"The world needs us. Especially now, when it is clear that the statute quo is destroying the earth and isn't healthy for humans either. We need the free-thinking innovative pattern seeking of the neurodivergent brain."

#AnissaLjanta, Wild of Brain, 2024

https://www.wildofbrain.com/

That's a manifesto in a paragraph.

#neurodivergent

"ADHD meds made it possible to land my dream job but medicated me was an untested creature and trying to do too much (because I could), this led to severe autistic burnout. If I couldn't live the life I wanted, if I was so exhausted and lapsing in and out of shutdowns and depression and found daily life so freaking hard, I didn't know what was left. I retreated to writing."

#AnissaLjanta, Wild of Brain, 2024

https://www.wildofbrain.com/

OMG this too is so me!

#ADHD #AuDHD #burnout

"'But you're so good with people' - I'm autistic, not a lizard."

#AnissaLjanta, Wild of Brain, 2024

https://www.wildofbrain.com/

(1/2)

#ActuallyAutistic @autistics

"Many autistic people feel more deeply, sort of without filters - a constant raw download of environmental stimuli. I'm hyper empathic. Not that you can tell by looking at some of us with our extraordinary poker face masking at play. The reality is in opposition to what was thought for years, that autistic people were cold and emotionally incapable. Unfortunately that myth persists."

#AnissaLjanta, Wild of Brain, 2024

https://www.wildofbrain.com/

(2/2)

"The concept of the autistic spectrum is an attempt to counter the belief that all humankind is on a sort of graduated line from not-autistic-at-all to AAF (Autistic As Fuck). The spectrum is one way of describing the group of autistic humans, on a complex circular map of intersectional differently wired tendencies, with neurodivergence manifesting unique to individuals."

#AnissaLjanta, Wild of Brain, 2024

https://www.wildofbrain.com/

I only recently grasped this; it's *not* a gradiant.

(1/2)

I'm not sure 'spectrum' is the best word to communicate this. In other uses, like "electromagnetic spectrum", it *is* a gradient. Maybe it's more like an autistic map, or autistic graph (as is 'social graph'), or ...

(2/2)

I'm feeling some deep compassion for primary-school-age Strypey, who was identified as intellectually gifted, but *not* identified as autistic or ADHD. This set up a situation where I wasn't just judged against a neurotypical standard throughout my schooling, but against a high level neurotypical standard. A standard I had no chance of meeting without significant accommodation and support, which I never got.

(1/2)

#neurodivergence #ADHD #ActuallyAutistic @autistics

It's been a lifelong journey to unlearn the internalised condemnation this created, and I still struggle with low self-esteem and really strong imposter syndrome at times.

(2/2)

Passionate educators have done their best over the last few decades to graft more student-centric approaches onto the schools and education admin systems they work in. But it's at best an uphill struggle, at worst a Boulder of Sisyphus.

I don't think traditional European schooling is great for anyone, based as it is in conditioning people for the army, factory or office (see Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society). But it's kryptonite for the neurodivergent.

#education #neurodivergence

"The medical model term for having extras is 'co-morbidities'. The word morbid does not have positive connotations and since I prefer to think in strength based rather than deficit terminology I like 'co-occurring'. I'm grateful to see this term used increasingly."

#AnissaLjanta, Wild of Brain, 2024

https://www.wildofbrain.com/

👆

#CoMordibities #CoOccurring

More thoughts provoked by reading Wild of Brain.

#EyeContact is a complicated issue for me. I remember, as a child, being scolded viciously by parents, teachers and other adults in authority for not looking at them when they were talking to me. So I learned to make a conscious effort to make more eye contact with people when they're talking.

But I've found I'm more comfortable in Māori spaces, because the level of eye contact I find uncomfortable is considered provocative and rude.

(1/3)

Since I began my autistic discovery journey I've been trying to unlearn my self-protective eye contact habits. Especially when sharing space with other autistics.

But I find people will often stop talking mid-sentence if I make insufficient eye contact. Sometimes grunting encouragement, as we do on the phone, keeps them talking. Other times it seems to interrupt their flow.

(2/3)

When I meet someone new, unless I know they're also neurodivergent or neurospicy-friendly, or we're meeting in a space that explicitly is, I'm very self-conscious about how much eye contact I'm making. Worrying that it might be insufficient or excessive, alienating this new person before they have a chance to get to know me.

It amplifies any social anxiety I'm already feeling, and distracts me from the conversation. Which I also notice and worry about.

(3/3)