Apparently it's autism awareness month-weird to me as I'll still be autistic next month,but here are a few things I've learned since my late diagnosis (Nov '21,age 49):

We have MANY more neurons than neurotypical folk bc synaptic pruning didn't really happen when we were tiny... ...Synaptic pruning is the 'editing' of brain cells,important in the formation of a neurotypical brain in a foetus/young human.

Autistic brains receive LOTS more input due to there being 30-50% more neurons-emotional input,sensory, all of it.
We can hear electricity & we feel...

If you have #ADHD & lack motivation or struggle to start/finish tasks unless you have a deadline, it's bc we don't have enough of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

We literally don't have the neuronal impetus to get stuff done & may struggle to move at all. This is...

#mindhack ...similar if not identical to the lack of motivation that's part of depression - they're both caused by a lack of dopamine & other positive neurotransmitters.

Simple hacks to ⬆️ dopamine include:
🚶‍♀️gentle exercise (I know,it can feel IMPOSSIBLE)
🪜dopamine 'ladder'

#mindhack

A few words about severe mental illness & how it might seem from the outside. I tweeted last week about being really unwell. The reality of that was struggling to to make meals or even toast or tea, intense s*icidal ideation & wondering whether to go to hospital, but knowing... ...that it may well make me worse due to shame, enormous extra stress, probably being given meds (sedatives or similar) that could make me even less able to work & facing a hardcore phobia of hospitals. It felt like a rock-hard place situation. It was terrifying & exhausting...