⚠️ Trigger Warning ⚠️ Experiencing Abuse as a Neurodivergent
Being empathetic and being able to tune into people’s soul light💫 is a really beautiful gift.
BUT, without boundaries and tools to reflect on ourselves, perceiving only the good in others, can spell trouble for us!
It’s been a life’s work for me to learn about my boundaries, but also to lean into my gifts and perceptions. Because I naturally sense the harmony in people’s soul, it can be harder for me to recognise when things just aren’t right, relationally.
There are many reasons for this:
As a late diagnosed autistic ADHD individual, I have chronically masked most of my life to fit in, and appear ‘acceptable’ to others, without even knowing it.
I’d been told that ‘I’m too much’, ‘too sensitive’ or plain wrong for who I am, so many times, that I dulled my natural perceptions.
I believed I was inherently wrong in how I perceived and processed things, that others must know better.
I put more trust in others, than my own selfhood.
There are many research papers that indicate a much higher percentage of Autistic and ADHD, people experience relational violence and abuse (compared to neurotypical populations).
That is on them, not us!
Any form of abuse that violates our safety or agency (agency = being supported in our capacity to choose and thrive in life) is NEVER ok, or excusable behaviour. Ever.
AND, unfortunately, it can also be harder for neurodivergent people to perceive subtleties of abuse, if we’ve been taught from an early age that our natural sensitivities are wrong, can’t be relied on, and that others always know better.
I’m here to say, that as an AuDHD person with lived experience of trauma and abuse, and coming out the other side of that experiences/s, that’s just not true.
We are the only ones who can truly discover the unique ways our bodies and brains speak to us … but we can get help to perceive and embrace them.
As I attune to my gifts through my Arts Therapy practice, and arts-based research, I’m finding that that first perception of soul safety, is something that I actually can trust.
The trick is, to find tools, processes and neuro-affirming professionals to help us to attune to ourselves, as much as we value attuning to others.
That’s just the start, and as we deepen into trusting ourselves, our gifts and our personalised processing experiences, we can actually learn to rely on and thrive in our unique neurotype.
🫶🏼🌸💫
💗 Chrissy x
