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7 Signs You’re the Neurodivergent Friend Who Holds It All Together
You’re the emergency contact for people who have actual families. Weird flex, but okay. Let me guess. You’re reading this while simultaneously answering seventeen text messages, mentally cataloging which friend needs what kind of support, and wondering why your brain decided that 2 AM was the perfect time to reorganize your entire approach to human relationships. Welcome to the club nobody asked to join: Neurodivergent Emotional Switzerland. Population: you, and a handful of other beautiful disasters who somehow became the friend equivalent of emotional duct tape. A dear friend of mine calls us Emotional Support Humans. 1. You Remember Everything (Except Your Own Needs) Your brain is like a chaotic…
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Dopamine Dressing for Neurodivergent Souls: Permission to Dress
It’s 7:23 AM, and you’re standing in front of your closet wearing nothing but yesterday’s exhaustion and the familiar weight of having to choose an outfit that won’t betray you by lunchtime. The sweater that looked soft in the store now feels like wearing steel wool. The jeans that fit perfectly last week suddenly have seams that scrape against your skin like tiny accusations. You reach for the same hoodie you’ve worn three days this week—the one that feels like being held—and then pause, hand suspended mid-air. What will people think? Here’s what I want you to know: your brain isn’t broken for needing clothes that feel like safety instead…
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Permission to Take a Break
There’s something deeply ironic about launching a blog called Gentle Nook… and then immediately sprinting like I’m training for the Gentle Olympics. Hi, it’s me! Your friendly neighborhood former therapist, the one who preaches gentle living while simultaneously staying up until 3am, forgetting to eat, and running almost entirely on Coke Zero, cheese and granola bars. Classic. And it’s not just been this week. The last few months were eaten alive by the technical nightmare that was my old site, Ofglow. When Technology Becomes the Enemy When I first bought that domain, I pictured this serene, well-lit corner of the internet. Instead, I got something closer to a digital haunted…
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Permission Slips for Self-Care: Your Gentle Rebellion
Hey there, beautiful soul. Can I tell you something? For most of my life, I lived in a world of invisible rules that nobody had actually written down. Rules like “don’t take up too much space,” “say yes even when you’re exhausted,” and “your needs come last.” Sound familiar? After my autism diagnosis in my thirties, so much clicked into place. All those years of feeling like I was failing at being human? Turns out I was just trying to follow a rulebook that was never meant for brains like mine. And maybe, just maybe, it’s not meant for brains like yours either. That’s where Permission Slips for self-care came…
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From Burning Out to Breaking Free: Why I Created Gentle Nook
There’s a moment when everything breaks. Except for me, it wasn’t really a moment. It was a slow undoing that unfolded over months in a fluorescent-lit office, staring at case files while my capacity quietly dissolved. I couldn’t concentrate. My executive functioning had vanished. All I could manage was going to work and coming home. That’s all the energy I had left. Then my psoriasis flared worse than it ever had, angry red patches spreading across my skin like a map of my stress. The inflammation triggered psoriatic arthritis, and suddenly my joints were screaming along with my mind. I was 37, a therapist, a single mother. And I was…
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How to Stick to a Skincare Routine When You Struggle with Executive Dysfunction
Sticking to a skincare routine can be tough in the best of circumstances. Throw in executive dysfunction—when your brain decides that starting, organizing, or even thinking about a task is equivalent to climbing Mount Everest barefoot—and suddenly, your three-step skincare plan feels like a NASA-level mission. If that sounds familiar, welcome. Grab a seat (or lie down, because comfort is key), and let’s talk about how to make skincare work for you—not against you. Why It’s Hard (And Why That’s Okay) First, give yourself some grace. Executive dysfunction doesn’t mean you’re lazy or incapable; it just means your brain has a unique way of operating. That “I’ll do it later”…
