It’s the end of #ADHDAwarenessMonth and in true ADHD fashion, I’ve put off writing this the whole month. 🧵

The diagnostic criteria for ADHD is centred around hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention (though it’s more an inability to regulate our attention).

There is SO MUCH MORE to ADHD than those three words, like...
• Emotional dysregulation
• Poor working memory
• Difficulty with organisation
• Risk taking behaviours
• Our brains just never shutting off! ADHD has had a lot of attention in the media for being ‘trendy’ & ‘overdiagnosed’. It’s neither. It was only introduced into the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in 1968 as ‘Hyperkinetic Reaction of Childhood’. Let’s be clear - it’s not a mental disorder, but this is the manual by which conditions are diagnosed. NICE only recognised childhood ADHD in 2000 and ADHD in adults in 2008, which enabled diagnosis in the UK. It is estimated that 5% of the population have ADHD, but 5% aren’t diagnosed (@ADHDUKcharity).

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day and here are some things I would like to talk about.

#WorldSuicidePreventionDay The statistics around autism and suicide are sad.

The misdiagnosis of autistic distress in the mental health system. A thread. 🧵

When I am asked why I wrote Girl Unmasked, I say that I was angry. Which is true... I was angry at finding myself sectioned on a psychiatric unit at the age of 16, at the doctor there telling me I just had high social anxiety not autism, at the fact they described my autistic meltdowns as ‘hysteric attacks when she doesn’t get her own way’.

Autistic burnout 🧠 - a thread. What is autistic burnout?

Research suggests that 80% of autistic people experience mental health problems throughout their life, and around 40% of suicides are estimated to be autistic people.

What are some of the reasons why this is the case? 💭🧵 The statistics are sad.

(Autistica, undated; Cassidy et al. 2022)

To @MrDavidScales (and all schools restricting toilet access),

As well as health issues affecting ALL young people…

Know that your toilet policies are not inclusive of neurodivergent children (though also everyone for that matter). For several reasons. 👇🏻 /1

https://twitter.com/lucygobag/status/1761028804678443249

Autistic students often struggle using the toilet at busy times due to sensory needs. School toilets become very cramped and loud during break-times.

Hand dryers in particular would send me into sensory overload in the school toilets. /2

A highly requested addition to my neurodiversity mindmaps - PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance), or alternatively ‘Pervasive Drive for Autonomy’. As @PDASociety state: ‘recognition of PDA is currently inconsistent…however, a PDA profile can, and should, be taken into consideration when undertaking autism assessments…when assessing and diagnosing, clinicians can add appropriate descriptive terms to an autism diagnosis…

Part two. I asked autistic and ADHD people about the challenges they face at work and what helps or would help them. Out of approx 1500 replies, these were the most common responses about what helps, in order.👇🏻 What helps autistic and ADHD people at work.

Remember - what helps each individual will be different. It’s so important to consider each person as an individual and ask them what would help. 💖

I asked autistic and ADHD people what challenges they face at work and out of approx 1500 responses (thank you!!), these were the most common challenges, in order.👇🏻 Challenges autistic and ADHD people face at work.

I am not surprised that navigating colleague relationships, the sensory environment and unclear instructions/communication took the top three places.

The #NotASchoolSkiver stories keep coming. Making me sad and angry, but also hopeful and reassured that none of us who have been there or the children who are there now are alone.

Remember the facts: 92.1% of those with school attendance difficulties are neurodivergent.
(Connolly et al. 2023).

@froggiebi is #NotASchoolSkiver

Dear @GMB and the government,

I was #NotASchoolSkiver.

I was a child traumatised by school and exhausted from the relentless panic attacks and anxiety it triggered.

I was a child forced back into the same environment day after day, regardless of its effects. I was #NotASchoolSkiver.

I was a child hurting from the bright lights, loud noises and crowds, who had no choice about having to experience this pain every day.

I was a child who was broken from my school experiences - the bullying, the fear and the anxiety.

A thread of my neurodiversity mind-maps!

❤️🧡💛💚🩵💖💜 ADHD. 💖

I spent my teenage years chasing the idea of ‘anxiety recovery’ that I later discovered didn’t exist. I wanted a life without anxiety, because all I knew was that it was limiting, destructive, painful, and stole too much. I also thought that was what I was meant to want. 1/27 At church, year after year, people prayed for my anxiety to go away. Anxiety was a popular new topic on YouTube, so I watched as many videos as I could of people sharing how they overcame their anxiety. 2/27

Autism versus ADHD appears to be a contradiction…so what does #AuDHD look like? Not all autistic people or ADHDers will have all traits listed - we are individuals and this is an overgeneralisation. But looking at how they typically present, it is easy to see how they appear to contradict each other! Yet they so often co-exist…so what could that look like?

Autistic joy - a thread. 🌟 What is autistic joy?

November, the month of too many emotions but in which I started to feel like me again. I was very lucky to start out the month in Iceland, a trip my boyfriend and I have had booked since the start of the year. What an absolute privilege to see such a beautiful country.

I just had ADHD. My journey of discovering my ADHD has been very different to my autism journey. Although there are moments of imposter syndrome, from the moment I was told that I was autistic aged sixteen, I knew that the diagnosis was correct. ADHD has been a different story. /2

Symptoms of depression that no one talks about. - a thread. /1 Complete mental exhaustion from fighting your brain constantly. This can lead to lack of concentration, forgetfulness, chronic fatigue, missing deadlines, withdrawing from socialising, insomnia and increased susceptibility to physical illness. /2

Why you are not ‘so OCD’ - 10 myths about OCD.

I have lost count of the number of times I’ve seen things like ‘Obsessive Cat Disorder’ or heard people say ‘I’m so OCD’ when they just like things tidy. They have no idea what OCD is like. Myth 1: We are all ‘a little bit OCD’.

I asked autistic people and ADHDers what they find hard about therapy and what adjustments would help. Out of over 800 responses, these were the most common replies and themes.👇🏻 Challenges autistic people and ADHDers face in therapy:

Rejection sensitive dysphoria is hard to live with. Here are some of the things I have learned from @LeanneMaskell1. 🫶 My first step was understanding what RSD is. I wrote about what it is here. 👉🏻 authenticallyemily.uk/blog/rejection…