Adults: workplace & life
Accommodations, burnout, masking, mental-health peers.
How do I know if this is burnout and not just me failing again?
Burnout often feels personal, but it is usually a signal that demand has exceeded capacity for too long. Look for changes: losing skills you normally have, needing much more recovery, shutdowns, sensory sensitivity,…
Asked for accommodations at work today and it went… fine?
31 and I finally did the thing. HR was actually kind. I got: noise-canceling headphones reimbursed, an end-of-day 1:1 with my manager instead of a Friday-afternoon team meeting, and explicit permission to skip the…
What actually helps recovery when rest alone is not fixing it?
Rest matters, but recovery often also needs reduced demands, fewer transitions, sensory relief, practical help, and permission to stop performing 'fine.' Think in layers: body basics, environment, workload,…
My child says scary things when overwhelmed. How seriously should I take it?
Take it seriously and calmly. You do not have to panic, but you also do not have to guess alone. Stay close, reduce immediate demands, ask simple direct questions, and contact a qualified professional or local…
Recovering from autistic burnout — what actually helped you?
Six months into a hard one. Cut hours, started rest, started OT for sensory stuff. Looking for first-hand experiences of recovery beyond 'it gets better' — what concretely helped your nervous system come back online?
How do I get out of the shame spiral after a bad ADHD day?
Try treating the spiral as a nervous-system event, not a courtroom. First regulate: food, water, movement, quiet, shower, or sleep. Then repair one small thing if needed. The sentence 'I had a hard day, and I can still…
How do I tell the difference between a meltdown, shutdown, and regular stress?
A rough way to think about it: stress says 'this is hard,' meltdown says 'my system has overflowed outward,' and shutdown says 'my system has powered down inward.' The support is often different. During the moment,…
Sensory-friendly grocery shopping — current setup
Posting in case useful: noise-canceling earbuds, sunglasses indoors (yes, even though it looks weird), a written list in the same order as the store layout, chewable necklace, and a 5-minute decompression in the car…