Autism 101
This common autistic trait involves repeating movements or sounds (like hand-flapping, rocking, or humming) to help regulate emotion or focus.
What is stimming?
This set of brain-based skills - including planning, organizing, and impulse control - tends to work differently in ADHD.
What is executive function?
This is the ability to notice your own internal body signals - hunger, heartbeat, needing the bathroom, feeling tired. Many neurodivergent people find this harder to read than most.
What is interoception?
"Autistic people don't want friends or close relationships."
Myth. Most autistic people do want connection — they may just build or express it differently than expected.
This simple strategy - working alongside another person, even silently, just to help you start and stay on a task - is a popular ADHD tool.
What is body doubling?
Many autistic people develop a deep, energizing passion for a specific topic that brings them real joy and comfort.
What is a special interest?
This is the ADHD experience of becoming so absorbed in an interesting task that hours disappear without notice.
What is hyperfocus?
This term describes difficulty identifying and putting words to your own emotions - common in autism, and sometimes in ADHD too.
What is alexithymia?
"ADHD is a real, brain-based difference in how attention and motivation get regulated."
True. It's not laziness or a lack of discipline — it reflects how the brain's attention and reward systems actually work.
Tools like noise-canceling headphones, fidget objects, or sunglasses indoors help manage this kind of overwhelming input.
What is sensory regulation?
This term describes the exhausting practice of hiding or suppressing natural autistic traits in order to fit in socially.
What is masking?
This term describes the intense emotional pain some people feel in response to perceived criticism or rejection.
What is Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD)?
This describes the depleted, shut-down state that follows pushing through too much social or sensory demand for too long, often needing real time to recover.
What is autistic burnout?
"Meltdowns or shutdowns are usually a response to being overwhelmed, not an attempt to manipulate or get attention."
True. Behavior is communication — it's most often a sign of overwhelm or an unmet need.
Breaking a big, overwhelming task into small, specific steps - so "clean your room" becomes "put the clothes in the hamper" - is called this.
What is chunking (or task breakdown)?
Bright lights, certain textures, or background noise can feel unbearable rather than just annoying - this experience is called this.
What is sensory overload (or sensory sensitivity)?
ADHD brains often struggle specifically with this - actually starting a task, even one they care about and know is important.
What is task initiation?
This term describes an intense, anxiety-driven need to resist everyday demands - even ones a person is about to do, or genuinely wants to.
What is PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance/Pervasive Drive for Autonomy)?
"Every autistic person avoids eye contact."
Myth. It varies a lot — some autistic people find eye contact uncomfortable or even painful, others don't mind it at all.
Since working memory can be unreliable, writing things down, setting alarms, or using visual schedules is called this - putting information somewhere outside your head so you don't have to hold it there.
What is externalizing (or offloading)?
This idea suggests that when autistic and non-autistic people struggle to understand each other's perspective, it's not just one side's fault — it's a two-way mismatch between different, equally valid social styles.
What is the double empathy problem?
This term describes the ADHD tendency to experience time as only "now" or "not now," making it hard to feel or plan for things further away.
What is time blindness?
This is the accumulated wear on the body and mind from constantly managing sensory input, social rules, and expectations, day after day.
What is allostatic load (chronic sensory/cognitive fatigue)?
"People grow out of autism or ADHD by the time they're adults."
Myth. Neurodivergence is lifelong, even though how it shows up can change a lot as someone grows and develops coping strategies.
This is a short, pre-planned phrase or signal - like a hand gesture or a code word - agreed on ahead of time so you can ask for a break or step away before you're completely overwhelmed.
What is a self-advocacy signal (or exit strategy)?