This was brilliantly written and I really appreciated the voice over. I am a woman, neurodivergent, and a trauma survivor - I frequently get diagnosed with depression whenever I seek any medical care, and then receive an antidepressant and they call it a day. I've never received any official diagnosis other than depression. And I'm likely experiencing autistic burnout because I don't have the energy to try to go through the system to get a "proper diagnosis."
From the many brilliant people who are neurodivergent, and compassionate clinicians like yourself on Substack- I've been able to self diagnose, and get to know myself a little bit better through this new lens. That helps.
Also thank you for saying that autism is not a disorder. The way you talked about that really made sense to me. I know others have spoken to it, but it still made me feel like something was wrong with me to have that label, but I'm beginning to see it as something more beautiful now.
💜 Thank you so much, Sam for your kind words and for sharing your experience. I am also neurodivergent and a trauma survivor and have had my experiences dismissed like you describe. Autistic burnout is brutal and commonly misdiagnosed as depression, and therefore mistreated.
I honestly don’t think that we understand autism and ADHD very well in the clinical world. That’s partly why I push back on them as disorders. There are some wonderful books on neurodivergence that are written from the perspective of lived experience that I highly recommend:
I’m so very sorry for the pain that you or a loved one have experienced with a BPD diagnosis. It is true that historically it has been pathologized and misunderstood and that is heartbreaking.
This was brilliantly written and I really appreciated the voice over. I am a woman, neurodivergent, and a trauma survivor - I frequently get diagnosed with depression whenever I seek any medical care, and then receive an antidepressant and they call it a day. I've never received any official diagnosis other than depression. And I'm likely experiencing autistic burnout because I don't have the energy to try to go through the system to get a "proper diagnosis."
From the many brilliant people who are neurodivergent, and compassionate clinicians like yourself on Substack- I've been able to self diagnose, and get to know myself a little bit better through this new lens. That helps.
Also thank you for saying that autism is not a disorder. The way you talked about that really made sense to me. I know others have spoken to it, but it still made me feel like something was wrong with me to have that label, but I'm beginning to see it as something more beautiful now.
💜 Thank you so much, Sam for your kind words and for sharing your experience. I am also neurodivergent and a trauma survivor and have had my experiences dismissed like you describe. Autistic burnout is brutal and commonly misdiagnosed as depression, and therefore mistreated.
I honestly don’t think that we understand autism and ADHD very well in the clinical world. That’s partly why I push back on them as disorders. There are some wonderful books on neurodivergence that are written from the perspective of lived experience that I highly recommend:
Divergent Mind
Unmasking Autism
Neurotypes
I’m so very sorry for the pain that you or a loved one have experienced with a BPD diagnosis. It is true that historically it has been pathologized and misunderstood and that is heartbreaking.
I did not know this, and this breaks my heart. Thank you for speaking so eloquently and passionately to this topic.