No Praise Like Home

You know how trauma workbooks commonly offer a warning to stop, to practice self-care, and to return to a chapter at a future time if any material in it becomes too triggering? I have never paid much attention to those warnings, even during those years when my mistrust of the system was so intense that …

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Improv #16: Demotivation-in-laws

*Knock knock* “Who's there?” “Demotivation-in-laws” “Demotivational who?” *Slowly* “No, Demotivation-in-laws” “Oh, Then, I guess I heard you correctly the first time. I was just kind of hoping I was wrong…” “Surprise! We are here to support you!” *Slams door in faces* Things to know about rejection sensitivity in ADHD: 1) We’re sensitive to both real …

Coat in the Act

Some people are aware of everything, including their clothes, to the point that they can instantly pick out their generic solid-colored raincoat from among all others. There may be many like it, but that one is theirs. My Partner is one of these people. He's acutely aware of color shades and such minute (to me) details, …

Subway Sociology #6: I Seat Drunk People

Did I ever mention that I am an irony magnet? This is an important baseline state of reality to establish for new readers who might otherwise question how my Partner and I, specifically, ended up being the second and third of (hopefully only) three residents of a large urban city stuck explaining the intricacies of …

Written on the Prophetic Plates?

My Partner and I are going to a game night tonight hosted by someone I met through an ADHD support group. So, of course, I had a dream that the hosts kept serving me party food on real plates, and I kept progressively dropping them. I desperately tried to explain, "Please stop giving me nice things. …

Striped Girls Can Jump?

People have the strangest reactions to learning about Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. So, telling them about it when you are already socially awkward quickly becomes a study in ridiculousness. For instance, I got to have that discussion recently with my hair stylist. It ended with me jumping up onto things alongside the majority of the salon staff. …

Procrasti-Not-Us

Did you know that the term procrastination comes almost directly from the Latin procrastinatus? This is relevant because I have a new blog page on my main site that does not have a Latin title. This pains my Partner deeply. I think it pains my Partner almost as much as typing pains the hands of …

Houston, We Have a Problem

That problem is, apparently, that I sound like an astronaut communicating through a crinkly 1960s com unit from the Moon - while my space suit springs a slow leak and I rapidly lose oxygen. Did I ever mention that social anxiety makes absolutely no sense? I may be a bit underconfident when I perform on stage, …

Improv #9: In-city-cure attachment

I've lived in a lot of places in my life. Enough that I've only ever stayed put long enough in my adult life to be called for jury duty once, during graduate school. I've lived on both coasts and in the middle. I've lived in cities I'd go back to in a heartbeat if a …

Improv* #6: A Meetup Group with Social Anxiety Tries to Walk into a Bar…

...The bartender says, "We don't serve folks with social anxiety here." The groups shrugs their shoulders and replies, 'Well, if that diagnosis doesn't work, how about depression, PTSD or ADHD? We've got a few options for what to call ourselves...' The bartender shrugs, "One of those ought to count. Come on in." You probably thought …