reading, because of the topic: the work (if it can be dignified with that label) of the infamous Dr. Andrew #Wakefield, the #antivax fraudster who falsely claimed to have found strong evidence that the #MMR vaccine causes autism.

Despite the emotional tough going, this section has been quite rewarding, because it has revealed a historical linkage I had been unaware of: the link between the #LeakyGut theory — so often trumpeted in the media as the source of a wide variety of physical and psychological ills — and the antivax movement. Even before Wakefield, the leaky gut theory had been a staple of the group of parents following Dr. Bernard #Rimland, another notorious antivaxer. Wakefield had originally trained as a gastroenterologist, and the idea that intestinal wall leakage was the root of all evils delighted him.

One moral I intend to draw from this story: the elevation of ANY favorable mention of #LeakyGut to red-flag status, warranting strong suspicion of antiscientific and socially toxic influences.

@autistics

Douglas Edwards

Apr 25

@adelinej I hypothesize that #kaleidotropic autism causes #ADHD, not the other way around, and that that kind of #AuDHD is very different from standalone #ADHD (without autism).

I'm actually happy to see even a stereotypical autistic character presented to a mainstream audience, as long as the stereotype isn't too misleading. Even "vanilla" autism without intellectual disability is a VERY heavy trip for neurotypicals — for them, it takes a lot of getting used to. (And their reaction to #kaleidotropy? I think a neurotypical who suddenly became #kaleidotropic would quite literally think someone had slipped them a hit of LSD.)

Still, it would be even better if they could portray some of the variations that really exist. This character is so vanilla as to be of limited interest to me personally — and I'm even a cishet white male. They haven't explored the strong statistical linkage between autism and #nonbinary sexuality, for example. Or any other relevant aspect of intersectionality.

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Douglas Edwards

Apr 25

@cb Check out the hashtags #kaleidotropy, #kaleidotropic, #kaleidotrope for more of my theorizing about this particular subtype of autism. Since I coined this term (not the word itself, which as it turns out has other senses, but this meaning for the word), most of the posts using those hashtags will be mine.

My hypothesis is that #kaleidotropic autism causes #ADHD, not the other way around, and that #ADHD due to #kaleidotropy is fundamentally different from standalone #ADHD. One key difference is the relationship to boredom. Standalone #ADHD is highly vulnerable to boredom, while #kaleidotropy is almost impervious to it.

@autistics @pathfinder

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Douglas Edwards

Mar 27

An example of the "just point it at anything" aspect of #kaleidotropy: I'm an inpatient pharmacist licensed in four states of the #USA, and all of my licensing boards have continuing pharmacy education (CPE) requirements. When not actively engaged in accumulating CPE hours, I usually dread an upcoming CPE license renewal cycle as an annoying chore — because it will require me to divert effort from the many, many other things I'd rather be doing. But once I'm past the initial hurdle of getting started — and especially once I start searching for suitable CPEs and selecting them from various possibilities — my #kaleidotropic interest system is engaged, and the same activity that had so recently seemed like a dismal chore quickly takes on the aspect first of a hobby, and then of an addiction. There are so many fascinating topics to choose from. I just have to have THAT one — and THAT one — and THAT one! (A professor in office hours once told me: "You're like a kid in a candy store!")

I usually end up doing far more CPE hours than my licensing boards require — and having to remind myself that I need to get back to all the OTHER activities I've been neglecting.

Douglas Edwards

Mar 27

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Bubotomy/116298161908114314

Note that people who work VERY hard may still need to hear this message. You can still be a #spoonie even if you have a seemingly generous supply of spoons, especially if you routinely use them up at a furious pace. I work 12-hour night shifts on a 7-on-7-off schedule, and my #kaleidotropic neurotype can easily overload me with ambitious self-assigned tasks on the off weeks, since I can easily develop a "special interest" level of focus on just about anything, if I let myself. I have to remind myself that it’s OK just to relax with my wife and my cats.

Douglas Edwards

Mar 27

@alice A sign that you might be #kaleidotropic. A #kaleidotropic intellect is Kryptonite to boredom.

🌈 breaking ranks.Jan 8

@dedicto Still thinking lots about your thoughts on autism's cognitive patterns. Currently I'm reading books by Dr Mark Benecke, he is a forensics specialist and also holds a PhD in [I think it's] biology - I really would claim #kaleidotropic thinking is his thing, too. I would recommend to read his kind of-autobiography of how he became who he is today:

My Life after Death: How it all began

[DE Original:
Mein Leben nach dem Tod: Wie alles begann]

#rebcommendations #actuallyAutistic

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🌈 breaking ranks.Jan 4

@dedicto @pathfinder wow. Love this concept and confess to it myself!!

#kaleidotropic

Douglas Edwards

Dec 10, 2025

Starting to read "ADHD 2.0" (#Hallowell and #Ratey 2021). At first it seemed perfect, a real breath of fresh air after "Taking Charge of Adult ADHD" (2nd edition, #Barkley 2022). Both authors of "ADHD 2.0" are ADHDers themselves. There was great emphasis on the positive potential of #ADHD — especially welcome after Barkley's relentless pathologizing. They even write:

"A person with ADHD has the power of a Ferrari engine but with bicycle-strength brakes. It's the mismatch of engine power to braking capability that causes the problems."

I was immediately reminded of my own mismatch analogy for #kaleidotropic autism: trying to fly an F-16 with a control system designed for a Cessna — with #AuDHD as an almost inevitable consequence. Not quite the same thing — "control" is much more general than "braking" — but much closer than anything I've ever seen before from any source other than myself. I was thinking: this book is going to be fantastic.

Then I skimmed ahead, into a part of the book I hadn't yet read continuously — and found FAVORABLE references to Applied Behavior Analysis (#ABA). I'm assuming that for most adult autistics, THAT practice needs no introduction.

😱 🤯 🤢 🤮

And, unfortunately, advocacy of #ABA isn't the only example of drill-sergeant thinking that I found. The emphasis on discipline isn't anywhere near as extreme as in Barkley, but it's definitely there. Given the appreciable overlap between ADHD and literal juvenile delinquency, I can understand the temptation to go that route, but it's a very dangerous path to traverse — and it definitely isn't for me. Probably not for anyone with #AuDHD as opposed to standalone #ADHD.

Of course, I admit — and even emphasize — that this is just a first impression from skimming material I haven't yet read continuously. I definitely hope that my final impression is different.

@pathfinder @MOULE @autistics The importance of appreciating that variety is hard to overstate. Believing autistics have to be as similar to each other as neurotypicals are, can inhibit self-diagnosis. I used to think I couldn't be autistic because I didn't think I was particularly similar to Temple Grandin. But someone on here pointed out that even though we are far fewer in number than neurotypicals, we are MORE diverse than they are. That was a critical insight for me. And C.L. Lynch's '"Autism is a spectrum" doesn't mean what you think' gave examples of how the diversity can work.

I now believe that neurotypicals have a certain minimum level of similarity because they are all #ecotropic: bound to the social environment, and to socially relevant portions of the physical environment, by their built-in neurological #EnvironmentalYoke. #Allism is #ecotropy. We are #autotropic: we lack a functioning yoke, and our focus of attention is determined autonomously, by whatever internal mechanisms of attentional focus are unmasked by the absence of the yoke. And what are those internal mechanisms? Anything! Some of us are #monotropic, others #kaleidotropic / #hyperverbal, and still others will need other descriptive terms yet to be invented. We are more diverse because we lack the lowest common denominator of the #EnvironmentalYoke.

Incidentally, that does NOT mean we are somehow less complete than neurotypicals (although they may see it that way). The yoke does help in interacting with the environment in socially expected ways, but it subtracts as well as adds: in them, it suppresses a great deal of underlying neurological machinery that we have access to.