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Halloween Tips (so neurodivergent folk can enjoy too)

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Neurodiversity and Mental Wellness logo

Hi folks,

For many of us this time of year has its ups and downs. It’s a great opportunity to express your unique individualism, be it in pumpkin carving, Halloween costumes, and all the celebrations that carry through the end of the year.

But alongside the fun times comes juggling of responsibilities, the additional sensory impacts, and managing change. Challenges for neurodivergent parents and kids can be especially tricky with the added social expectations. Luckily there are some handy tips to help get through the holiday season.

Managing Expectations

Beth Williams new book “The Sensory-Friendly Halloween: A Parent’s Guide to Costumes, Crowds, and Candy for Autistic and ADHD Kids” gives clear picture of Halloween from neurodivergent kids perspective[4].

Halloween asks a set of things of children that no other day asks, all at once, after dark, off-schedule. Wear something unfamiliar and itchy. Approach strangers’ houses uninvited. Say a specific phrase, correctly, to a person in a mask. Accept food from them. Do it thirty times, in an order nobody explained, until an adult decides you’re finished. Every other day of the year, most of those are rules your child has been explicitly taught not to break.

Relatable (that’s a pretty close description of most of my employment history). In her short guide Beth breaks down the night into stages with quick references, checklists, and adaptable scripts to lower the stress for all. I’ve added the link to her website Luna Digital Studio, and you can pick it up free on Kindle[4].

Managing expectations around the Holidays might mean pulling back on the hairy audacious goals of what it should look like. It might also be saying “No” to a number of things or scaling back. “Less is more” can be a good approach to an enjoying experience. It’s good to build in some space[6]. One of the best from tips from Dandelion Family Counseling article “A Neurodiversity-Affirming Guide to Halloween”[1] is:

The Best Halloween Is One That Feels Safe and Enjoyable.

While we are talking about managing expectations on Halloween night it’s good to be on the same page. Before embarking on your evening of sugar fuelled piracy, sit down with your peeps an talk through what will happen. Most box office managers, donor executives and ASM will agree that communication is key and a pregame standup meeting can be crucial to success.

When it comes to your neurodivergent loved ones, doing a walk through with a visual story can be really helpful. It doesn’t need to be one of the masterpieces in the Arts Centre Melbourne Visual Story collection[10]. Lee and Tom Lynch have a great guide for prepping for Halloween in their neurodiverse travel blog Rocket Around, as well as the best guide I’ve seen on creating Visual Stories that work[11].

Support Transitions

Another great reminder from Dandelion is to give yourself, and your significant others the space and time for transitions[1]. Changing focus between events is taxing on everyone[2]. Build in a little extra time to take a breath or fix a problem, to give yourself space get to the next moment.

Reframing Autism put out a guide for allies on Autistic Transitions[3], unpacking what they mean and how they can be difficult. They break down a number of ways to help someone to shift focus. Prepare for transitions, allow natural stopping points, minimize demands on your executive functioning, allow for processing time, collaborate and consider body doubling.

Sensory limits and overload

We are all familiar with the struggle of Sensory overload, even if it is not our own personal Kryptonite. Halloween can be a big one for this, with crowds, new people, decorations, dressing up … it’s a lot. Give yourself more capacity by pulling back on sensory overload where you can, both for you and your loved ones.

Considering a sensory support plan. Dandelion’s article[1] makes a good point on Pack a bag with noise-cancelling headphones, fidget tools, comfort items, water and a snack, and a place to regroup when you need some downtime. Like many museum superheroes, the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences have great sensory backpacks for use in their spaces. That is great inspiration to set up or review your own ahead of your adventure.

My personal favourite rule for events is “be flexible in your planning, and have an exit strategy“.  In social situations where I feel overloaded, I allow myself the opportunity to ‘smoke bomb’ (metaphorically) and exit.  That’s important for kids to be able to be in control as well.  For those of us with enteroception challenges you can’t always know when you are at your limit until you are over it. Giving a friend or host a heads up ahead of time can be helpful if it’s possible you need to disappear.

Costuming and clothing

“Comfort matters. A child who feels physically comfortable is much more likely to enjoy the experience.”[1] That goes for us adults as well. Uncomfortable clothing can eat into your capacity to be at your best and enjoy yourself.

If you want to give your creative cosplay fit the spotlight it deserves or if you need to make an impression, is an off duty version you can fall back on once that big reveal is done. Give yourself some relief by swapping the shoes out or taking off the mask – figuratively or literally. From my perspective your best look is you enjoying yourself.

There are many other sensory hurdles, including the particulars of smell, taste, sound and light. It’s not uncommon add anxiety and emotional overload, to this category for better practical management.

Self-Care

Finally I can’t (de)stress enough the importance of Self-Care, and one of these days I’ll listen to myself. That term means different things to each of us, and however you do it stay well. If you feel like a bit of festive journalling to help you keep track of how you are doing, Steph at Mindfully Illustrated has designed a very cute self-care spellbook. We’ve also attached our breathing assistance gif that you can download into your phone for to help when you need some calm.[12]

Have a wonderful and safe Halloween all,
Heath

References

  1. Dandelion Family Counseling “A Neurodiversity-Affirming Guide to Halloween” DandelionFamilyCounseling.Com (Oct 2026)
  2. Grant, A. “Productivity Isn’t About Time Management. It’s About Attention Management” New York Times (Mar, 2019)
  3. Reframing Autism “All About Autistic Transitions: A Guide for Allies” ReframingAutism.org.au (Sep, 2026)
  4. Williams, B “The Sensory-Friendly Halloween: A Parent’s Guide to Costumes, Crowds, and Candy for Autistic and ADHD Kids” Luna Digital Studios (Aug, 2026)
  5. Wilder H.“Holidays are stressful, so let’s chill inclusively” (Jan, 2023)
  6. Dominee Calderon“ Autumn Self-Care” Self Love Rainbow (Nov, 2025)
  7. Houston Museum of Natural Sciences Accessibility hmns.org
  8. Visual Story Library ArtsCentreMelbourne.Com.Au
  9. Lynch, Lee & Tom Happy?? Halloween Neurodiverse Families!  Visual travel guides for neurodiverse families RocketAround.com (Sept, 2023)
  10. Binkley, S. and Wilder H.”ND&MW: Guided Breathing gif” ND&MW Affinity Group Files (Oct, 2026)

Heath's first Jack-o-lantern

Moral & ethical justification in comics

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Like so many arguments this started on Reddit1. The leading question of which villain (pic below) had and evil plan and convinced people – all other than Homelander, arguably Vader (feared and to a few respected but followed Palpatine). All that really requires is a direction and a generous amount of riz for needy people to follow.

There was a slightly different question in the body:

Which villain do you think had the strongest justification for their actions?

That can be answered in a number of ways, such as qualifying either a moral or intellectual justification. However I think that the inevitable character backstory brings these even closer together. Inevitably, Thanos was also brought up (pardon the pun), and Doom I’ll assume we are not talking 616 Dr Doom as that’s a deep dive, into a can, with worms all the way down).

For nearly all of them, there is a leveller as most actions operated out of trauma fuelled belief, with a lot of plans effectively running interference to any justification of what they were attempting through a very narrow and context specific ideology. Thanos’ idea for erasing of half of life in the universe was an unsupported belief, and deeper in the comics is due to his stan for Death herself. Arguing for Ultron quickly becomes a case of Blue Orange morality2

Erik is as as close as we’ll get to a cogent vision but it’s still shaky. I’m of the opinion that the reason Erik’s ethos will always be limited with respect to Charles because he is operating from an isolationist framework, always framing this from a position of conflict. On the other hand Charles is typically scene as coming from a positional of mutuality. If nothing else Charles Xavier’s vision is a longer term strategy with higher growth potential.

It’s a somewhat naïve framing considering that both parties have separately compromised on their values to extraordinary degrees (thank you 1990). I think the differing scope of their vision is why each is compromised when separated. Separately Erik is an aggressive bully, and Charles is a manipulative pacifist. Erik’s stance is immediate and short term – he is a wartime governor concerned with the survival of his people in the current context. It leads him to make decisions that override his ethics. Charles has clear vision with a longer view of collaboration, and ecosystem building, but compromises on his morals to achieve it. ShaVash gives a nice summary on YouTube3. It brings up interesting topics like integration over assimilation and Nietzsche’s master-slave morality.

Movie and comic book villains are vehicles for story, and as such they lack depth for their nefarious plans to pass validation. Trauma driven belief is an interesting driver of plot and all we need to get to “I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you middling kids” and “I’ll get you next time Gadget!”. That is probably why one of my favourite comics is Strong Female Protagonist, a dramatic superhero webcomic series written by Brennan Lee Mulligan and drawn by Lee Knox Ostertag4. It navigates through the complex path between our circumstance and how we piece that together to make decisions through the lens of superfolk5.

But as I reveal my identity as Captain Obvious, I am struck by how often our own Vision and Values are compromised by a lack of connection to our strategy, or our strategy to our plans and execution. This is important in strategy and planning for business and in our personal lives. How often in our day-to-day do our personal values come in conflict with the ethical frameworks we operate in? Health care, justice reform, a seat on the bus – is the disparity between our morals and ethics or the interpretation and execution of ethics in the strategy and plans – or are our strategies and plans addressing pragmatic needs and shortcutting around our vision and values?

Rather than get into a debate on whether personal or professional ethics exist (that’s a yeah-nah from me), I’ll leave with a desire to connect through ethics, strategy, planning and execution in work and personal frameworks, and to have ethically informed vision and infrastructure to wrap the whole. Having values and principles informing our vision and people and culture through our infrastructure should inform both top-down and bottom-up processes.

References

  1. LevelSquareFFG7117 “Who had the most morally questionable evil plan, but genuinely convinced people that they were doing the right thing?” Reddit r/superheroes (2026) ↩︎
  2. “Blue and Orange Morality” TV Tropes ↩︎
  3. “Professor X vs Magneto – Who Actually Wins?” ShaVash (2026) YouTube ↩︎
  4. “Strong Female Protagonist” Wikipedia ↩︎
  5. B.L. Mulligan & L.K. Ostertag “Strong Female Protagonist” (2012-2018) official website ↩︎

My “Macaulay Culkin Christmas (in New York) pt1

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The story of my Macaulay Culkin Christmas (thus far)! I’ve been updating on Insta and it’s linked meta platforms.

I’d been toying with the idea of getting out of my regular reach for the holidays, but come the Fri 19th Dec when I was putting the mountain of projects on hold, and saying goodbye to friends departing long term. I finally got to 11pm and said “enough”.

Within 48hrs, incl. one final neurodivergent bookclub, and a Christmas themed D&D game with some close friends, I’d recovered enough mental functioning to make a plan. 10 hrs prior to boarding the plane I booked my ticket out and a place to stay when I landed.

I have had an overarching need is to start repair on my brain. 2025 was the hardest year yet. Just when I’d thought that burnout had hit it’s core and I am at my last reserve I found myself in another layer, and in myself another layer of resilience. I could feel my sense of self being stripped away as I lost the more confidence, and watched my skills evaporate as if I was in the final chapters of my own personal Flowers for Algernon.  It made sense to go to my upside-down – where the weather was cold, my expected outcome was not failure, and people called me friend.

The flight out had a hicup but I’m used to that now, and what would have been a problem in the past is now a bit of business.

I landed at Newark Airport NYC and made my way to my excellent tiny hotel Pod51. The rooms are Piet Mondrian themed! I braved the chill and found a pretty jumping Pizza store on 2nd Av blaring Latin American dance music for a few partying folks. Was a good vibe.
I escaped with 2 slices bigger than my head(!), got back into my room by midnight, watched local news and had pizza in bed. SUCCESS!

Since then Jordan at the pizza store will slip me an extra slice of some garlic bread when I go. Great guy.

Slice the size of my head 
Mondrian room

Next day I caught up with my friend Dale @ Beyond Sushi for great vegan Sushi lunch, before his expert tour of Midtown & Central Park West. 

I took myself to Macy’s to buy myself a gift, for Christmas Day then Bryant Park skating rink.  Then home to prepare to foil the sticky bandits. The gift is more pants for the cold – is up or in wearing two pairs. I freaked out a little the first time I went to the bathroom and forgot. I thought I’d turned into Ken.

After spending Christmas day wandering through Central Park, finding a diner in the Upper East side NYC and generally being a badly organised tourist (by design!) I was treated to a play Marjorie Prime (by 2nd Stage) by my friend Dale. While we were eating all the Tofu at Ollies Szechwan I happened to glance out the window and it was snowing!? I’ve never seen snow in my 39yrs (and some months*) existence so this was pretty AuDHD brain popping. We had a great conversation on the issues with AI, and a wonderful show in an incredible theatre. Adding a Christmas snowfall definitely lightened the ToDo column of the bucketlist.

*177

I’m very grateful to Dale who’s been exceptionally patient with my poor planning and touristy excitement as I repair my broken brain on this trip. Also he keeps me eating well – difficult to do solo when burnt out.

AI and ownership

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I recently came across a social media post commenting on an AI picture of a group of smiling people largely women. If was quite innocuous as an image but the ire of one commenter was drawn from the usual place – AI is trained on real images without concent

A little like:

accountxyz: hope the people you all use in prompts start suing the heck out of all of you

Okay. Most images are built from AI trained on massive banks of images largely unattributed, making that some class action.

Better though (if we want to get social warrior – which I’m down for) how about some lawsuits happening on predatory media, fashion and entertainment industry bodies, organisations and individuals, that have destroyed young women’s lives and careers for profit; for that matter what about accountability by the individuals that have openly joked about their dehumanising and abuse of women. Let’s not leave men out – the hazing and humiliation of young men in those industries is also a known blight that, by silence, we are complicit.

Whilst that may be somewhat off topic, a person’s right to own their own identity, is heavily impacted by data protection and it’s regulation in the current era. Legislation tends to move at a glacial pace compared to digital technology. However, legislation has been uncaristeristically nimble, as seen in the EU data reforms, and in business with Cloudflare and others moving to take control of bot crawling. The use of AI in increasing the speed and volume of trials for combating COVID, pushed reforms to bringing pharmaceuticals to market, at a rate that was previously implausable.

On a different tactic … how about the artists that have been plagiarised – but not compensated – for models being trained on their work?

The digital era has invented some models for mass distribution & monetisation that could be used in the training up and prompting of outputs for AI. The Spotify model is probably the most familiar example. These models arose in the digital frontier, in a time where torrenting ruled, and artists control of their IP was threatened. It’s been said that this led to better control for the studios than the artists. From the Wild West of torrent downloads, more was gained technologically than was redressed ethically. Better ethical distribution of the equity is always a goal.

Philanthropically there is potential in a model where the incredible profit margins from AI start-ups and established tech giants are “encouraged” to be farmed back into art and social programs. NGOs, NFPs, Government and community led organisations are better positioned to lead the redress societal imbalance, and best avoid the conflict of interest  in distribution of that gain. It isn’t a direct compensation for artist IP, rather it’s a longer term sector and societal solution, which works more in terms of redistribution of individual wealth gained from the common wealth.

That being said, there are options other than “Ban the AI”. Artificial Intelligence is past cancel culture. What that means is we need to ask ourselves as individuals, communities and societally, what are the potential risks, what are the possible mitigations of those risks and what are the opportunities – and for whom? This is a long game.  If we move together as a society, bottom to top, shoulder to shoulder, the better our future becomes. The biggest opportunity is for building our ethics into our solutions.  And now is precisely that time.

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

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O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

WS, R&J

Ocean wind

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Google drive just snuck this photo of mine past my feed. For an algorithm it’s darkly humorous, having recently lost a close friend. On the other side is the cold pacific ocean beating on these cyclopean blocks.

I used to come here a lot between the 90s and 2015. This picture however was one of the last and it feels a lot like that time;

wind harsh and sharp,
the colours unambiguous,
the sea more solid than cement;

so wild and solitary;

and so eternal,
in contrast with the rest of us.

On Rilke

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_______

To someone that likes to pretend they know everything,
You have a remarkable ability
         to prove I know nothing
_______

Mental Health Monday: Burnout through many lenses

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(This piece of writing was created by my incredible friend Shelly and myself for our Neurodiversity and Wellness, Arts and Culture community that we chair)

You might hear the term “Burnout” talked about a lot and maybe you’ve felt that way yourself. 

But what is burnout?

How does burnout differ between different communities?

And what can you do about it for your co-workers, friends and yourself?

Defining Burnout

The World Health Organisation (WHO) points out that whilst burn-out is included in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon, it is not classified as a medical condition.[1] 

Burn-out is defined in ICD-11 as:

“a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by three dimensions:

•  feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
•  increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and
•  reduced professional efficacy.”

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (MAY, 2019)

However, as the boundaries between work and home have blurred throughout the covid years, the occupational distinction has also become less fitting.  Evidence shows that burnout makes no distinction between paid or unpaid work and people undertaking unpaid home or care duties can also be impacted[2]. 

The Black Dog Institute and the UNSW School of Psychiatry[2a] have carried out studies into factors that commonly concur with burnout, including:

  • Anxiety/stress
  • Depression and low mood
  • Irritability and anger
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Lack of motivation or passion
  • Lack of concentration, memory loss or brain fog
  • Withdrawal from others
  • Physical symptoms such as aches, headaches, nausea and low libido
  • Emotional fragility

It raises the chicken v egg question on whether these factors are a cause of or caused by burnout, or whether they are all a symptom of an underlying issue. The same researchers are also undertaking a followup study to further investigate the features of burnout and its relationship with depression.

Neurodivergent Burnout

In the neurodivergent communities, conversations about burnout are quite common.  In fact many neurodivergent people come to uncover their uniqueness due to the burnout of trying to fly under the radar.  The challenges of living and working in a society not designed for us can mean frequent overload that can push us into meltdown, shutdown, and burnout.  Also life-changes can exacerbate challenges, for example transitioning from school to work, experiencing a mental health crisis, or the death of someone close[13].  Stigma can make prevention and recovery even harder.  

So how does neurodivergent burnout differ from the WHO defined burnout? 

A notable difference is in the causes of burnout [6]. Some of factors that lead to burnout for ND folk are:

  • Repeated sensory overload
  • Long term masking
  • Having social/sensory needs minimised by others due to appearing “fine” (i.e. “successful” masking)⁠
  • Not having access to the appropriate level of supports & accommodations ⁠
  • Difficult or unreachable expectations from family, school, work, or society
  • Executive Functioning fatigue following a number of stressors or transitions
  • When the overall load exceeds abilities + supports = burnout

But impacts of burnout can also present differently, including [7]:

  • Loss of skills
  • Loss of interest in dedicated interest areas
  • Emotional regulation issues
  • Added anxiety and depression

A study by Dr Dora Rainmaker at Portland State University[11], involved interviews with autistic adults. Whilst her studies have been in the autistic population, the sentiment aligns with other neurodivergent communities. Findings included:

 “… struggling with independent living, loss of self-belief, and being frightened that the loss of skills from the autistic burnout might be permanent.”

Dr. Dora Rainmaker

The results also pointed to a “lack of empathy from neurotypical people, who had difficulty understanding or relating to the autistic person’s experiences.”

What can we do about it?

Policy

On a policy level, it may be good to know that groups such as the Black Dog Institute are campaigning for workplace reform through methods such as their White Paper[9]. Actions your organisation can take include:

  1. Evidence-based training for managers regarding the resources available and actions they can take to recognise and respond to mental health risk factors in the workplace.
  2. Building mentally healthy workplaces.
  3. Taking immediate action on bullying, sexual harassment and assault.

Self-care

The most important way to recover is prioritising self-care as a protective measure against burnout and other mental health issues.  However self-care is often the first thing that gets sacrificed to work demands and stress.

So what is self care? 

“Self-care refers to the activities and practices that we deliberately choose to engage in on a regular basis to maintain and enhance our health and wellbeing.  Regular practices may include exercise, reading, meditation, disconnecting from technology, or talking with a friend or family member.”[10]

“When you take time for yourself to rest, reset, and rejuvenate you will actually have more energy to meet the demands of daily life as well as reduce or avoid the symptoms of mental ill-health.” 

Dr Jan Orman

But what does Neurodivergent self-care look like?

For Neurodivergent folk there are a few ways to recover in addition (or instead of) neurotypical burnout recovery.  In fact it’s worth noting that many neurotypical recovery techniques and interventions can be ineffective or even more overwhelming. Social support can add to overload, and even mindfulness may need a special touch as described by Sue Hutton[14].  

Neurodivergent affirming recovery methods can include [8, 11, 12]:

  • Deliberate reining back of tasks and responsibilities
  • Prioritising rest, recognising the necessity of healing, and equitable productivity
  • Careful unmasking where appropriate
  • Slow refocus on areas of interest and energy giving environments like nature
  • Outsource executive functioning tasks
  • Attending to sensory needs

Self-care Strategy

Prevention of burnout comes with increased awareness of needs and accommodation for those by workplaces, family and community.  Clear boundaries and formal supports are also key to keeping the overload at bay.

The Black Dog institute has a comprehensive self care template designed so that you can craft a personal self-care strategy that works for you. It will guide you through the 4 steps of self-care planning:

Step 1 | Evaluate your coping skills

Step 2 | Identify your daily self-care needs

Step 3 | Reflect. Examine. Replace.

Step 4 | Create your self-care plan

You can download a copy HERE [10]

Follow up

If you are feeling burnout, run down or depression it’s worth talking to a mental health professional starting with your doctor.  But if you are feeling that that’s a big first step try reaching out to the people around you and in your communities. Talking can help and it can make that journey more manageable by taking it one step at a time.

Go well!

PS– what to learn more? Check out this upcoming workshop on Autistic Burnout:

__

Resources

  1. Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases World Health Organization (May, 2019)
  2. Experiencing burnout? Here’s what to do about it BlackDog Institute (Feb, 2023)
    1. Burnout diagnosis one step closer with new clinical checklist and predictor of which personalities are most at risk BlackDog Institute (Jul, 2021)
  3. The Cost of Workplace Stress in Australia Medibank (Aug, 2008)
  4. Importance of self-care planning | Black Dog Institute 
  5. Autistic burnout, explained https://doi.org/10.53053/BPZP2355 Spectrum News (Mar, 2020)
  6. Autism and ADHD Burnout Recovery — Insights of a Neurodivergent Clinician Dr Neff, Neurodivergent insights (Jun, 2022)
  7. “Having All of Your Internal Resources Exhausted Beyond Measure and Being Left with No Clean-Up Crew”: Defining Autistic Burnout | Autism in Adulthood  (Raymaker et al., 2021)
  8. Navigating Autistic Burnout: Self-care strategies to recover and recalibrate – Reframing Autism Justine Field, Reframing Autism (Jan, 2023)
  9. Modern work: how changes to the way we work are impacting Australians’ mental health Black Dog Institute
  10. Importance of self-care planning Black Dog Institute
  11. CharWrites info graphics on Burnout recovery Char (Mar, 2023)
  12. Neurodivergent Dawn on ND Burnout and Recovery Neurodivergent Dawn (Jun, 2022)
  13. Understanding autistic burnout Dora Raymaker, National Autistic Society (Mar, 2022)
  14. Learning to Celebrate Neurodiversity in Mindfulness Sue Hutton (Oct, 2020)

Sat 2nd April is Autistic Appreciation Day: Highlighting Black Autistic Voices

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Hi folks,

Saturday 2nd April is World Autism Awareness Day (or what a lot of us autistic folk like to rebrand Autistic Appreciation Day). You’ve probably heard me talk a lot about what it’s like to be autistic and neurodivergent in the arts and culture space.

But it’s not time for me to talk. It’s time to clear a space for some black autistic voices. Autistic BIPOC folks in the neurodivergent community and media don’t get heard anywhere near enough.  So here are some to get you started

https://neuroclastic.com/category/culture-identity/people-of-color/black-autistic-lives-matter/

Read some, share some, learn some.

The Festive Season and Neurodiversity

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Hey lovely people,

The holidays can be rough for everyone.  And for us Neuro Distinct folx it can be difficult to explain how differently tough they can be. Routine changes, flashing lights and loud music, social pressures, crowds and fine motor control puzzles can throw a spanner into your executive function machine, at the very least.  

For me it is an exorbitantly overwhelming time that I struggle to keep just shy of whelmed. But however you want to celebrate – small, big, quiet or noisy – your way is valid. 

That might mean:

  • Taking time out from a big social scene to lie on your bed with NC headphones on and recuperate (ie: get some spoons back) 
  • Blocking out “Do Not Disturb” time to revise your plan for the next few days
  • Opening gifts the way you want to (for me it’s one piece of tape at a time) 
  • Politely stating your boundaries 
  • Getting a buddy to help you out when it gets too much (or too little) 

Here are some more exceptional tips for both neuro distinct folk and allies from the peeps at Exceptional Individuals to make the festive cheer more cheerful for all.  I’d would love to hear your thoughts and tips on making it through the holidays https://exceptionalindividuals.com/about-us/blog/neurodiversity-and-the-holiday-season/

And just so you know…

You are enough. You are appreciated.

Happy holidays all,

Heath

Heath dressed as Santa reading a shocking letter