Heather Cook 🦓🖖Autistic Life Coach

Dealing with Holiday Stress Workshop Invite For Dealing with Holiday Stress, go to: https://www.autismchrysalis.com/holiday-stressWhat if you could get through the holidays without shutting down, melti...

Dealing with Holiday Stress Workshop Invite

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#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #AutisticTwitter #Neurospicy #ND

Rest is not optional. It is not laziness. It is not a luxury. It is not giving in. Rest is a survival necessity.

All living beings need rest and restoration periodically: daily, seasonally, yearly.

#ActuallyAutistic #EnergyManagement #AuDHD #BurnoutRecovery

Alternative Answers to: "How Was Your Day?"

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#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurospicy #Neurodiversity

Dealing with Holiday Stress Workshop Invite For Dealing with Holiday Stress, go to: https://www.autismchrysalis.com/holiday-stressWhat if you could get through the holidays without shutting down, melti...

Dealing with Holiday Stress Workshop Invite

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#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #AutisticTwitter #Neurospicy #ND

You’re never going to know completely and perfectly exactly what someone is thinking, feeling, or how you’re interpreting what you say. This isn’t your personal failing. This is simply the nature of #communication between individuals who are two different people.

If you want some neurodivergent and neuro-positive book recommendations, here are my favorites, ranging from fiction, to sensory advice, to autobiographies, to ways to dissolve internalized ableism.

You can find all of them at: buff.ly/qQMlTQI

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurodiversity

When you tell someone you’re autistic, they likely haven’t had that time or the information yet. They also need time to process this.

When you first came across something about autism and thought it might have something to do with you, you didn’t have all of the information that you would eventually need to identify with this term. It took some time. 1/2

#unmasking #ActuallyAutistic #Autistic #Neurodiversity #AuDHD

I'm not great at resting, but I've learned a lot and have gotten a lot better at it over the last few years. Here's 6 things I've learned about resting. A transcript can be found here:… 6 Things I Know About Rest #autisticburnout #audhd

JUST RELEASED 6 Things I Know About Rest

youtu.be/GNDULQx1_p8

I'm not great at resting, but I've learned a lot and have gotten a lot better at it over the last few years. Here's 6 things I've learned about resting.

79 Warning Signs of Autistic Burnout

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#AutisticBurnout #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD

Whatever hurts your senses genuinely hurts, whether or not it bothers anyone else. And you are allowed to feel what you feel, and to take care of yourself.

Who decided that screaming when you get burned on a hot stove is an acceptable reaction, but walking out of the room when people are talking over each other is an unacceptable reaction? 1/2

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurospicy #Neurodiversity

What's the autistic version of the ADHD tax? How does it cost you more to go through life because you're autistic?

#AskingAutistics #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Neurodiversity

They benefit from my burnout #actuallyautistic #audhd #internalizedableism #autisticburnout This is an excerpt from this workshop: https://www.autismchrysalis.com/ia/ Internalized Ableism Workshop and Self-Assessment: How much is ableism affecting y...

They benefit from my burnout #actuallyautistic #audhd #internalizedableism #autisticburnout

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#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #AutisticTwitter #Neurospicy #ND

Getting better at the things that burnt you out is not burnout recovery.

Recovery involves leaving the old ways behind and making something better.

#AutisticBurnout #BurnoutRecovery #Burnout #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD

I don’t romanticise autism.

But I’m also done pretending the real problem is us.

It’s the hostile environments, the absurd expectations, and the constant demand to be palatable.

However someone responds to you telling them you’re autistic has a lot more to do with them than with you.

#unmasking #AutisticMasking #ActuallyAutistic #Autistic #Neurodiversity

Anxiety or Sensory Sensitivity? Here's How to Tell

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#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Anxiety #Sensory #Interoception

Anxiety is fear without a physical present threat.

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Anxiety

6 Things I Know About Rest I'm not great at resting, but I've learned a lot and have gotten a lot better at it over the last few years. Here's 6 things I've learned about resting.A tra...

6 Things I Know About Rest

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#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #AutisticTwitter #Neurospicy #ND

People-pleasing behaviors or fawn responses are a kind of social trauma response. It’s “please be okay with me, so that I can be safe. I’m going to do whatever you want, make myself into whoever you want me to be, in order for me to feel safe.”

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurodiversity

Look out for a new video from me tomorrow on 6 things I know about rest.

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autisticburnout

Autistic masking makes autism a sort of ‘friendly disability,’ where I suffer so my friend (etc.) doesn't have to. I go out of my way to be "not a problem," so others aren't inconvenienced. It's exhausting.

#AutisticMasking #ActuallyAutistic #Autistic #Neurodiversity #AuDHD

When The Thing You Can’t Do Is The Thing You Must Do

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#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurodiversity #unmasking #BurnoutRecovery #PersonalGrowth

Many Autistics, and many ADHDers, need more rest for our nervous systems to be able to process the sensory information that we’re taking in, the social information we’re taking in, to be able to regulate, and to really actually feel rested.

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurodiversity

Instead of, “I can’t take the plunge without absolute certainty it will work out,” what if it’s “I must take the plunge?” What if accepting uncertainty is why I must do it, because I need that personal growth?

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Neurodiversity #AskingAutistics

A transcript is available at: https://www.autismchrysalis.com/2023/12/09/when-you-hate-being-perceived/ Here's what might be going on if you hate being perceived, if it feels bad or awful,… When You Hate Being Perceived

When you hate being perceived, and are #Autistic, here’s what might be going on:

youtube.com/watch?v=k6Ao...

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD

If you want some neurodivergent and neuro-positive book recommendations, here are my favorites, ranging from fiction, to sensory advice, to autobiographies, to ways to dissolve internalized ableism.

You can find all of them at: buff.ly/txLTwqA

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurodiversity

Physical sensations and thought always go together. We may not always pay attention to both of those, but we can connect them. When we notice one of them, we can look for the information from the other.

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Interoception #Sensory

Other people trying to meet our needs is good. It’s wonderful when they can do that, when they can be supportive in that way. But it’s not always possible. And if it’s not possible, that doesn’t mean that they don’t love us.

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #Autistic #Neurospicy #Neurodiversity