My Neurodivergent Life

Hey there my electric meatball friends, you have arrived at the My Neurodivergent Life Podcast.  I’m Rick Macivor and today Gabby and I talk about clutter. I learn all about something called goat trails, and the poop rule.  We dive into the why of stuff, is it just for sentimental reasons or is there more to it.  Oh and Gabby shares her tried and true method for de-cluttering. This one is a ride, so jump on!
This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes, it is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.

Ok meatballs, today’s story is positive and inspiring, mostly. Imagine a world where it’s ok to advocate for yourself at work. It’s ok to the people around you and to your customers to talk about what’s really going on, what you’re needs are, and to have the support of management, HR, leadership.  It’d be nice.  Well, today Gabby and I talk about an experience where that absolutely was the case.
 
This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes, it is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.

This week on the My neurodivergent life podcast Gabby and I dive into bottom up vs top down.  No not if you are a bottom or a top, no. We talk about how neurodivergent folks tend to have sensory first experiences rather than situational first experiences.  Don’t worry it’ll make sense in the first 3 minutes.  Also how our sensory first view of the world can drive so many of our choices, and how we can also use that as a superpower.  So…
As always I want to remind you
This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes, it is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.

“Why do I always feel like I’m in trouble?”  Is it a learned behavior or is it part of how our neurodivergent brains are wired?  It’s a chicken and egg scenario.  We dig into how neurodivergent negative patterns are formed and reinforced and how that affects us throughout our lives.

Today’s episode is all about pattern recognition.  Current events, music, geometry, relationships, all of these things have patterns in some form or another. Sometimes it’s a superpower, and other times, well, it can cause us a whole bunch of stress.  The trick is, when can you trust it and when might it be driven by fear?  An awareness is the first step. 

Today we explore negativity bias.  Also known as catastrophising, the downward spiral, worst case scenario.  Why do we do it?  Where does it come from?  What are the coping skills we tend to use to stop doing it. Some are healthier than others.  Maybe if we can understand it a bit better, we can recognize it faster and pull up before we hit the ground.

Today, gabby Nistico and I pull apart how us neurodivergent folks relate to time.  What is time anyway?  How do we deal with the phenomenon of time blindness?  What’s behind that little quirk?  I know that when I hyper fixate I can easily lose hours in my day.  And sometimes, often times actually, I’m completely unaware it’s happening.  I do have a few strategies to deal with my time blindness that help me stay on track.  And actually my smart phone has nothing to do with it, in fact in a way my smartphone actually took away one of my best stratigies.  We get into all of that.

Oh my dear meatballs have we got a doozy today.  Gabby and I unpack RFK Jr.’s diabolical attack on the neurodivergent community.  Specifically Autism.  He has held a series of press conferences full of disinformation, outlandish claims and poor methodology all centered around finding the cause of the disease of autism.  And all by September of 2025. So what about this crusade is so damaging?  What could be the harm in researching Autism?  Isn’t that a good thing? Well, that’s the subject of our conversation today.  Spoiler alert, it’s not a good thing, at all.