I’ve been trying to cultivate my home as a place my friends feel comfortable showing up to. There’s a bunch of people (too many) in my life who are going through tough stuff, and lately more and more they just show up for a chat, reading a book in peace and quiet, or sleep over and have a night away from home if they need it.

It’s not so much them being welcome that feels like an accomplishment (because that’s just a given), but rather that they seem to have internalized that it’s OK to ask for help/support and feel comfortable enough with me/us to come here.

As I’m typing this out I’m not sure if this fits in the “betterment” category, but it’s a positive change in my life I’ve noticed and worked on lately, so submitting it anyway. 😊

Aw, so cute. And love the names ❤️

Interesting question. I actually had a conversation about this with friends recently, one of the group had just gotten an ASD diagnosis and we realised we were all neurodivergent–except, did I count? We quickly concluded that that didn’t really matter, but now I’m curious what y’all think.

Due to a medical event years ago, I suffered brain damage. It didn’t really “break” functions, but since then I’ve had trouble with concentration, energy, mental planning, and perhaps most importantly I get overstimulated really easily. I can’t handle a conversation while the radio is on, I wear ear plugs when I need to go into a shop, I can’t watch busy/flashy tv shows, if someone is fiddling with something in their hands I get an urge to run away, etc. It might not sound like much to some, but it’s left me unable to work (there’s more than I described).

I realise that neurodivergence is mostly used for differently developed brains. But mine also don’t function “typically”. What do you think?

(And just to reiterate, it really doesn’t matter, I know how I am and how my brain works now and a label isn’t important to me, I’m just wondering if the general public would find it strange if I said I’m neurodivergent).