We’re Valid Regardless of Diagnosis 💔🩹💖 Our needs are our business

▶ To find links to more content and support me - 🖇lindsaymakesvideos.com🖇

There appears to be an underlying belief that our needs are only valid if they’re justified by the right diagnosis. But these diagnoses should have absolutely zero impact on how we feel about ourselves. At all.

They aren’t the empirical judgment of God Himself. Nor are they comparable to testing positive for lupus, or having a CT scan that reveals a tumor. One day, it may very well be a diagnostic standard to “scan” the brain for definitive markers of neurodivergence, but when that happens, the labels and their criteria will inevitably change accordingly.

The experiences and behaviors we associate with diagnoses ARE things, but diagnoses in and of themselves are not. They’re more like genres. They’re circles around traits drawn by fallible humans, and they change shape every day. Even if our neurodivergence is assessed by an educated professional, that professional is making an educated guess based on these circles. The ‘truth’ is a big blurry mess of genes, environment, and trauma, crashing into each other.

So it’s reasonable, and our right, to decide for ourselves the best way to frame our divergence and care for ourselves accordingly. And in turn, to respect that right in other neurodivergent people with similar experiences who choose a different path.

WE decide what we want out of life, what aspects of our divergence are in our way, and whether we want to be flexible about our needs.

#traumahealing #actuallyautistic #audhd #neurospicy #neurodivergence #autistic #autism #awareness #cptsd #spiritualawakening #traumahealing #selfawareness #selfadvocacy #selfwork #findingyourself #healing #asd #adhd

We’re Valid Regardless of Diagnosis 💔🩹💖 Our needs are our business

▶ To find links to more content and support me - 🖇lindsaymakesvideos.com🖇

There appears to be an underlying belief that our needs are only valid if they’re justified by the right diagnosis. But these diagnoses should have absolutely zero impact on how we feel about ourselves. At all.

They aren’t the empirical judgment of God Himself. Nor are they comparable to testing positive for lupus, or having a CT scan that reveals a tumor. One day, it may very well be a diagnostic standard to “scan” the brain for definitive markers of neurodivergence, but when that happens, the labels and their criteria will inevitably change accordingly.

The experiences and behaviors we associate with diagnoses ARE things, but diagnoses in and of themselves are not. They’re circles around traits drawn by fallible humans, and they change shape every day. Even if our neurodivergence is assessed by an educated professional, that professional is making an educated guess based on these circles. The ‘truth’ is a big blurry mess of genes, environment, and trauma, crashing into each other.

So it’s reasonable, and our right, to decide for ourselves the best way to frame our divergence and care for ourselves accordingly.

WE decide what we want out of life, what aspects of our divergence are in our way, and whether we want to be flexible about our needs.

Others can't POSSIBLY grasp the amount of work that flexibility would take, because we're the only ones with all the relevant data. No one has the right to make us change, whether we have a diagnosis or not, unless we give it to them.

#traumahealing #actuallyautistic #audhd #neurospicy #neurodivergence #autistic #autism #awareness #cptsd #spiritualawakening #traumahealing #selfawareness #selfadvocacy #selfwork #findingyourself #healing #asd #adhd

We’re Valid Regardless of Diagnosis 💔🩹💖 Our needs are our business

▶ To find links to more content and support me - 🖇lindsaymakesvideos.com🖇

Is it ADHD? Is it autism? Or is it trauma? As Dwayne The Rock Johnson famously said - “IT DOESN’T MATTER” What matters is getting our needs met.

There appears to be an underlying belief that our needs are only valid if they’re justified by the right diagnosis. But these diagnoses should have absolutely zero impact on how we feel about ourselves. At all.

They aren’t the empirical judgment of God Himself. Nor are they comparable to testing positive for lupus, or having a CT scan that reveals a tumor. One day, it may very well be a diagnostic standard to “scan” the brain for definitive markers of neurodivergence, but when that happens, the labels and their criteria will inevitably change accordingly.

The experiences and behaviors we associate with diagnoses ARE things, but diagnoses in and of themselves are not. They’re more like genres. They’re circles around traits drawn by fallible humans, and they change shape every day. Even if our neurodivergence is assessed by an educated professional, that professional is making an educated guess based on these circles. The ‘truth’ is a big blurry mess of genes, environment, and trauma, crashing into each other.

So it’s reasonable, and our right, to decide for ourselves the best way to frame our divergence and care for ourselves accordingly.

WE decide what we want out of life, what aspects of our divergence are in our way, and whether we want to be flexible about our needs.

Others can't POSSIBLY grasp the amount of work that flexibility would take, because we're the only ones with all the relevant data.

#traumahealing #actuallyautistic #audhd #neurospicy #neurodivergence #autistic #autism #awareness #cptsd #spiritualawakening #traumahealing #selfawareness #selfadvocacy #selfwork #findingyourself #healing #asd #adhd

I really really really want to get a new video out, but dang have I ever needed to organize my notes! I've been making Notion documents that I'm calling "content buckets" where I'm compiling all of my ideas that support particular theses. This way I'll know I have all my shit together in one doc before I turn it into a script.

I have one script pretty much done though - we'll be talking about how our needs are valid regardless of diagnosis.

In the meantime, enjoy this blurry mysterious list of concepts we'll be exploring in the future. 😁

▶ To find links to more content and support me - 🖇lindsaymakesvideos.com🖇

#traumahealing #actuallyautistic #audhd #neurospicy #neurodivergence #autistic #autism #awareness #cptsd #spiritualawakening #traumahealing #selfawareness #selfadvocacy #selfwork #findingyourself #healing #asd

Unintended Harm: Are We Still Accountable? 💔🩹💖

As autistic people we have been punished mercilessly for crimes we had no idea we were committing, so it’s natural for us to feel like it’s totally unfair to be held accountable for harm we couldn’t have possibly predicted.

Nonetheless, it is vital to our healing, and our sanity, that we hold ourselves accountable for harm whether we intended it or not. Because if we carry the belief that feeling wronged is only valid if the wrongdoer intended it, then we’ll believe our OWN feelings of being wronged are only valid if the wrongdoer intended it. And since we NEED our feelings to be valid, we’ll NEED the wrongdoer to have intent, so we’ll end up pinning intent on people who just didn’t know any better.

Instead of thinking of it as admitting fault, think of it as acknowledging harm. We need to stop being lawyers and start being humans. Yes, we didn’t know better, we couldn’t have been expected to know better, we did the best we knew how to do - but - we recognize, and care, that someone got hurt, and we wish that hadn’t happened.

If we don’t apologize for unintended harm, the harmed party learns we care more about being right than we do about their pain. People don’t feel safe around people who don’t care whether they suffer or not, and that’s perfectly reasonable.

#asd #actuallyautistic #autistic #autism #neurodivergence #awakening #awareness #findingyourself #selfwork #weareallconnected #cptsd #healing #traumahealing #selfawareness #selfadvocacy

Victim Blaming 💔🩹💖 Clip from “Imagining Trauma as Spilled Milk”

👇🏻Full video, more content, and 💸🎁 me 👇🏻
lindsaymakesvideos.com

Sometimes we have to clean messes other people made in our lives, even if it’s not fair.

Some may see that perspective as victim blaming, but I only talk about cleaning up our own milk. You’ll never hear me say it’s our fault it got spilled. You’ll never hear me say that we can punch ourselves with someone else’s fist. We’re responsible for our trauma healing, we’re accountable for our trauma responses, but we are not at fault for the trauma itself.

And damn right it’s not fair. But nothing about life, from an individual perspective, is fair. We are all handed messes we didn’t choose, but still have to deal with. Our bodies, culture, illnesses, accidents, disasters, tragedies, lack of privilege? Not fair.

Trauma is no different. It’s another one of life’s random-ass challenges we gotta maneuver ourselves through.

The reason I talk about what we traumatized people can do to help ourselves, and not what abusers should do to help us, is because focusing on what other people should do feels pointless. I talk about ideas that help me, and that would not help me at all. I’d feel like I was hosting a circle jerk for self pity.

So how about we accomplish something worthwhile together and clean our fucking floors? 😜

#actuallyautistic #neurodivergence #awakening #awareness #findingyourself #selfwork #cptsd #healing #traumahealing #selfawareness #selfadvocacy

Autism & Gaslighting Trauma 💔🩹💖 The need to live in a shared reality

▶ Video links - lindsaymakesvideos.com

There’s an inevitable ‘autism-to-gaslighting trauma’ pipeline, because we have fierce aversions to discomforts that feel very minor to allistic and neurotypical people.

We learn that our experiences won’t be taken seriously, our needs will not be met, and we won’t be socially accepted, unless our experience is shared by others.

We need more time to process information, and we often need it presented in a particular way for it to make sense to us. Otherwise we’re confused, that confusion is emotionally dysregulating, and the outward presentation of that dysregulation is harshly judged.

#asd #actuallyautistic #autistic #autism #neurodivergence #adhd #audhd #awakening #awareness #consciousness #findingyourself #selfwork #spiritualawakening #cptsd #ptsd #healing #traumahealing #selfawareness #selfadvocacy #unmasking

I was asking myself what I wanted to do next as a nice project to move my career along and help general growth and ended up in the why/how loop of questions.

Every time I’d get an answer I’d ask myself how/why can/would I do that in order to slice down the project in smaller and smaller chunks until it’s more manageable.

The deeper I got with those questions, the more I felt my brain twist and turn on itself and the more I felt annoyed.

I kept going until I was satisfied with the answer but it shows how interesting it can be and how easily we get annoyed by too many questions as we often don’t want to dig in or accept we might not know (yet) the answer.

Keep digging and find what’s next for you: you might get annoyed in the process but you’ll probably find answers along the way so it’s worth the headache.

#askyourself #askquestions #becomebetter #dobetter #dothework #introspection #selfwork #selfworth #discovery

Today marks 1144 days sober for me. I don’t really keep track anymore, but perhaps I should. It’s good to look back, to remember the struggles and the breakthroughs. It’s the best gift I’ve ever given myself and my loved ones.
#sober #soberlife #alcoholfree #struggles #clarity #awareness #selfwork #love

Show me more people who have practiced #changemanagement and evolved their own philosophy, theology, principles, or worldview

#discipline #introspection #change #philosophy #principles #worldview #selfwork