Today we learnt that there's an overlap between neurodivergence (especially autism) and migraines.

We've had several instances recently, particularly where we've pushed ourselves too far, where we've experienced what we thought were neurodivergent verbal shutdowns, as we're AuDHD.

We'd experienced such things for at least a couple of decades, even before our ASD diagnosis (still waiting on the ADHD one though). We previously attributed it to normal fatigue. Then we'd describe it as a language centre collapse (or a full batting collapse).

However, it was never clear why painkillers like ibuprofen lysine or naproxen (NSAIDs), paracetamol, or codeine phosphate always helped to both prevent or alleviate symptoms.

Warning signs for us have typically been:

• Increasing pain in middle of forehead or above eyes
• Increased light sensitivity.
  • We've often had to wear our prescription sunglasses to keep working.
• Feeling more fatigued and finding it difficult to focus.
• Finding it harder to understand spoken or written language.
• Slurred speech and difficulty writing.
• Making silly errors and typos.

Once it gets fully going, symptoms include:

• Aphasia.
• Trouble with body coordination.
• Partial or total verbal shutdown.
  • One time Evie couldn't even think coherent sentences, so our headmate Hannah told us what to write to communicate with our wife.

All this time, we'd been thinking this was solely a neurodivergent overload issue. But now we've found out it might actually be some form of migraine, sand this is potentially something we can get meds for (such as gepants).

We intend to book an appointment with our GP about it to investigate further, as it's happening increasingly often, especially since we entered AuDHD burnout.

For further context, headaches are common in our family and our sister has migraines with auras.

#neurodivergent #neurodivergence #ActuallyAutistic #ADHD #AuDHD #VerbalShutdown #migraine #AuDHDBurnout #NeurodivergentBurnout #gepants #NSAID #codeine