Callum Stephen (He/Him)

The ADHD urge to interrupt yourself mid-sentence because you’ve suddenly thought of something seemingly more interesting or important and you feel compelled to start speaking about that instead.

The autistic experience of analysing situations extra deeply and noticing when things don’t make sense more often than a lot of people do, but questioning your perception because the idea that so many people could miss what you’ve noticed somehow sounds unrealistic - even though…

The Autistic/ADHD talent of producing summaries that are longer, more expansive and more detailed than a lot of people’s whole stories (which are *much* shorter than your whole stories).

The autistic experience of being hypersensitive not only to certain sensory experiences but also other things, such as: - the energy of a person/place/situation - other people’s emotions - being perceived - change

For many ADHDers, boredom is not just unpleasant but also debilitating at times. Boredom can be draining and prevent us from doing what we need to do - no matter how much we may need or want to do it. Boredom can leave us feeling stuck.

As an autistic person who likes everything to make sense, I often analyse my feelings extensively. This can be tremendous for my self-awareness, but it can also result in my feelings feeling bigger than they actually are, which can at times leave me feeling overwhelmed.

Many autistic people put a lot of time and energy into making adjustments for other people (e.g, regularly adjusting how we communicate to meet neurotypical standards and expectations), and it’s important that we remember to make adjustments for ourselves too. We also deserve to…

The Autistic/ADHD experience of thinking of one point you’d like to make, then thinking of several other connected points and points that are connected to the connected points, until you have so many points in mind that you’ve ended up with a rather detailed and expansive speech.

The ADHD urge to order the fun new item on a menu. But also… The Autistic urge to order my favourite item that I’ve ordered consistently for the past 4 months.

The autistic experience of feeling ok if you change your plans but frequently feeling overwhelmed if someone else changes your plans. I think, for many of us, this is because when we change our plans we can think a (potential) change through and prepare ourselves before deciding…

As an Autistic ADHDer, my internal monologue is so hard-working. It does so much planning, comes up with solutions to complex problems, encourages me to strive for high quality, scripts entire conversations (in advance), analyses situations from various eras of my life, and more.

The autistic experience of seeing so many ways that something you wish to say could be misinterpreted - and preemptively explaining that you are not saying, meaning or implying these things, before you get around to saying what you actually wish to say.

A huge realisation for me as an autistic person has been that me finding that something doesn’t make sense does not necessarily mean I’ve misunderstood anything; sometimes things objectively do not make sense and me recognising this can actually mean I have a solid understanding.

“It’s not that serious/deep!” As an autistic person, I often experience and process things differently, experience things more intensely and spot what other people miss. How you feel about the subject is valid and your call, and how I feel about it is also valid and is my call.

Part of being Autistic and ADHD, for me, is sometimes becoming overstimulated and exhausted by my own thoughts. All the processing, considering various factors, planning, problem-solving, scripting, and more, can be a lot to navigate.