Neurodiverse folks, would you disclose your neurodiversity in a job interview? What are your experiences with either approach?

I am autistic but still in the process of getting a final diagnosis (I have one from a psychologist but not from a specialist for autism yet.) In a few days I am going to send an application for an office position that sounded nice to me and where I had the chance to talk to their recruiter about on a job fair. I really hope this works out.

However, I am still struggling with the question if I should disclose my autism in a possible job interview. I am on that part of the spectrum that is/was classified as Asperger and can mask okay (from what I know), and imo it would be rather a help than a hinderence in doing the job from what I could tell. But it's also the main reason why I could only work part time and the job offer is likely going to be a full time thing.

So if I mention that part time would work better for me, they're going to ask why and need a good reason. After all it means hiring another person for the other half of the day. And I feel really uncomfortable with lying and being uncomfortable or evading the question is a thing recruiters might spot. That's part of *their* job. So now I don't know.

For context, I am in Germany and there is no legal requirement to disclose any disability unless it actively contradicts Doing The Thing. The company also says they welcome a diverse team and don't discriminate based on heritage, disabilities etc. but ofc that might just be talk. (Companies also have to pay a fine if they don't have a certain number of officially disabled people employed but many companies rather pay that than actually hiring anyone. And even with diagnosis there's still a lot of bureaucracy inbetween diagnosis and getting the paperwork for me to count as disabled employee on a legal level.)

So this question is not about legal obligations but at judging how a possibly neurotypical recruiter would react when hearing I am autistic. If they see it as a positive thing or at least don't mind or if they trash my application the minute I am out if their door...?

#Autism #Neurodivergent #ADHD #JobHunt #Asperger #Recruitment

Neurodivergent people, what alternative ways have you found to regulate/heal your nervous system?

I'm curious about ways you don't typically find on lists (such as deep breathing, traditional meditation, traditional yoga, therapy, or social time).

For me, I've found some help with yoga nidra, looking around to tell my brain I'm safe, havening (link about that below), or humming a gentle tune.

https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/the-simplest-anxiety-soothing-technique-youve-never-heard-of/

But maybe people have discovered other techniques that help them?

Or maybe you have a particular success journey you'd like to share?

#Neurodivergent #ActuallyAutistic #AdHD #Gifted

Share a strategy (any kind) you use to calm yourself down when you are catastrophizing, and why you think it works for you.

#MentalHealth #AuDHD #ADHD #ActuallyAutistic @autistics #ChronicIllness #Disability #AskFedi #Boost4Reach #ChronicPain

To answer my own question, TAKE MY DAMN ADHD MEDS. I'm resisting a treatment that works because... I don't know... bad reasons. The irony being that I'm worrying about becoming dependent on a medication that... helps me not catastrophize.

If you wanted to share about your own experience learning to accept taking medication that actually helped you, I'm all ears. <3 #MentalHealth #ADHD #AuDHD @Autistics

I wanted to play FF14 in it's original version before playing the remake version. The former's retro feel helps lessen the sensory overload when going through the world, story and combat.
So far the game is getting good :)

#actuallyautistic #adhd #gaming

ADHD drugs may boost arousal more than attention : Drugs like Adderall and Ritalin appear to help children with ADHD by activating brain areas involved in alertness and motivation.

Drugs like Adderall and Ritalin appear to help children with ADHD...

Archive: ia: https://s.faithcollapsing.com/7e1up
https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/12/27/nx-s1-5658291/adhd-adderall-ritalin-mechanism#research #neurodivergence #adhd #medication

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An image pulled automatically from the post for decorative purposes only.

So, my Christmas present. A diagnosis that I have #Autism - I've already had an #ADHD diagnosis and my counselor had suspected that I was both ( #AuDHD ) based on her research. What a year it's been. I'm now waiting for the e-mail report with all the details on it so I can see what's what, what help I can get but it explains so much of who I am and how I act and react. It's refreshing ....

@rl_dane @slembcke

When I ran #Windows, I had a decent #GPU (the extreme majority was gaming but also to drive multiple displays) but when I moved to #Linux honestly I was content with the integrated GPU or using an old one with the open source driver.

Only on two occasions did I take the time to install the proprietary one.

Now, my main Linux machine is a laptop with a docking station so multiple displays configuration is easy peasy. But I moved in the mid-2000s when Windows didn't offer the multiple workspaces.

My #ADHD isn't bad enough that I need eye candy on my desktop or transparent terminals

When you have the autistic ability to spot patterns and connect dots, creating a big picture scenario, but you also have ADHD, RSD, and a fear of perception running interference and making it difficult to ever get these ideas into a coherent form for others to read and digest. I’ve learned there’s a hack for this- the executive dysfunction in your brain can be improved by leveraging AI as a tool to help mirror back your thoughts to you in an untangled way, and it can help you step by step in writing in YOUR OWN words so your ideas can reach others - a task which can otherwise seem impossible. #autism #adhd #audhd #aipositive #RSD

I did a poll here for a week. 141 people responded. I was interested in #mastodon users' preferred categorization of the term "neurodiverse." The results generally confirmed my a priori predictions but had some surprises. Some takeaways for me, right now:

• Autism was in a tie for top position, unsurprising as, in my experience, autism was the first condition to be labeled "neurodiverse" or "neuroatypical", and is, I suspect, something of a prototype for the category.
• ADHD was tied (given the sample) with autism. I was mildly surprised. I think a few years ago this would not have been the case; ADHD awareness, activism, and acceptance have increased dramatically over the past few years.
• Schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and #bipolar disorders were the next group. The inclusion of anxiety disorders surprised me; I suspected it would be tied with depression disorders.
• Personality disorders being endorsed at the same rate as depression and intellectual disability was a mild surprise.
• Psychopathy being tied with depression and intellectual disability was a pretty big surprise for me. This poll was largely about opinions and preferences, so stigma is (IMO) a big part of it. "Being a psychohpath" seems to be less stigmatized (in a specific way) than I thought... it's also possible the results would change if I'd used the word "psychopath" instead of "psychopathy."
• Intellectual disabiity (until pretty recently labeled "mental retardation" but, you know, the euphemism treadmill) was a wild card for me; I didn't know where it would end up. I would like to do a different survey sometime, with a different response format, so I could see the variability in responses. I suspect this condition (and a few others) would result in a lot of variability.
• Pedophilia was of particular interest to me. The results confirmed my strong a priori hypothesis, and this (plus psychopathy) was a major reason for wording the poll as I did, prompoting for preferences instead of a more objective assessment of the research-based fitness of each condition for the "neurodiverse" category.

More about #pedophilia: a nice, big mountain of research strongly suggests that it is a condition of altered brain development; in fact, it is probably a sexual orientation. A better survey than this simple poll might assess participants' understanding of pedophilia in addition to the question I did ask. I suspect many people confuse pedophilia with child molestation/abuse (nb: pedophilia is a pattern of attraction, not a set of behaviors, though many pedophiles have also abused children).

Both the left and right political meta-groups in the USA have latched onto "pedophile" as a label for child molestation--usually of post-pubescent children, where pedophilia is very specifically a pattern of attraction to prepubescent children. There was flirtation during Trump's first term with the more correct(ish) labels "hebephilia" and "ephebephilia", but I think the need for a stronger, more dehumanizing label won in the end, and "pedophile" packs a bigger cultural/emotional punch than "child molester."

Anyway, thanks to everyone who participated. This is fascinating enough for me that I might even do a real survey sometime. If I can get my dean to stop giving me extra classes for calling him out on his anti-labor nonsense.

Notes:

1. I phrased the question as *Which of the following conditions do you personally think should be included under the #neurodiversity umbrella? * instead of asking which conditions would be classified as neurodiverse, etc. for reasons noted above.
2. I chose "neurodiverse" instead of "neuroatypical", believing that the latter would produce more restricted categorization.
3. This is not (I hope) research according to federal definitions. It's a demonstration of a concept and I won't be trying to disseminate these results in scientific journals or at science conferences.

#neurodiverse #neuroatypical #poll #adhd #autism #schizophrenia #anxiety #bipolar #PersonalityDisorder #psychopathy #depression #IntellectualDisability

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This is a graph, so it is difficult to summarize. The main findings are noted in the post, and here are the data as (I hope) a readable table. The first numerical column is the percentage of respondents who endorsed the condition in that row. The next two numerical columns are the lower and upper limits of the 95% confidence interval for that value. condition Percent I_lower CI_upper --------------------------------------------------- Pedophilia 3.7 0.6 6.8 Intellectual_Disability 40.7 32.6 48.8 Depression 40.7 32.6 48.8 Psychopath 40.7 32.6 48.8 Personality_Disorders 44.4 36.2 52.6 Bipolar_Disorders 51.9 43.7 60.1 Anxiety 55.6 47.4 63.8 Schizophrenia_Psychosis 55.6 47.4 63.8 Autism 92.6 88.3 96.9 ADHD 96.3 93.2 99.4

as someone with #ADHD I’m very resistant to the idea of “turning over a new leaf” or “starting something new” with the new year. People with ADHD do this sort of stuff *all the time* (not just on the new year) and it rarely if ever sticks

I’ve found the best thing I can do for myself to get something to stick is to figure out how to make it automatic, part of a routine. And even then, routines are fragile! I can have a routine I’ve been doing solidly for *years* broken by traveling for a few days

If what I’ve written above speaks to you, I invite you to follow my new year’s path not of starting something new, but of figuruing out how to strengthen and reinforce your routines, how to *keep doing* something that isn’t entirely automatic for you yet and make it more so

*Baywatch title music intensifies*
#adhd #adhdmeme #adhs #tdah

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A social media post from the account "@adhdoers": "ADHD people staring at the consequences of ignoring one tiny task for three weeks". Below the text is an image of a person standing on a sandy beach, facing a large, curling ocean wave. The person wears a white cap and a light-colored dress, with hands on their hips. The wave is blue-green with white foam, and the beach has shallow water at the shore.

I don't currently have the attention span to fix the #CSS on my website but at least I got my #Mastodon #verification done. When you have #ADHD and struggle with #ExecutiveDysfunction, sometimes adding a few letters into a bit of #HTML is really a feat worth being proud of.

Website update: none, yet. My #ADHD is refusing to cooperate on that front. It insists I focus on #TTRPG nerdery and my latest attempt at finally beating #BaldursGate3 instead.

I need some autistic adult insight—particularly if you have adhd/autism and also have OCD.
Where do you find sensory/support needs end and OCD thoughts/compulsions begin? Seems really tricky to sort out.

For example, some cute hand motions a child I support was using looked like stimming, but it turned out to be a symmetry thing. Then some mouthing turned out to be a contamination ritual. This child could tell me which is how I learned after asking the right questions.

#autism #adhd #ocd