Does this sound like you? This phrase keeps running around in my head: Hyper-Vigilant Perfectionist Mind-Reading Empath It isn’t complete, but it broadly sums up fifteen years of therapy. It describes me, my childhood, and my healing struggle. And I wonder if it describes others as well. That’s the point…
Tag: brain
Hitting the Pause Button to Deliver Our Boat
I want to let y’all know what is going on in my life. There will be a pause in my articles, podcast, and videos until at least August. For the next two weeks or so I will be delivering our boat from the BVI to the USA. Wait, WTaF? For…
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We Can Reach Fitness by Returning to the Optimum Condition
Have you ever sat down and thought about your values? Values are important, motivating, and provide guidance. I’ve done a lot of values work in therapy and find it challenging. I value many things, but prioritizing the top five to ten is difficult and dynamic. One thing I have learned during…
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What This Neurodivergent Dude Gained From Therapy
What is your experience with therapy? Have you tried it? Wanted to try it? Hesitant to try it? Overwhelmed? Did you have a bad experience? Recently I have noticed some neurodivergent people have had negative experiences with therapy. Here I want to clarify my own story about how both therapy…
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An Autism Self-Diagnosis May Be Helpful
Have you ever felt like the only person who didn’t receive a ‘How to Live Life’ handbook? Did you think everyone else understood what was going on except you? I’ve felt like that my whole life. And it isn’t that I don’t like myself. I love myself. Everything breaks down…
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The Mind is a Splendid Thing
Have you ever thought about how complex our brains are? Or about how little we seem to really know about the way we think? Like, how can we simultaneously love our family but also they annoy us to no end? I think this dissonance, this capacity to hold to two seemingly oppositional…
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What Do You Do When Autism Feels Better than Therapy?
My raw, early stages of self-diagnosis Photo by Uday Mittal on Unsplash Do you know someone who is autistic? Do you picture someone like Rain Man? Or someone like me? I’m Chris. I’m a smart, smiley, eye-contact-making, happily married father of four. Do I seem autistic? The answer is no. I don’t think…
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You Don’t Need My Permission to Live
Do you ever feel like what you want to do goes against what society ‘wants’ you to do? Like, maybe you want to be a painter, but your parents and your school tell you that you’ll never make any money. Maybe you want to take a gap year after high…
Using Common Sense to Win at Life
Do you remember common sense? That people just kinda know stuff. What’s right and what’s wrong. Do you remember Common Sense? The document by Thomas Paine that was a precursor to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution? The first thing is something we think everybody we agree with has,…
What Freedom Means to Me
The fourth of July makes me ashamed. I’m ashamed of myself because I can’t seem to match the patriotism that surrounds me. In the USA, people get almost spiritual about their fireworks, hot dogs, and freedom worship. Behind all of this, for me, is a whole lot of weirdness. The…