Being wired differently can be hard, but also be cool if you embrace it.
Hi, my name is Martin, I'm 30 years old and live in Denmark. I'm autistic, and I also have AD/HD and Tourette's syndrome. Being autistic I've always felt very different from most people, and I always struggled a lot to connect or socialize with others. I got diagnosed at a psychiatric hospital school and then put in special-ed for autistic people at around age 11. For a long time, I struggled a lot and rejected my diagnosis because I really wanted to fit in and be "normal". I became very good at masking (hiding my neurodiverse traits), but it was often really draining to pass for "normal" on the outside... Not being open about my disability to myself or others made things even more difficult, and it resulted in me getting depression and feeling alienated from myself. I've learned a lot about neurodiversity over the years, and after embracing my own neurodiversity, life has gotten a lot easier for me. By working with it instead of fighting it, I've found myself and got a lot of support. I also found an awesome job that not only accommodates my needs but also uses my neurodiverse traits as an advantage. Some of my good ADHD and autistic traits would consist of Recognizing certain visual and auditory patterns, but also stuff like hyperfocus, thinking out of the box, and being creative. I take the good with the bad, and I have no doubt that I have some useful skills because I'm different from other people. Today I'm very proud to say that I'm on the autism spectrum, and I've been featured in documentaries and on TV where I try to advocate for other people with disabilities. I also have a blog on Instagram called A_Different_Spectrum, where I try to spread awareness and insight into what it's like to be wired differently.
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