Autistic and neurodiverse people experience meltdowns as physical pain, not emotional weakness. Sensory triggers like a bouncing ball can cause stomach, chest, and shoulder tightness that persists all day, especially when linked to past trauma. The world isn't built for their nervous systems, and that constant hidden pain goes misunderstood.
Chapters
So the primary thing that I would tell people is that being neurodiverse in a world that not only wasn't built for us, it was built to exclude us, it's actively causing pain. And when you see an autistic person or a neurodiverse person who is Melting down or getting upset and all of these other things, it's not because they're weak emotionally, it's because the world is actively causing them pain. And in fact, they're under so much pain and stress and pressure from things that a lot of people have no idea about. Like the idea that a bouncing ball, just the sound of a bouncing ball, could cause somebody with sensory sensitivities a lot of distress. And see, our pain, and we don't really think about it like this, but when we're in stress, when our brain is sending a stress signal to our bodies, that manifests as physical pain, tightening up of our stomach muscles and our chest muscles, our shoulder muscles. And the more that we're trying to control that and be okay, let's say, you know, for example, the sound of a bouncing ball, for me, it's actually a giant trigger that's intertwined with my PTSD. Where, like, the more we're trying to just be okay with it, the more pain and pressure we feel because our brain is sending those signals to our nervous system that we're not safe. And so neurodiverse folk in this world, they're experiencing physical pain that a lot of people just really, they don't grasp that and they don't understand that. And they're managing that pain. All day, every day, from the time they get up to the time they go to bed at night, and there's
