What I’m Learning, Unlearning, and Carrying Forward - An Invitation
A transparent look at healing, neurodivergence, trauma, and the tools that help us survive a world that wasn’t built for our brains
I’m on a journey, and I’ve decided to share that journey with you all. It started, really, in May of 2025, when I took FMLA and chose to go to a residential treatment facility for my Complex PTSD and agoraphobia. And it continues to now, but I feel like I’ve made enough progress in the past 12-plus months to allow me to share what I’ve learned, how the experience has been for me, and other aspects of the journey that I hope will be helpful to you.
Generally, I designed this Substack to be a safe space for people who are living as neurodivergent people in a neurotypical world. I think that the mental health aspect becomes a huge part of it, because trying to live in and navigate a world that our brains were not made to fit in does impact our mental health.
Studies have shown people who were born neurodivergent experience rejection, bullying, microaggressions, et cetera, that can lead to Complex PTSD if they don’t have safe, understanding, supportive parents and resources available to them to help them to navigate the world as children.
Additionally, the stress and the strain of the labels that we put on ourselves and the labels that others attach to us throughout our childhood and our adulthood continue to impact our mental health as adults.
Because I am passionate about both mental health and neurodiversity, I feel it’s important that I be transparent about my journey and my experiences. However, I want to format it in a way that will be helpful to my readers, that will provide you with resources, starting points for your own research or journey, and tools to support you in your mental health journeys.
What does this look like? It looks like full transparency about my diagnoses and my experiences within those diagnoses, while understanding that my experience is different from anybody else’s experience. We’re all unique, and our experiences of trauma and ableism are different from person to person. In the same way, our experiences of various mental health diagnoses are also different from person to person because we’re each unique individuals.
This also looks like sharing with you tools that have worked for me and tools that have not worked for me, because what works for me may not work for you, and what works for you may be different from what works for me. It also looks like me being honest: if I’m sharing something that works for me now, but then a month from now I realize it’s not working any longer, I want to share that too.
You’re going to experience those times too, where something seems to be working and then all of a sudden it breaks, and that can be very discouraging and disheartening and frustrating. And I want to share that you’re not alone in those experiences. Sometimes, tools work only for a season and that’s okay.
I’ll also be sharing what I’m learning about different therapy modalities, because I know that I entered into the journey of addressing my PTSD thinking that talk therapy was the only thing available. I have since learned that there are so many different modalities that can be so incredibly helpful, and that we don’t have to lock into just one. We can work with therapists and treatment facilities to learn about multiple different modalities so that we can pick and choose what works for us as individuals.
I can’t promise the most consistent posting schedule, and I say that because I’m still navigating my own capacity as limited as it is. There are days and weeks where surviving and “just making through” is all that I have the capacity for, all that I have the energy for.
Then there are some weeks where I’m experiencing higher energy days and more hopefulness and positivity and creativity. On those weeks, I hope that I will be posting for you and sharing resources and printables and all of those types of things.
But I want to be transparent that every day, every week does not look the same for me, and there will be times when I am just unable to post. I hope that you will stick with me through it, understanding that I will be back.
If this resonates with you, I’d love for you to subscribe, stay awhile, and walk this journey with me.
You’re also welcome to share this post with someone who may need a little more understanding, language, or hope in their own mental health journey.
