I wrote this piece to mark the inaugural AuDHD Awareness Day, September 9th 2025. This week is comprised of five days that happened during August 2025, but during different actual weeks.
Sunday 10th August
I met my friend Melissa for Sunday afternoon drinks at the pub. We first met at the pub, and get on due to our shared interest in all things neurodiversity and a mutual neurodivergence. We can often get into animated conversations about these topics, and I’m aware that sometimes I can take over a conversation and talk at great length. I’m not always great at judging when I’ve overdone it, but I also know Melissa understands that, and doesn’t judge me harshly for it.
When I’m talking about a passionate interest I will info dump and speak at great length; I remember describing it to the psychiatrist who diagnosed my autism as “it’s like a waterfall but I’m waterboarding the person/people listening”. I can’t stop the flow of words and information out of me, and because I have diverse interests (pretty classically ADHD) I can communicate like this on a range of topics. I’m not steering a conversation to my own narrow interest like the autistic stereotype, but I have a pretty deep knowledge of a range of subjects.
I see this type of communication as a classic AuDHD thing.
Tuesday 12th August
I start today needing to make a routine Dr’s appointment. Last week I tried the online e-consult service that has resulted in an appointment in the past, only to then be told that the type of appointment I wanted can’t be booked that way, and to phone before 11am.
I then phoned before 11am at some point last week, to be told I have to phone before 9am. So today I had an alarm set for 8am, and called the Dr. I was only 24 in the queue, a bit of a miracle! Then I had to deal with the gatekeeper.
The gatekeeper is the receptionist who has all the information and the answers to your questions, but who won’t reveal the answer unless you phrase the question in the exact way – like dealing with bloody Rumpelstiltskin. I asked for a particular doctor – no, nothing available with them. Silence. So I ask if there are any appointments… Oh yes (tone implying “well obviously”), ok, can I book one of those… Then comes the what’s it about question. I say I have a list and give the first item on it. Then I am told I am only permitted to ask about one issue per appointment. So that means I have to go through this rigmarole another 3 times at least in order to ask all my questions…
If you can’t see why this is an autistic nightmare, I’m not sure I can explain it in any clearer terms. It is the epitome of communication barriers, making rules and statements that actually aren’t a rule (I saw the nurse about a different issue that morning, and explained why I was so dysregulated, and she actually sorted all those questions and explained that as long as it wasn’t several massive issues, you could ask about multiple things in one appointment…)
The result of this is that the autistic part of my brain has been overwhelmed and frustrated, leaving me dysregulated. Then, the amazing nurse changed all that but it takes so much longer for the AuDHD nervous system to regulate that I haven’t been able to get on with the main task of today (writing some training and doing the slides) because my attentional capacity is effectively not accessible to me. Instead, I have been flitting between three pieces of writing, LinkedIn messages and checking my to-do list for something I feel in the mood for.
I’m about to do my normal transitional activity, the one that gets me from my morning routine into the rest of the day, but it’s 1:09pm. Hopefully yoga will help – it usually does and I’ve written about that here.
Yoga helped regulate me, I did one specifically for brain and body reset. Six hours on, one incredible nurse and 20 minutes of yoga, and I’m starting to feel regulated physically and mentally. I still can’t muster the concentration I need for the Important Task, so that’s going to have to wait until tomorrow when I can hopefully create the ideal conditions for sustained attention. Dealing with the GP receptionist affects most people, but most people are also over it in 5 minutes, it doesn’t screw their nervous system for a whole day.
Wednesday 13th August
Several months ago I bought myself one of those miniature model kits, thinking it would be a nice relaxing thing to dip in and out of during some quieter weeks. Well, that hasn’t happened.
For a start, I never seem to have quiet weeks. Even when there’s little in the way of scheduled work in the diary I always seem to end up filling the day and never doing everything on the list (that’s OK, it’s intentional*). Secondly, I opened the box and started reading the instructions and found it all very overwhelming. I also realised I needed to find my needle nosed pliers, which obviously put an ADHD barrier in the way.
I’ve opened the box a couple of times and never felt the urge to even start the kit. That is, until I acquired two little bears. They’re about 2 inches tall and very sweet and they’ve become a little bit of a fixation. I may have bought them hats… I also may have bought them a Sylvanian Families house to live in…
And that is what unlocked the desire to make the miniature kit. Freed from the rigidity of making the pieces and putting them together as per the model, I found I could make a start and get organised, something I had written off. Now that I had a reason to make the little cabinets and books I got straight into it and did it my way.
Doing it my way really speaks to the autistic desire for autonomy, and the ADHD fixation element unlocked the executive functions to be able to make the tiny tiny pieces.
Thursday 14th August
Today has a rhythm all of it’s own. It’s the day I do the click and collection shopping (as I do not cope well in supermarkets) which means my usual transition from the morning to next daily task, which I accomplish with yoga, doesn’t happen. I usually have to head straight to Sainsbury’s after the morning stuff.
Well, this morning I had a ping of inspiration, so I wrote an article in the middle of my morning routine. The article(*link), ironically, was about routines… Then, I decided I had time to boil up the syrup for the plums I’m candying and was waiting for that to cool when the phone rang. I answered it, which I normally wouldn’t but because I had a couple of appointments booked I thought it might be about that. It was, and it was the hospital saying they’d had a cancellation, and could I be at the surgery for 11.10.
That fitted pretty well with the timings of getting the shopping, so I abandoned plums, jumped in the shower, got the shopping (forgetting entirely about the frozen sweetcorn, which meant a quick dash home to put it in the freezer before the doctors) and got to the surgery in good time. After that I came home, put the rest of the shopping away, made a cup of tea and got some writing done, and now I am really struggling to get the yoga done because it’s now no longer a transitional activity, but an actual chore as it’s past noon.
So, the AuDHD strikes with the need for the rhythm or routine, that then gets changed, and puts me back into a state of inertia. I’m also getting hunger signals and I only get those at the last minute, so I need to eat or I’ll feel sick, but I haven’t done yoga, and I don’t want to do that straight after eating, which pushes that back by an hour, and I can’t see that far ahead today and argh!!!!! And rather than doing yoga or eating, I’m sitting here writing this before it leaves my head entirely.
Friday 15th August
I had a dental hygienist appointment this afternoon, the second one I had ever had. I was a little apprehensive for the first one. Although I’m generally OK at the dentist, because I know it’ll be over within 10 minutes, the hygienist appointments are longer and involve even more scraping and loud implements.
Happily, it turns out that I find the hygienist incredibly relaxing. I left the first (and the second) appointment feeling very chilled, similar to the way neurotypical people feel after a massage. It took a while to work out why this is, given that the sensory experience is precisely the sort of thing autistic people often find intolerable.
Part of the relaxation comes from the fact that for 20 minutes I am unable to do anything else. I can’t be pressuring myself to get on with something productive, so in the strangest way, it is “me time”.
What I realised after the second one was that the deep proprioceptive input – the deep pressure on my teeth, was giving me sensory input that calms. I had noticed a while ago that when I feel stressed I have the urge to eat crunchy things or grind my teeth – I was seeking that deep proprioceptive input.
So, after my hygienist appointment I bought myself a teething ring! Now I have something to give me that sensory input through my teeth that doesn’t involve grinding them down or eating several handfuls of crisps.
I’ve published another piece on AuDHD to mark today: How my AuDHD manifests and my theory on AuDHD as a neurotype.
*My to do list always has more on it than I can reasonable get done in a day, but this means I can pick the tasks or activities that suit my brain, and move the un-done tasks to the next days so they don’t get forgotten.