Louise's model really resonated with me personally as well. In fact, I think things can be even worse than it suggests.
'Lack of self-care' is true but something of an understatement; often I slip into self-destruction with addictive behaviours piling onto the lack of productivity.
Maybe there should be another spiralling arrow at the top right, towards 'Addiction & Numbing'?! Feels like a different outcome to Burn Out, or maybe two sides of same coin.
The journey down the spiral and what we find at the bottom is going to look different for all of us depending on our own context (internal and external). When I work with this model with clients the emphasis is always on exploring what is helpful or harmful to them, because there is no one size fits all. Addiction and numbing are definitely parts of many peoples journeys and in the depths of burnout thing can get very dark for lots of people.
Personally I would include addiction and numbing as part of the lack of self-care and often connected to the lack of self-worth, but the model is made to be flexible, so that it can be adapted to a whole range of human experiences. Feel free to substitute the words that work for you 😊
Thank you for sharing this, I have several friends with autistic children and will be sure to share the link with them. Your daughter is so brave for sharing her story, please thank her too! x
Thank you for sharing your experiences! I think it is so important to really understand the complexities of autism - when I was at university I learned about the "Mindblindness" theory of Simon Baron-Cohen, but I think that now fails to cover the breadth of people's experience of ASD.
I am amazed just how many people are neurodiverse - in recent years, I have worked for individuals with both autism and ADHD, and studied under a fantastic course lead on my MA who was autistic. It's great that people have access to diagnosis and support (although the waiting lists are a real problem) - it breaks my heart to think of children (or adults) in previous generations who might just have been labelled "naughty", "lazy" or worse, and never had the support that could help them.
Particular thanks to Megan for sharing her experiences. Coincidentally, our daughter (an actor) played a 11 year old autistic girl on an episode of BBC Doctors last year - we learned a lot doing that, and hope it can be part of the broader push to understand and accept this important condition.
Thanks for your comment James. Deri is reading Baron-Cohen's 'Pattern Seekers' at the moment and he got me to do the brain-type test he has in that (which I understand was originally developed as a test for Asperger's). I was really struck by how 'male' his questions on the systematising brain were. I scored very low - due to my lack of interest in train networks and aerodynamics - but I do systematise quite naturally when it comes to organising our house and life, and in the way I approach work. Regardless, it's not the case that high systematising always correlates with autism in the way we understand it today. Megan is highly empathic and probably the least prone to systematising of all our kids.
I think the term 'neurotypical' may come to be a misnomer. I hope so. And I hope we come to find more words to better describe the diversity of human brains that occur naturally and happily within our world. I wonder that part of the struggle with understanding 'autism' is that it is too broad an umbrella to sit so many different people under.
That's amazing about your daughter! We'd love to watch it. Maybe you could share the episode details with Deri?
I completely agree! The range of diversity encompassed by ASD seems to be very broad - a better vocabulary would be very helpful. Will send Deri the details of the episode.
Hi Megan and Jo, my niece is 14 and is on the waiting list to be assessed, you have both beautifully described your experiences, it sounds like you have some great strategies in place and I will send her this to read. Thank you for sharing.
So proud of her for writing about her experiences like this 😍
Louise's model really resonated with me personally as well. In fact, I think things can be even worse than it suggests.
'Lack of self-care' is true but something of an understatement; often I slip into self-destruction with addictive behaviours piling onto the lack of productivity.
Maybe there should be another spiralling arrow at the top right, towards 'Addiction & Numbing'?! Feels like a different outcome to Burn Out, or maybe two sides of same coin.
I'm glad my model resonated with you Deri 🙏
The journey down the spiral and what we find at the bottom is going to look different for all of us depending on our own context (internal and external). When I work with this model with clients the emphasis is always on exploring what is helpful or harmful to them, because there is no one size fits all. Addiction and numbing are definitely parts of many peoples journeys and in the depths of burnout thing can get very dark for lots of people.
Personally I would include addiction and numbing as part of the lack of self-care and often connected to the lack of self-worth, but the model is made to be flexible, so that it can be adapted to a whole range of human experiences. Feel free to substitute the words that work for you 😊
Thank you for sharing this, I have several friends with autistic children and will be sure to share the link with them. Your daughter is so brave for sharing her story, please thank her too! x
Thank you Belinda. She said she wanted to share her experiences as it might help somebody else, so she will be really pleased to read your comment.
Thank you for sharing your experiences! I think it is so important to really understand the complexities of autism - when I was at university I learned about the "Mindblindness" theory of Simon Baron-Cohen, but I think that now fails to cover the breadth of people's experience of ASD.
I am amazed just how many people are neurodiverse - in recent years, I have worked for individuals with both autism and ADHD, and studied under a fantastic course lead on my MA who was autistic. It's great that people have access to diagnosis and support (although the waiting lists are a real problem) - it breaks my heart to think of children (or adults) in previous generations who might just have been labelled "naughty", "lazy" or worse, and never had the support that could help them.
Particular thanks to Megan for sharing her experiences. Coincidentally, our daughter (an actor) played a 11 year old autistic girl on an episode of BBC Doctors last year - we learned a lot doing that, and hope it can be part of the broader push to understand and accept this important condition.
Thanks for your comment James. Deri is reading Baron-Cohen's 'Pattern Seekers' at the moment and he got me to do the brain-type test he has in that (which I understand was originally developed as a test for Asperger's). I was really struck by how 'male' his questions on the systematising brain were. I scored very low - due to my lack of interest in train networks and aerodynamics - but I do systematise quite naturally when it comes to organising our house and life, and in the way I approach work. Regardless, it's not the case that high systematising always correlates with autism in the way we understand it today. Megan is highly empathic and probably the least prone to systematising of all our kids.
I think the term 'neurotypical' may come to be a misnomer. I hope so. And I hope we come to find more words to better describe the diversity of human brains that occur naturally and happily within our world. I wonder that part of the struggle with understanding 'autism' is that it is too broad an umbrella to sit so many different people under.
That's amazing about your daughter! We'd love to watch it. Maybe you could share the episode details with Deri?
I completely agree! The range of diversity encompassed by ASD seems to be very broad - a better vocabulary would be very helpful. Will send Deri the details of the episode.
Hi Megan and Jo, my niece is 14 and is on the waiting list to be assessed, you have both beautifully described your experiences, it sounds like you have some great strategies in place and I will send her this to read. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Em, I appreciate your comment and wish your niece all the best with her journey. In case of interest, we have written another article since this one too: https://open.substack.com/pub/womaningwisely/p/beyond-the-classroom-understanding