So a large convo in chat ended with a bunch of people wanting a thread on this made - thread is here!

So first of all, hi!
I'm Aelin, I have:
- chronic depression
- general anxiety disorder
- ADHD :D

I'm a psychology major in university with a few AP/community college psych classes under my belt from my high school years as well - however, I'll do my best to provide source links as well so you don't have to take my word for what I say :)

This thread is dual use for providing info (please give sources with info to help guard against misinformation) and talking about your experiences; however, please try to keep it appropriate for sylestia - many topics with mental health are very triggering for a lot of people and just generally not a great public topic. Absolutely talk about stuff you experience with depression, but try to avoid *that* topic.

- if you need to talk about it feel free to pm me or anyone else who says they're OK with it, but do not post about self-harm/etc. on here please, and do not randomly pm users on this thread if they have not said it's a topic they're OK talking about :)

Also, as always - please be civil, I know mental health and neurodivergencies can be heated topics, but please don't accuse malice or attack other players. If someone's post is hateful or inappropriate, it will be reported. Sylestia's TOS also obviously applies.

Extra note: do NOT include Autism Speaks in your sources, they are considered a hate group by the vast majority of the autistic community. If this is new information to you, I am happy to pm you sources and information about that, but please do not cite them. If this is an issue for you, again, I'm happy to discuss over PM.

Post has been edited to be more ADHD reading friendly for those who need it - if you need a friendlier version for any post on here, please PM me and I will provide one :)

OK, share away my friends!

Reserved, will add info/etc. in a few minutes :)
Welp that was a lie xD - I will update this thread tomorrow I promise, and others are welcome to post as well :)

Reserved just in case :)

Thank you Graven, for giving me the courage to do this :)

Hello, my name is Amber! I'm a 19y/o college student diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. However, I am working towards getting tested for autism/talking to my therapist about it once she returns from maternity leave. I used to see a student psychologist but I never understood why. I never talked to him about this stuff either.

My mother had previously asked about testing for autism when I was first diagnosed with anxiety, but it was declined since my more drastic symptoms did not appear until my freshman year of high school and I had done well in school before then. However, I am hearing this is the case for many, so I think it is worthwhile for me to bring it up again, due to other reasons as well. My mother also mentioned I was very repetitive as a child, but I have no memory of this. My memory of childhood is spotty in general regardless.

I have some issues that are not helped by my medication, or habits that medication obviously won't solve.

I still require a "security object", which in my case is a pink baby's blanket. I've had one for as long as I remember, if it wears out, I get a new one. I have trouble sleeping without it, and when I am in a state of high anxiety I press my face into it or fidget with it. I consider myself very lucky that my dorm roommate has ADHD and is also an Education major who understands and doesn't consider it odd!

I also have both issues with various auditory and visual sensory triggers. (apologies if that is phrased weird, I don't know how else to describe it?)

I do know that some auditory triggers (mostly noise level) are directly caused by anxiety and are something I have been working on throughout the years. However, prolonged loud noise can still put me on edge. Another part of this is another thing that's hard for me to explain. Like, multiple noise channels at once trigger anxiety and make me feel like "shutting down". For example if both a T.V. and a video on a laptop are playing at the same time. I can usually handle multiple conversations going on around me unless something has triggered my anxiety beforehand. I don't know how much sense that paragraph made.
Other specific auditory triggers I've been able to identify are high pitched dog barks, babies crying or screaming, and chewing noises. (I know chewing noises are generally a pet peeve for some folks, but for some reason prolonged chewing noises trigger anxiety for me. No idea why or how that one could have possibly manifested, lol.)

Visually, LED lights are the devil. That is all.

I don't know if this directly fits the definition of "hyper focus" (I don't think it does), but I will definitely majorly focus on one game for a week or two, maybe a month, then just.. drop it. This has happened a lot in my history on Sylestia even, with this being my longest stretch of being active on here (since Summer Festival, with a small break during Fall Fest for finals).

I had a hard time going into crowded places for many years, but at this point I am able to shop and order food on my own. I also have a job! (albeit custodial, so I don't have to interact with the public!) I consider myself very lucky that my mother was (and still is) such an advocate for me. Thanks to her pushing the school system, I was able to get an IED my senior year and finish on time with my class.

I found that having an animal in my life to take care of helps a lot, though aquarium keeping is growing more into a hobby! I consider one of my fish to be an ESA, since I have had him over a year now, and he interacts with me a lot. I also find it really calming to just watch him when I'm stressed. He is super wiggly and cute and he can blink!! I could gush about him all day! I also keep two betta (one stays at home, the other comes to my dorm), though one is growing old. I also have a cat, but due to her medical conditions I can't bring her to the dorm, since where I go to college is too far away from the vet in the case she had an emergency. She always comforts me if I'm dealing with stuff at home.

I am slowly working on maintaining the anxiety portion of my life, but I know there can be overlap between it and autism. My main focus is still recognizing when I'm anxious and if I can identify why.

So yea, I think I took an hour and a half to write this? I might've rambled a bit somewhere. I might add more if I can remember, sometimes there's just small quirks that pop up. I'm not used to talking about my mental conditions online, so this is very new to me. I believe in what Graven mentioned- that my experiences could help others, especially since I am looking at getting testing or reevaluated for autism. I don't know what the first step in that is, other than talking to my therapist.

It did feel really good to type all this out though. I've thought a lot about some things but never got them into words before!

So I know this thread isn't super active (and I keep saying I'll post and not doing it whups, but thought I'd throw this on here for people to see anyway.

Cw for ableism and Autism Speaks. Please give it a read - it's sad to see how mainstream a lot of ableism and misinformation is.
https://crippledscholar.com/2021/04/20/boycott-color-the-spectrum-finance-the-spectrum-instead/

Tl:dr is:
- Don't support NEXT for Autism
- Mark Rober needs to do a lot better
- Please don't support the Color the Spectrum event

thanks for sharing you two! its really uplifting to see other people struggle like i do. we're not alone!!!

i have GAD, major depression, an eating disorder, and OCD.
the OCD and Anxiety affect my life heavily, and it makes it really difficult to be like "normal" people.
I don't have too much to say on this, i just wanted to add in that i too struggle and i'm okay if people PM me to talk about their struggles.

always here for you guys. i know how it is. stay strong.

Hi its really cool how you have this thread so please can talk and support each other
I have ADHD and Dyslexia
Im not really sure what else Im meant to share

My name is Sylb :) I've been diagnosed with ASD, Social Anxiety and I am in the process of getting a proper assessment and diagnosis for BDD

I really like this thread, I'm Mike and have ADD and Social Anxiety, I know ADD isn't the same as ADHD but its relatively similar so ye, I don't really know what else to put here so, hi. Have a good day :D