Alle afleveringen
34 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Ep34: AuDHD Experience — Self-Concept and it's Influence on Autistic, AuDHD & ADHD Experience
13 oktober 2026 · 18 min
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🎙️ Episode 34: AuDHD (& Human) Experience — Self-Concept & It's Influence on Autistic, AuDHD & ADHD Experience
"Am I actually broken? Or do I just have these lessons that I've learnt that have informed my understanding of myself?"
Summary:
This week Aaron unpacks self-concept: what it is, how we develop it as neurodivergent people, and how we can deliberately change it to improve our emotional experience. Building on the working model of emotions from the previous episode, he frames self-concept as our integrated understanding of who and what we are, woven together from core beliefs and spanning every domain that matters to us: relationships, learning, work, family, and social life.Aaron explains that every single experience teaches us something about ourselves, and shares personal examples of how failure experiences shaped his own self-concept: failing year twelve twice, mixed performance in the Navy, and believing he was "academically stupid" until nearly 40, when a colleague encouraged him to study psychology. He contrasts this with the success experiences since, which have reshaped his understanding of himself as a learner once he found the right environment and the right anchors for his attention.
He then turns to the neurodivergent experience under a deficit-based model, where "normal" is implicitly assumed to be "right" and difference is repeatedly fed back to us as vague, impulsive, too much, or not enough. These implicit lessons create a self-fulfilling loop: expecting social situations to go badly, becoming anxious, performing worse, and reinforcing the belief. Aaron closes with two practical pathways for change: deliberately collecting new success experiences through scaffolded, CBT-style exposure, and finding community, where comparing ourselves against a realistic norm teaches us that we are not wrong, deficient, or broken. He cautions against the "superpower" framing just as much as the deficit framing, landing on a balanced vie…
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Ep33: AuDHD Experience — Disclosure and Self-Advocacy for AuDHDers, ADHDers and Autistic Folk.
6 oktober 2026 · 26 min
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🎙️ Episode 33: AuDHD Experience — Disclosure and Self-Advocacy
"Disclose where it serves you, and only where you feel safe doing so. People are not entitled to our information."
Summary:
Should I tell people I'm neurodivergent, and how do I advocate for what I need? This week Aaron reframes disclosure as something almost everyone gets wrong: it isn't a one-off announcement but a repeated, context-specific process that happens across settings and across a lifetime. Borrowing the queer community's language of "inviting people in," he explains why partial disclosure is the norm, not a failure, and why the decision always comes down to a personal cost-benefit analysis grounded in safety.Aaron walks through what the research tells us. In a UK study of 238 autistic adults, around 55% disclosed to some people, about a third disclosed to everyone, and roughly 10% told no one, with close to half of employees only disclosing after starting a job and outcomes split between positive and negative experiences. He contrasts this with the only experience-sampling study of disclosure as it happens, where about two-thirds of opportunities led to some disclosure and three-quarters of those were experienced positively, and he lingers on one participant's line: "I don't have the spoons to disclose and self-advocate in this context right now."
From there, Aaron turns to accommodations. In Australia you don't have to name a diagnosis to a workplace; you can describe your difficulties and ask for reasonable adjustments, and employers have both a legal and a moral obligation to provide them where they don't cause undue hardship. Speaking as both a clinician and a small-practice owner, he explains what an employer needs to know to act, acknowledges that accommodations are often only partially met or not met at all, and closes with a practical self-reflection framework: identify the environment, the differences that matter in it, their impact, the accommodation that wo…
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Ep 32: AuDHD Experience - Understanding Emotions - A Conceptual Working Model
2 september 2026 · 24 min
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🎙️ Episode 31: AuDHD Experience — A Working Model of Emotions
"Emotions are our integrated experience of our body's response to our understanding of ourselves in our context."
Summary:
This week Aaron shares a working model for understanding emotions, developed with alexithymia and interoceptive differences in the neurodivergent community in mind. He defines emotion as combining cognitive appraisal (our understanding of self and context) with the body's physiological response, drawing on Darwin's survival-of-the-fittest framework extended to a "survive then thrive" lens.Aaron distinguishes challenge from threat, then walks through the activated spectrum of emotions using a real-world example from his own neighbourhood, St Kilda: fight (anger), flight (fear/anxiety), freeze, and fawn, explaining the physiological and attentional shifts behind each — heart rate, digestion, muscle tension, and narrowing focus. He extends the model into flop (depression, underpinned by hopelessness) and touches on disgust as a slower-threat, memory-enhancing response distinct from the acute threat responses.
He then turns to positive and deactivated states — calm, contentment, boredom, and the activated positives of excitement, interest, curiosity, and play — showing how these emerge once safety is established and how they support learning and thriving rather than mere survival. Aaron closes with practical questions listeners can use to identify their own emotions when interoception is limited, such as noticing expectations, direction of movement (towards or away), activation level, and sense of agency.
Key Themes & Takeaways:
Emotion as appraisal plus body response – emotions reflect both our understanding of self-in-context and our body's activation (or non-activation) in response
Challenge vs threat – the same event can trigger different emotions depending on our perceived resources relative to the demand
The activated spectrum – fight, flight, freeze, and…
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Ep 31: Neurodivergent Experience - Male/Female Vs Internalising/Externalising Presentations & Late Diagnosis
23 augustus 2026 · 16 min
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🎙️ Episode 31: Neurodivergent Experience - Male/Female Vs Internalising/Externalising Presentations & Late Diagnosis
"When we talk about male and female presentations, we're really talking about internalising and externalising presentations."
Summary:
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, clinical psychologist and AuDHDer Aaron Howearth asks why more boys and men are diagnosed with autism and ADHD than girls and women. He argues that what we call male and female presentations is better described as internalising and externalising. An internalising presentation suppresses the impulse and works hard to fit the social rules, while an externalising presentation acts on it and is visible to everyone in the room. He links that split to how we still raise sons and daughters differently, and to how diagnostic criteria are built from what clinicians and researchers could observe. Because externalising presentations are the observable ones, they are the ones encoded in slow-moving manuals like the DSM and ICD, while quieter internalising presentations are less likely to be noticed or referred on.
He then traces the cost of being missed. Internalising presentations more commonly come with anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidality, difficulties with self-esteem and self-concept, and a greater likelihood of a personality disorder diagnosis. Externalising presentations more often attract conduct diagnoses, defiance and aggression, but they also tend to bring earlier recognition and the relief of seeing yourself reflected in peers with the same label. Without that recognition, "I'm different" quietly becomes "I'm not enough". He closes on late diagnosis: masking eventually meets a threshold it cannot hold, and for many neurodivergent women that arrives at perimenopause, when falling oestrogen affects GABA, serotonin and dopamine and brain fog, inattention and sensory gating become harder to hide.
Key Themes & Takeaways
Internalising vs Externali…
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Ep 30: AuDHD Experience - Autistic Burnout & Recovery
15 augustus 2026 · 27 min
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🎙️ Episode 30: AuDHD Experience - Autistic Burnout & Recovery
"Downtime is a necessity, not a nice to have."
Summary:
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, clinical psychologist and AuDHDer Aaron Howearth takes on two questions: what is autistic or neurodivergent burnout, and what can we actually do to protect ourselves from it? He begins by being clear about where the evidence sits. Autistic burnout has been described within community since around 2008 but only reached academic publication in 2020, when Raymaker and colleagues offered a description, followed by Higgins and colleagues the year after. There is no specific research on ADHD burnout — that literature is about occupational burnout in ADHDers — and no research at all on combined AuDHD burnout, so this episode draws on the autistic burnout literature and says so plainly.
Aaron works through the characteristics the two descriptions broadly agree on: debilitating exhaustion that leaves people drained and depleted, a loss of existing skills that increases disability, and, in Higgins' description, withdrawal. He makes the skill loss concrete — heightened sensory sensitivity, more emotional difficulty, reduced cognition, memory, speech and executive function, and increased difficulty with the activities of daily living like showering, cooking, cleaning and getting to work. He also complicates the three-month timeframe commonly quoted from Raymaker and colleagues, noting that the lived experience research mostly doesn't specify a duration at all: for some people it is days, for others months or years, and some don't fully recover.
Drawing on a recent systematic review synthesising the lived experience literature, Aaron maps the consequences across three domains: adverse health and wellbeing impacts, our place within the community, and our capacity to stay hopeful about the future and about ourselves. That includes longer-lasting disability and continued fatigue, difficulty expressin…
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Ep 29: AuDHD Experience - Work, Burnout and Ableism in Autism & ADHD
26 juli 2026 · 26 min
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🎙️ Episode 29 — Work, Burnout & Ableism: Why So Many of Us Aren't Employed
Episode Summary
If we are different and not defective, why are so many of us unemployed, underemployed, or exhausted at work? In this episode, Aaron Howearth (Clinical Psychologist) works through the employment gap for neurodivergent people — and makes the case that it is structural, not a matter of effort or willingness.
We start with the numbers. Around three in ten autistic adults are employed in UK research, roughly half in Australia, and in the Netherlands the most common employment trajectory across thousands of autistic people was long-term unemployment. ADHD sits differently in the data, with productivity loss, injury, and time off carrying much of the cost. What ties it together is a person-environment mismatch — and the uncomfortable finding that most interventions still try to change the person rather than the workplace, even though environmental change is what actually shifts employment outcomes.
From there we get into burnout as a mechanism. We work through what autistic burnout actually is — chronic exhaustion, skills loss, reduced tolerance for sensory and cognitive demands, nonlinear and often long-term — how it must be differentiated from depression, anxiety, trauma responses and personality differences without excluding them, and why the withdrawal looks different (recovery, not amotivation). We are careful with masking: it is associated with burnout and likely a leading mechanism, but the causal evidence isn't there yet. We also name the thin ground honestly — ADHD burnout is a clinical and community idea without a defining study, and AuDHD burnout has almost no academic literature at all.
Then we turn upstream to ableism: the assumption that able-bodied and typical means right, normal, and appropriate, and that anything else is deficient. That shows up bluntly (employers who say they would not hire an autistic person under any circumstances) and sub…
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Ep 28: Understanding Neurodivergence - Relationships, Friendships and Intimacy in AuDHD, ADHD and Autism
16 juli 2026 · 20 min
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🎙️ Ep 28 — Relationships: Friendship, Loneliness & Intimacy Across Neurotypes
"It's not meeting my needs. It's not meeting your needs. It's meeting our needs in the best balance for us"
⚠️ Content note: this episode includes brief discussion of trauma, including sexual trauma.
If we're different and not defective, why do so many of us find relationships hard? In this episode, Aaron Howearth (Clinical Psychologist) sits with that question and works through friendship, loneliness, and intimacy across neurotypes — not as evidence of a deficit inside us, but as something that lives in the space between us and the people we're trying to connect with.
We start with what the research bears out: on average, autistic people report being lonelier and having fewer, lower-quality friendships — though this varies enormously from person to person, and many of us genuinely prefer smaller, higher-quality networks. From there we get into the double empathy problem: the idea that communication difficulties aren't a one-sided skills deficit, but a two-way mismatch, like speaking the same language in a slightly different dialect. When neurotype-matched pairs communicate, that difficulty largely disappears — which tells us it's a language barrier, not a broken person. We look at why community is protective, why masking costs us, and why the evidence is stronger for autism than ADHD, with only grey-literature hints that double empathy extends to ADHD too.
We then turn to intimacy across neurotypes — comparable desire for connection, but real barriers around sensory sensitivity, communication style, and a statistically higher likelihood of trauma. Finally, we bring in Gottman's work on partner responsiveness (turning towards vs turning away) and a warm-hug framing of attachment styles, landing on the most practical lever of all: understanding how you and your partner work, and meeting needs in the balance that's right for your context.
In This Episode (Chapters)
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Ep 27: AuDHD Experience - Therapy Adaptations for Neurodivergent Folk (AuDHD, ADHD & Autism) — What's the Point?
12 juli 2026 · 27 min
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🎙️ Ep 27: AuDHD Experience - Therapy Adaptations for Neurodivergent Folk (AuDHD, ADHD & Autism) — What's the Point?
"Barriers aren't a 'you' problem — they're an 'us' problem to manage together."
Hi friends. If neurodivergent people are already showing up to therapy, why do affirming adaptations even matter? In this solo episode I work through that question from my own clinical experience and lived experience as an AuDHD psychologist. We map the barriers that keep neurodivergent people out of the therapy room — physical, psychological, emotional, sensory, and cognitive — and then walk back through the same five to look at small, practical, often low-cost changes that make care genuinely accessible. From externalising working memory and body doubling, to trauma-informed safety, non-fluorescent lighting, situational mutism, and a cushion instead of new chairs, this one is for neurodivergent listeners deciding what to ask for, and for clinicians wanting to do better.
A note on the evidence: I'm speaking mostly from clinical and lived experience here, not a deep RCT base. Where I mention that neurodivergent people "endorse" adapted approaches as helpful, that's about acceptability and client-rated helpfulness — how much people value these adaptations — not proven treatment efficacy or effect sizes. The main study behind that point is Paynter, Sommer & Cook (2025), who asked autistic adults to rate the helpfulness of specific therapy adaptations. The passage on perimenopause and sensory gating is an emerging, still-contested area, not settled science — hold it lightly.
Takeaways:
• There's no single "neurodivergent barrier" — physical, psychological, emotional, sensory, and cognitive access all matter, and they stack.
• Affirming therapy is trauma-informed by default; many of us carry complex stress and iatrogenic harm from past care.
• Speech is never a choice — situational mutism is overwhelm, not defiance.
• Meltdowns are overwhelm, and what loo… -
Ep 26: Understanding Neurodivergence (AuDHD, Autism & ADHD) - More Than Diagnosis
2 juli 2026 · 20 min
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🎙️ Episode 26: Understanding Neurodivergence - More Than Diagnosis
"I can be autistic without autism spectrum disorder, in the same way that I can have legs without being broken."
Summary:
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, clinical psychologist and AuDHDer Aaron Howearth takes on a question sparked by a challenge on social media: can you identify as autistic without holding a formal diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder? The answer is yes — and in this episode, Aaron unpacks exactly why, drawing on clinical definitions, diagnostic criteria, the neurodiversity-affirming paradigm, and his own lived experience as an autistic ADHDer and former Navy serviceperson.
Aaron begins by untangling three terms that are often conflated: neurodiversity, neurodivergent, and diagnosis. He explains that neurodiversity — like biodiversity — simply refers to the natural range of cognitive styles that exist across humans, while neurodivergent describes a brain that functions differently from the neurotypical majority. Autism, he argues, is a cluster of cognitive characteristics — not a disorder by default. Autism Spectrum Disorder, on the other hand, is the diagnostic label that applies only when those characteristics cause functional difficulties in the person's life.
Drawing on Damian Milton's Double Empathy Problem, Aaron explores how social and communicative differences in autism are not inherent deficits, but mismatches between communication styles — a dialect problem, not a language problem. He walks through how the same characteristic (say, cognitive rigidity or impulsivity) can function as both a strength and a barrier depending on the environment, using vivid examples from his own clinical work and time in the Navy.
Aaron also addresses the claim that autism diagnosis is "not a social construct," offering a clinical and philosophical unpacking of what a social construct actually is — and why diagnosis, by its very nature, fits that definition.…
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Ep 25: AuDHD Experience - Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice
25 juni 2026 · 28 min
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🎙️ Episode 25: AuDHD Experience - Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice
"Neurodiversity-affirming practice" is now on almost every clinician's website here in Australia and around the world — but what does it actually mean, and what should it look like in the room? In this episode, Aaron Howearth (Clinical Psychologist) unpacks affirming practice not as a marketing label, but as a genuine reorientation of how we understand, formulate, and work alongside neurodivergent people.
We start with the conceptual foundations: relocating difficulty away from the individual and into the mismatch between a person and an environment that demands they be someone they're not. From there we walk through the domains where affirming practice actually shows up — formulation, language, collaborative goal-setting, therapeutic-style fit, and environmental adaptation — using the five Ps formulation and plenty of lived-experience examples along the way. We then name clearly what affirming practice is not: relabelling old deficit-focused work, abandoning clinical reasoning, avoiding difficulty, or imposing an affirming frame on someone who hasn't asked for it.
Finally, we offer six practical markers you can use to tell whether the care you're giving or receiving is genuinely affirming — and an honest note on where the evidence base currently sits. As always, this is general educational information, not individualised therapy or advice.
In This Episode (Chapters)
(00:00) Welcome and why affirming practice matters
(01:30) What the research tells us — and where the evidence base is thin
(03:00) Affirming practice as a reorientation, not a new treatment model
(04:30) Relocating disability: the environmental mismatch
(06:00) What we're actually trying to do in therapy (and what we're not)
(08:00) The domains of affirming practice: formulation, language, goals, adaptation
(09:30) Identity-first vs person-first language
(10:30) The five Ps formulation, worked through as …
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Ep 24 AuDHD Experience - Late Diagnosis & Identity reconstruction
18 juni 2026 · 22 min
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🎙️ Episode 24: AuDHD Experience - Late Diagnosis and Identity Reconstruction
"After a lifetime of feeling wrong, broken, like a weirdo, along comes late diagnosis — but that's the doorway, not the destination."
In this episode of AuDHD Psych, Aaron explores late diagnosis and identity reconstruction for autistic, ADHD and AuDHD people — why so many of us are found so late, and how we rebuild a sense of self afterwards. Drawing on the research and his own experience, he unpacks why late diagnosis is the norm rather than a personal failing, how internalising presentations and masking keep us under the radar, and why our diagnostic criteria, built around externalising behaviour, miss so many of us for decades. He looks at the double feeling of diagnosis — relief and grief arriving together — and at diagnosis as something that confirms who we already were rather than changing us. He also handles the borderline personality disorder pathway carefully, as a frequent misdiagnosis and conceptual overlap rather than a relabelling, while naming the stigma that does real harm.
Takeaways:
Late diagnosis is the norm, not the exception — being missed for years is what the research predicts, not evidence that you were ever fine. You weren't missed because you're not neurodivergent; you were missed because you didn't present the way the criteria expected.
Our diagnostic criteria were built around externalising presentations in academic and clinical settings, creating an observation bias — so people who internalise, the author included, fly under the radar until the science catches up with the lived experience.
Masking hides our characteristics, and higher masking predicts later diagnosis — the more we mask, the less we show up against the criteria. That same effort drains the cognitive and emotional energy we need for daily life, pushing us toward burnout, overwhelm, anxiety and, for some, depression and self-harm risk.
Masking carries a heavier cost where …
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Ep 23: AuDHD Experience - Joy, Strengths and Quality of Life
10 juni 2026 · 20 min
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🎙 Episode 23: AuDHD Experience - Joy, Strengths and Quality of Life
"Strengths-based framings sit alongside, not instead of, our support needs — so keep both ideas in mind."
In this episode of AuDHD Psych, Aaron explores joy, strengths, and quality of life for AuDHDers — moving past both the deficit-and-disorder framing and the neurodivergent-superpower narrative to find the partial truth in each. Drawing on recent research, he unpacks the strengths autistic and ADHD people endorse (pattern recognition, hyperfocus, humour, creativity), how flow, hyperfocus, and monotropism overlap, and why our strengths are linked to well-being when we name and use them. He also looks at what genuinely lifts quality of life — affirming relationships, good environmental fit, support, and community — while warning against environments that extract our strengths without supporting our needs.
Takeaways:
Neither the deficit-and-disorder framing nor the superpower narrative is the full truth — strengths-based framings sit alongside, not instead of, our support needs.
Research backs the strengths neurodivergent people describe: autistic strengths like pattern recognition, detail orientation, systematising, deep expertise, and a justice orientation; ADHD strengths like hyperfocus, humour, and creativity, endorsed well above the typical community.
Strengths are linked to well-being — first by knowing and naming them, then by using them in your life. ADHD creativity and divergent thinking are also linked to real-world achievement and even deliberate mind-wandering.
Flow, hyperfocus, and monotropism share much of the same terrain — feeling good in the doing and getting to unmask — but it's a dose-response curve: restorative up to a point, then a driver of burnout.
Monotropism appears to be transdiagnostic, scoring above the general population in both autistic people and ADHDers, and underpins special interests as a well-being variable.
Autistic adults score lower ac…
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Ep 22: AuDHD Experience – Suicidality & Protective Factors
3 juni 2026 · 24 min
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⚠️ Content note: This episode discusses suicide and suicidal thoughts directly and at length. It is general education, not personal advice. If this feels like a lot, please pause and reach out to a support service (Australian helplines listed at the end).
Episode 22: AuDHD Experience – Suicidality & Protective Factors
In this episode of the AuDHD Psych Podcast, clinical psychologist Aaron Howearth explores why suicidality risk is higher in neurodivergent communities — and why that risk is not inherent to being autistic, ADHD, or AuDHD. Drawing on clinical work, lived experience, and recent research, Aaron is clear that elevated risk is an outcome of the interaction between neurodivergent people and environments that don't accommodate them. The through-line of the whole conversation: we are different, not defective, and it's not your fault.
Aaron unpacks the mechanisms behind heightened risk — constant masking leading to defeat and entrapment, thwarted belonging and a sense of burdensomeness, isolation and minority stress, and unmet support needs. He then turns to crisis care and affirming support, with a direct message to clinicians about flat affect, sensory-hostile environments, and the difference between autism, ADHD, AuDHD and trauma. The episode closes on hope: the protective factors and practical safety-planning scripts that can genuinely reduce risk.
Key Themes & Takeaways
Risk Is Real, Not Inherent – Suicidality is elevated in neurodivergent communities, but it reflects environmental mismatch and accumulated stress, not a flaw in the person.
Masking → Defeat → Entrapment – Constant camouflaging is exhausting and, when reinforced over time, can drive feelings of defeat and entrapment.
Belonging & Burdensomeness – Thwarted belonging and a sense of being "a burden" can heighten risk, especially alongside complex trauma histories.
Isolation & Minority Stress – Social exclusion, sensory load, and the extra stresses of being a disempower…
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Ep 21: AuDHD Experience - Trauma, CPTSD & Systems Harm
27 mei 2026 · 26 min
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Episode 21 – Trauma, PTSD & Systems Harm
What if you're not "too much," "too complex," or "treatment resistant"? What if the very systems designed to help neurodivergent people are inadvertently causing harm instead?
In this episode, Aaron explores the deep intersection between neurodivergence and trauma — and why so many AuDHDers, autistic folks, and ADHDers find themselves stuck in cycles of misdiagnosis, invalidation, and burnout.
What we cover
The difference between big T trauma (PTSD) and complex trauma (cPTSD), and why complex trauma is so prevalent in neurodivergent communities
Why neurodivergent people are statistically more exposed to trauma, bullying, social exclusion, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
How diagnostic overshadowing leads clinicians to mislabel trauma responses as personality disorders — or dismiss them entirely
The structural harms baked into school systems, healthcare, and historical practices like ABA
How masking, allostatic load, and burnout compound trauma and erode identity
Why service avoidance is often a reasonable response to repeated invalidation
The link between systems harm, hopelessness, and elevated suicidality in our communities
Practical scripts for advocating with GPs, psychologists, and other clinicians when you feel unheard
Key takeaway
The "complexity" so often attributed to neurodivergent clients usually isn't about us — it's about a mismatch between our characteristics, our histories, and systems built for someone else. Understanding trauma and neurodivergence together makes the "complex" much less complex.
Content warning
This episode discusses trauma, complex trauma, interpersonal violence, school bullying, healthcare harm, and suicidality at a conceptual level. Please pause and reach out to a support service if needed:
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636
13YARN: 13 92 76
QLife: 1800 184 527
Emergency: 000
Referenced research
Stickley (2022) – ACEs and neurodive…
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Ep20: AuDHD Experience - Misdiagnosis, BPD & Mental Health in Late-Diagnosed Adults
20 mei 2026 · 27 min
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Episode 20: AuDHD Explained — Misdiagnosis, BPD & Mental Health in Late-Diagnosed Adults
In this episode of the AuDHD Psych Podcast, clinical psychologist Aaron Howearth and co-host Dan unpack why mental health diagnosis is so complex for AuDHDers, and why so many of us collect a stack of labels — depression, generalised anxiety, borderline personality disorder, bipolar, treatment-resistant depression — before Autism and ADHD are ever properly considered. Drawing on clinical work, lived experience, and the qualitative research literature, Aaron explains how diagnostic overshadowing happens, why internalising presentations are most at risk of misdiagnosis, and what genuinely neurodiversity-affirming assessment looks like in practice.
Aaron and Dan work through the mechanics of overshadowing — how a clinician's existing diagnostic lens quietly re-explains every new symptom and closes the door on alternative formulations — and the elevated mental health risks that ride alongside AuDHD, including anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidality. They examine why biological females and internalising males are disproportionately mislabelled with borderline personality disorder when emotional impulsivity, rejection sensitivity and rigid thought patterns are actually expressions of an undiagnosed AuDHD profile. They then move into the practical: how to script questions for your clinician without it landing as an attack, why differential diagnosis and formulation are the antidote to overshadowing, and how late diagnosis reframes self-concept from "bad person, not trying hard enough" to environment-fit. Throughout, the conversation returns to the affirming reframe — difficulties arise from the mismatch between who you are and what the environment expects, not from a defective self.
Key Themes & Takeaways
Co-occurrence Is the Rule, Not the Exception – Around 40% of autistic people have a co-occurring mental health condition, ADHDers are similarly elevated,…
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Ep 19: AuDHD Explained - More Than the Sum of Its Autism + ADHD Parts - Cognitive Differences, Energy Economy & Late Diagnosis
13 mei 2026 · 29 min
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Episode 19: AuDHD Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts – Cognitive Differences, Energy Economy & Late Diagnosis
In this episode of the AuDHD Psych Podcast, clinical psychologist Aaron Howearth and co-host Dan explore why AuDHD isn't simply Autism plus ADHD, but a distinct presentation with its own cognitive, emotional, and behavioural fingerprint. Drawing on clinical work, lived experience, and recent research, Aaron traces the diagnostic history back to the DSM-5 (2013) — the first time Autism and ADHD could be formally co-diagnosed — and explains why anyone diagnosed before 2015 may have had half their neurotype missed.
Aaron and Dan dig into the cognitive differences that set AuDHD apart, including a study showing AuDHD young people experience greater difficulties than their autistic or ADHD peers across planning, attention, simultaneous processing, and successive processing. They unpack the energy economy of AuDHD — how the tug-of-war between routine-seeking autistic characteristics and novelty-seeking, impulsive ADHD characteristics drives masking, burnout, anxiety, and depression — and reframe these patterns through a "different, not defective" lens that centres environment, context, and self-knowledge. Throughout, they offer practical, shame-free reflections on self-identification, late diagnosis grief, adaptive functioning, finding affirming clinicians, and the strengths of an AuDHD problem-solving brain.
Key Themes & Takeaways
AuDHD Is Not Just Additive – AuDHD includes autistic characteristics, ADHD characteristics, and unique features that exist outside either diagnosis on its own.
Diagnostic History Matters – Pre-2013 DSM rules blocked co-diagnosis, meaning many adults diagnosed before 2015 likely had half their profile missed.
Cognitive Profile Differences – Research suggests AuDHD young people show greater differences across planning, attention, simultaneous and successive processing than autistic-only or ADHD-only peers.
Energy …
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Ep 18: AuDHD Experience - Time Blindness, Planning & Task Initiation
6 mei 2026 · 28 min
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🎙️ Episode 18: Understanding AuDHD in the Real World - Time Blindness, Planning & Task Initiation
In this episode of the AuDHD Psych Podcast, clinical psychologist Aaron Howearth and co‑host Dan explore why getting started on “simple” tasks can feel impossibly hard for AuDHD brains, even when the motivation and desire are absolutely there. Drawing on clinical work and lived experience, Aaron explains prospective memory (remembering to do things in the future), time blindness, and executive function differences that turn “make a phone call” or “apply for uni” into an overwhelming tangle of steps, fears, and past experiences of running out of time.
Aaron and Dan unpack the urgency cycle and last‑minute sprint – why panic can act as a powerful attention anchor, but also reinforces anxiety, exhaustion, and the belief that you “only work under pressure.” They tease apart procrastination from task initiation difficulty, and look at how ADHD impulsivity and autistic set‑shifting differences interact in AuDHD, making it harder to switch away from interests toward boring, complex, or ambiguous tasks. Throughout, they offer practical, shame‑free strategies like timers, reminders, body doubling, and micro‑steps, while emphasising self‑compassion: this isn’t laziness, it’s a different brain that needs different tools.
Key Themes & Takeaways
Prospective Memory & Time Blindness – How remembering future intentions and accurately sensing time are both executive functions that often work differently in AuDHD.
Planning Load & Overwhelm – Why not knowing all the steps (e.g., applying for uni, legal admin) makes tasks feel impossibly big and easy to avoid.
Urgency Cycle & “Last‑Minute Only” Mode – How relying on panic to get started reinforces anxiety, burnout, and the belief that you can’t begin until it’s almost too late.
AuDHD Interaction, Not Just Addition – How ADHD impulsivity/inattention plus autistic set‑shifting and intense interests create unique pat…
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Ep 17: AuDHD Experience - Sensory Processing and Overwhelm in ADHD, Autism & AuDHD
29 april 2026 · 24 min
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🎙️ Episode 17: Understanding AuDHD in the Real World - Sensory Processing and Overwhelm in ADHD, Autism & AuDHD
Episode Summary
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, Aaron Howearth explores how sensory profiles shape daily life for autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD individuals. Why does a flickering light, a chatty colleague, or a tag in your shirt seem to "set you off" — when really, you've been quietly carrying that load all day?
Drawing from clinical psychology and lived experience, Aaron explains how neurodivergent nervous systems often process sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, balance, and body position differently from the average person. He unpacks why these differences are not defects, but a mismatch between our sensory profile and environments built for typical sensory experience.
Aaron introduces the build-up model of overwhelm — how small sensory costs accumulate across the day until what looks like an overreaction is actually a proportionate response to hours of unseen strain. He links sensory load to attention, masking, emotional regulation, and burnout, and explains how sensory gating, hidden coping, and reduced tolerance can spiral into a vicious cycle.
This episode offers validation, language, and practical strategies for identifying high-cost sensory channels, designing neuroaffirming environments, and treating sensory fit as a legitimate accessibility issue rather than special treatment.
Key Themes & Takeaways
Sensory Profiles Explained – How autism, ADHD, and AuDHD involve over- and under-sensitivity across multiple sensory dimensions.
The Build-Up Model of Overwhelm – Why the "last straw" reaction reflects cumulative load, not fragility.
Sensory Gating & Attention – How difficulty filtering input amplifies inattention, frustration, and cognitive fatigue.
Masking the Sensory Cost – How suppressing sensory reactions drains energy and feeds burnout.
Mental Health Impact – Why visual, auditory, and tactile sensitivities s…
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Ep 16: AuDHD Experience - Masking, Burnout & Unmasking in ADHD, Autism & AuDHD
22 april 2026 · 32 min
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🎙️ Episode 16: AuDHD in the Real World - Masking, Burnout & Unmasking
Episode Summary
In this episode of the AuDHD Psych Podcast, Aaron Howearth unpacks masking and camouflaging as neurodivergent survival strategies. He explains how autistic and ADHD people learn conscious and unconscious ways of “passing” as typical, such as practised eye contact, softened honesty, and scripted conversations, often long before they have words for their neurodivergence. Aaron explores how this constant self‑monitoring and suppression of stims, emotions, and sensory needs drains cognitive and emotional energy, contributing to exhaustion, low social battery, and executive functioning crashes. He also touches on late diagnosis, identity confusion, and grief around not knowing “where the mask ends and I begin.” Throughout, he reframes “disorder” as a mismatch between neurodivergent needs and environmental demands, normalises collapse after masking‑heavy days, and invites listeners to compare one high‑cost masking context with one low‑mask or safe environment.
Key Themes & Takeaways
What Masking Is – Compensatory behaviours neurodivergent people use to meet typical social, sensory, and behavioural expectations and to “pass” as non‑neurodivergent.
Conscious vs Unconscious Masking – Habits like practised eye contact versus deliberate strategies such as softening blunt corrections or scripting conversations.
Cognitive Load & Exhaustion – Self‑monitoring, impulse suppression, and managing tone, face, and stims consume working memory and lead to exhaustion and executive crashes.
Sensory & Stim Suppression – Hiding stims and enduring uncomfortable environments increase stress and reduce emotional and cognitive capacity.
Identity & Imposter Feelings – Long‑term masking can blur the line between self and performance, fuelling imposter syndrome and grief about “who I could have been.”
Masking as Safety Behaviour – Framed as a survival strategy to avoid stigma and rejec…
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Ep 15: AuDHD Experience - Rejection Sensitivity & Dysphoria
15 april 2026 · 27 min
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🎙️ Episode 15: Rejection Sensitivity & Dysphoria in ADHD, Autism & AuDHD
Episode Summary
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, Aaron Howearth explores rejection sensitivity, emotional intensity, and rejection sensitive dysphoria through a neurodiversity-affirming lens. He explains why some autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD people experience emotions as suddenly overwhelming, especially when past experiences of rejection, exclusion, or social misunderstanding shape how current situations are interpreted.
Drawing from clinical psychology, Aaron describes emotions as a bodily response to our cognitive appraisal of context, then links that to fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and flop responses, as well as differences in interoception and alexithymia. He shows how rejection sensitivity can amplify ambiguous social cues, how anticipation of rejection can feel as painful as rejection itself, and why people may move quickly from calm to intense dysphoria without noticing emotion building in the background.
Aaron also discusses how these patterns can contribute to people pleasing, self-sacrifice, masking, burnout, and interpersonal stress, and how they can resemble some features often associated with borderline personality disorder without reducing people to a label. He then offers practical strategies, including using the NICE framework, redirecting attention toward novelty, interest, challenge, or emergency, and replacing “you’re too much” with a more compassionate understanding that people are responding to context, not failing as people.
Key Themes & Takeaways
Emotions as Body + Context – How emotional intensity emerges from the body’s response to our appraisal of current and past context, not from feelings alone.
Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, Flop – How different threat appraisals map onto distinct survival responses, from fighting and escaping to shutting down or dissociating.
Rejection Sensitivity – How repeated real or perceived rejection can prim…
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Ep 14: Understanding AuDHD in the Real World – School, Work, Relationships and Burnout in ADHD, Autism & AuDHD
8 april 2026 · 20 min
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🎙️ Episode 14: AuDHD in the Real World – School, Work, Relationships and Burnout
Episode Summary
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, clinical psychologist Aaron Howearth moves from talking about AuDHD traits in theory to how they actually show up across school, work, relationships, and daily life. He explores what school can look like for autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD kids behind the report cards: bright, capable students who miss key details because their attention is pulled to everything happening around them, collecting “failure” experiences and perfectionistic self‑criticism even when they’re genuinely trying. Aaron shares a primary‑school story about getting absorbed in playground handball, missing a chance to use the bathroom, then rigidly following a teacher’s “you should have gone at recess” rule and wetting himself in class, illustrating how interest‑based attention and autistic rule‑keeping can collide in inflexible systems.
He then looks at why neurodivergent students so often struggle more consistently than their neurotypical peers: the extra cognitive load of sitting still, suppressing stims, noticing every distraction, and trying to hold and process information in working memory at the same time. Aaron explains how people whose overall abilities are above average can still have relative weaknesses in working memory or processing speed that make standard classrooms and “just keep up with the teacher” delivery especially hard. Rather than framing these differences as laziness or defect, he reframes them as a mismatch between our cognitive profiles and systems designed by and for the statistical middle, and outlines practical accommodations like extra test time, movement breaks, and offering information in multiple formats.
Shifting into adulthood, Aaron discusses how the same patterns re‑emerge at work: fluorescent lights that trigger migraines, noisy open‑plan offices that overload attention, and instructions given in ways tha…
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Ep 13: Understanding AuDHD - Executive Functioning and Daily Life: ADHD, Autism & AuDHD (Part 2)
24 maart 2026 · 32 min
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🎙️ Episode 13: Understanding AuDHD – Executive Functioning and Daily Life (Part 2)
Episode Summary
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, clinical psychologist Aaron Howearth moves from explaining executive functioning to exploring practical ways autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD people can work with their brains in daily life. He looks at how differences in working memory, processing speed, time perception, self-monitoring, and motivation interact with anxiety and self-esteem, and why our capacity to start, continue, and finish tasks can swing so dramatically from day to day.Aaron describes how an ADHD-style “problem-solving brain” can flip into a “problem-finding brain” when worry and rumination take over, especially in generalized anxiety. He introduces worry postponement (also called worry time or the worry chair) as a structured way to park worries during the day, revisit them briefly in a time-limited “worry window,” and reclaim attention for the people, tasks, and moments that matter. Read more about worry postponement here:
https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/CCI/Mental-Health-Professionals/Generalised-Anxiety/Generalised-Anxiety---Information-Sheets/Generalised-Anxiety-Information-Sheet---05---Postpone-your-Worry.pdf
He also shares neurodivergent-friendly tools for time blindness, task initiation, and follow-through: externalising time with alarms, visual timers, and apps; body doubling and social accountability; reducing visual clutter and sensory load; and building routines gradually through habit stacking rather than overwhelming, all-or-nothing life overhauls. Throughout the episode, Aaron reframes “disorder” not as something inherent to autistic or ADHD traits, but as a mismatch between our brains and inflexible environments and expectations, inviting a more compassionate, neurodiversity-affirming way to understand executive functioning differences.
Key Themes & Takeaways
Executive Functioning & Self-Concept – How repeated st…
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Ep 12: Understanding AuDHD - Executive Functioning and Daily Life: ADHD, Autism & AuDHD (Part 1)
18 maart 2026 · 42 min
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🎙️ Episode 13: Executive Functioning in Daily Life: ADHD, Autism & AuDHD
Episode Summary
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, Aaron Howearth explores how executive functioning shapes everyday life for autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD individuals. Why do tasks that “should” be simple – studying, working, organising the day, or following through on plans – so often feel overwhelming or impossible, even when we know exactly what we’re meant to be doing?
Drawing from both clinical psychology and lived experience, Aaron explains executive functions as the brain’s “mental mechanics”: planning, organisation, working memory, impulse control, sustained attention, and cognitive flexibility. He unpacks how differences in these areas are common across neurodevelopmental conditions and how they influence our ability to start, persist with, and complete tasks in real-world contexts.
Aaron also explores the apparent contradiction between autistic and ADHD profiles – rules, structure, and rigidity on one side; impulsivity, distractibility, and jumping between tasks on the other – and how these traits can coexist within AuDHD individuals. Rather than seeing executive functioning as a fixed trait, he highlights how attention, motivation, and follow-through shift with factors like environment, stress, novelty, interest, and internal state.
This episode offers clarity, validation, and a practical language for understanding why executive functioning challenges show up the way they do, and invites a more compassionate, neurodiversity-affirming perspective on how we navigate daily life with different “mental mechanics.”
Key Themes & Takeaways
Executive Functions Explained – What planning, working memory, cognitive flexibility, impulse control, and self-monitoring are, and how they operate as the brain’s day-to-day management system.
ADHD Executive Profiles – How inattention, distractibility, impulsivity, delay intolerance, and working memory challenges affect st…
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Ep 11: AuDHD Psych Q&A Part 2 - Menopause, Gender & Why You Feel ‘Too Much’ And ‘Not Enough’
11 maart 2026 · 36 min
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🎙️ Episode 11: Q&A Part 2
Episode Summary
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, Aaron Howearth continues the community Q&A, responding to several commonly asked questions about neurodivergent experiences and expanding on themes raised in previous episodes. The conversation covers topics including perimenopause and menopause in neurodivergent people, the relationship between neurodiversity and gender diversity, how diagnostic impairment levels can change across life circumstances, and the internal tensions often experienced by people with both autistic and ADHD traits.
Aaron explains how hormonal fluctuations during perimenopause and menopause can influence neurotransmitter systems linked to attention, sensory processing, and executive functioning. For some neurodivergent people, these biological changes can amplify existing cognitive and sensory differences, particularly for individuals who may have previously relied on masking or compensatory strategies.
The episode also revisits the intersection between gender diversity and neurodivergence, exploring how autistic cognitive styles that question inconsistent social rules may contribute to different experiences of gender identity. Aaron further discusses how sensory processing differences, attention, and interoception can intensify experiences of gender dysphoria or body-related awareness.
Finally, Aaron answers several frequently asked questions about AuDHD experiences, including the tension between ADHD novelty-seeking and autistic needs for routine, the dynamics of hyperfocus versus task initiation difficulties, fluctuations in social energy, and how masking can sometimes be adaptive depending on context. Throughout the discussion, he emphasises that many challenges attributed to neurodivergence arise from mismatches between individuals and their environments rather than inherent personal deficits.
Key Themes & Takeaways
• Hormonal Changes & Neurodivergence - Fluctuations during per…
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Ep 10: AuDHD Psych Q&A Part 1 - Diagnosis, Self-ID & "Different, Not Defective"
3 maart 2026 · 38 min
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“When I'm surrounded by people like me, I don't feel disordered. I feel understood.”
🎙️ Ep 10: Your Questions Answered – Diagnosis, Self-ID & “Different, Not Defective”
Episode Summary
In this Q&A episode of the AuDHD Psych Podcast, Aaron responds to questions and comments from the community about autism, ADHD, diagnosis, and what it really means to be “different, not defective.” Drawing on both clinical experience and lived AuDHD perspective, he unpacks why being autistic and having an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis are related but not identical concepts, and how context, support, and privilege shape whether traits become impairing or remain simply part of who we are.Aaron explores why many clearly neurodivergent people never receive a formal diagnosis, highlighting the role of masking, family strategies, and multi-generational awareness in buffering against distress and “disorder” labels. He uses accessible metaphors (like having legs versus having broken legs) to explain the difference between having autistic characteristics and meeting criteria for a disorder, and reframes autism and ADHD as neurotypes that can generate both difficulty and strength depending on the environment.
The conversation moves into self-identification versus formal diagnosis, including the privilege, cost, and gatekeeping surrounding assessment and why Aaron prefers the language of being “self-identified” rather than “self-diagnosed.” He also addresses concerns that self-identification “mocks” those with formal diagnoses, noting that most self-identified autistic and ADHD people he meets have done deep research, grappled with imposter syndrome, and know their traits intimately long before tentatively claiming the label.
Aaron then discusses diagnostic complexity, including how conditions like borderline personality disorder, complex trauma, OCD, and AuDHD can overlap or be misread as one another, especially when clinicians are unfamiliar with neurodivergent…
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Ep 9: Understanding AuDHD: Late Diagnosis and Diagnostic Levels
18 februari 2026 · 29 min
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🎙️ Episode 9: Understanding AuDHD: Late Diagnosis and Diagnostic Levels
Episode Summary
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, Aaron Howearth explores one of the most common and emotionally loaded experiences in the neurodivergent community: late diagnosis. Why are so many autistic and ADHD individuals missed in childhood? Why do diagnoses often come after years, or even decades, of anxiety, depression, or misdiagnosis?
Drawing from both clinical psychology and lived experience, Aaron explains how traditional diagnostic frameworks were historically built around externalising presentations, often observed in young boys. This has left many neurodivergent individuals, particularly internalisers, high-masking people, and those with higher-than-average intellect, unseen by clinicians.
Aaron also discusses diagnostic severity and support levels, challenging the idea that these labels describe fixed traits. Instead, impairment and severity are reframed as dynamic, context-dependent experiences shaped by environment, stress, confidence, and internal states.
This episode offers clarity, validation, and a compassionate perspective on how neurodivergent traits are understood and misunderstood within clinical systems.
Key Themes & Takeaways
Late Diagnosis Explained - How historical diagnostic criteria centred on visible, external behaviours contributed to generations of missed neurodivergent individuals.
Externalising vs Internalising Presentations - Why many autistic and ADHD traits remain unnoticed when distress is internalised, behaviours are masked, or difficulties are cognitively compensated for.
Misdiagnosis Pathways - Exploring overlaps with anxiety disorders, OCD, and borderline personality disorder, and how neurodivergent traits can be misinterpreted.
The Role of Intellect & Compensation - How higher cognitive ability can obscure challenges, delaying recognition and diagnosis.
Mood & Cognitive Functioning - Understanding how anxiety, …
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Ep 8: Understanding AuDHD - The Intersection of Neurodiversity & Gender Diversity
4 februari 2026 · 21 min
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“If the rule doesn’t make sense, it has no value to me.”
🎙️ Ep 8: Labels, their Utility & Lack Thereof
Episode Summary
In this episode of the AuDHD Psych Podcast, Aaron and Uma explore the intersection between gender diversity and neurodiversity, unpacking how autistic and neurodivergent ways of thinking can shape experiences of gender, identity, and self-understanding.
Aaron reflects on his own gender experience and how autistic logic, detail orientation, and a rejection of arbitrary social rules influenced his relationship with gender — including why he does not experience gender dysphoria in the same way many gender-diverse people do. The conversation expands into the lived realities of gender dysphoria for neurodivergent people, particularly how sensory differences can amplify discomfort and distress.
The episode also dives into what genuinely affirming gender care looks like, highlighting the importance of listening, accessibility, and avoiding harmful assumptions — such as the idea that gender diversity in autistic people is “just a special interest.” Finally, Aaron and Uma reflect on the power of community, advocacy, and shared support, especially for people navigating multiple marginalized identities.
Key Themes & Takeaways
Gender and biological sex are not the same, and both exist on spectrums
Autistic cognition often questions and rejects illogical social rules, including rigid gender binaries
Gender dysphoria can be intensified by sensory sensitivities in neurodivergent people
Gender-affirming care goes beyond pronouns to include sensory, environmental, and communication needs
Viewing autistic gender diversity as a “special interest” is invalidating and harmful
Advocacy requires energy — and it’s okay to need others to advocate with or for you
Community is a powerful protective factor, especially at the intersection of neurodivergence and gender diversity
Online spaces can be lifelines for connection, visibility, and belon…
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Ep 7: Understanding AuDHD - Neurodiversity Affirming Paradigm
22 januari 2026 · 24 min
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“The same traits that create difficulty can also be the ones that help us thrive.”
🎙️ Episode 7: Understanding The Neurodiversity Affirming Paradigm - Building Balanced Beliefs
Episode Summary
Welcome to Episode 8 of The AuDHD Psych Podcast — hosted by Aaron Howearth, a clinical psychologist and proudly AuDHD human.
In this solo episode, Aaron explores the neurodiversity-affirming paradigm and what it truly means to view autism, ADHD, and other neurodivergent experiences as differences rather than disorders. Drawing from clinical practice, lived experience, and real-world examples, Aaron unpacks how neurodivergent characteristics are not inherently strengths or weaknesses — they simply are, and their impact depends on context, environment, and support.
Through personal reflections on relationships, conflict, professional problem-solving, and past military service, Aaron illustrates how the same traits can contribute to both challenge and capability. The episode also examines the limits of deficit-based and medical models, the role of diagnosis and privilege, and how stratifying support needs can unintentionally fracture neurodivergent communities.
This episode offers a grounded, compassionate perspective on how clinical psychology and neurodiversity affirmation can sit side-by-side, helping individuals build stronger self-concepts, resilience, and community connection.
Key Themes & Takeaways
What Is the Neurodiversity-Affirming Paradigm?
Understanding neurodivergence as natural variation in human cognition — not inherently disordered or deficient.Characteristics Are Context-Dependent
The same autistic and ADHD traits can be helpful in one environment and unhelpful in another.Strengths and Struggles Come From the Same Place
Detail orientation, impulsivity, and divergent thinking can contribute to both conflict and creativity.Environment Shapes Support Needs
It’s not traits alone that create impairment, but the mismatch between a perso… -
Ep 6: AuDHD Psych NYE Special - The Quiet Between Years. Reflecting, Resetting & Reimagining
1 januari 2026 · 26 min
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“The new year doesn’t need to fix you — you were already doing your best.”
In this reflective New Year’s themed episode of AuDHD Psych, Aaron and Uma explore the quiet space between years — a time often filled with pressure to reset, improve, and reinvent. Through a neurodivergent lens, they unpack why traditional New Year’s resolutions can feel overwhelming or harmful for autistic and ADHD people, and why slow, values-aligned change is often more sustainable. The conversation reframes growth as internal, incremental, and deeply personal, highlighting quiet wins, self-compassion, and progress that doesn’t need to be visible or performative. Rather than chasing arbitrary milestones, this episode invites listeners to honour what worked, question unhelpful beliefs, and move into the new year with curiosity instead of self-criticism.
Takeaways
The New Year can amplify unrealistic expectations, self-judgment, and pressure to change overnight
Traditional resolutions often clash with neurodivergent brains that value sustainability, flexibility, and meaning
Small, quiet changes can have a bigger impact than dramatic overhauls
Reflecting on what worked is just as important as identifying what didn’t
Themes and values can be more supportive than rigid goals or timelines
Progress is not linear, and planning for disruption reduces shame and burnout
Self-compassion and relationship with self underpin all other goals
Growth can be internal, subtle, and still deeply validKeywords
AuDHD, neurodivergence, New Year mental health, autistic and ADHD goals, self-compassion, internal growth, quiet progress, neurodivergent goal setting, burnout prevention, reflective practice, New Year pressure, sustainable changeSupport the show
Keywords: AuDHD podcast, autism and ADHD, neurodivergent psychologist, neurodiversity affirming, Howearth Psychology, queer psychologist, autism diagnosis, ADHD awareness, lived experience, neurodivergent mental health, clinical p…
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Ep 5: AuDHD Psych Neurospicy Holidays - Comfort, Chaos & Connection
25 december 2025 · 26 min
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“The absence of a reminder doesn’t mean the love isn’t there.”
In this festive episode of AuDHD Psych, Aaron and Uma explore how the holiday season can uniquely impact neurodivergent folk. While celebrations are often framed as joyful and meaningful, they can also bring sensory overload, disrupted routines, social pressure, emotional fatigue, and heightened expectations. Drawing on lived experience and clinical insight, the conversation unpacks masking, burnout, gift-giving stress, overthinking, and the delicate balance between connection and self-preservation. This episode offers permission to slow down, take breaks, set boundaries, and approach the holidays in a way that honours individual needs — reminding listeners that there is no single “right” way to celebrate.
Takeaways
Disrupted routines and heightened sensory input during holidays can significantly increase stress for autistic and ADHD individuals
Overcommitting socially often leads to burnout, even when connection is genuinely wanted
Taking breaks — physical, emotional, or relational — is protective, not rude
Masking can serve a purpose, but conscious, consent-based masking and selective unmasking reduce long-term stress
Gift-giving and emotional reciprocity can be complicated by differences in communication, expectations, and interpretation
The absence of contact or follow-up is often a reflection of overwhelm, not a lack of care
Boundaries, energy awareness, and self-compassion matter more than meeting social ideals
Keywords
AuDHD, neurodivergence, holidays and mental health, autistic burnout, ADHD emotional regulation, masking and unmasking, sensory overload, social fatigue, boundaries, perfectionism, Christmas stress, neurodivergent wellbeingSupport the show
Keywords: AuDHD podcast, autism and ADHD, neurodivergent psychologist, neurodiversity affirming, Howearth Psychology, queer psychologist, autism diagnosis, ADHD awareness, lived experience, neurodivergent mental hea…
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Ep 4: Understanding AuDHD: Traits, Truths, & Lived Experience
24 december 2025 · 25 min
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🎙 Episode 4: Understanding AuDHD: Traits, Truths, & Lived Experience
“When I’m told I’m lazy or unmotivated, I start to believe it — and that belief becomes part of who I think I am.”
In this episode of AuDHD Psych, Aaron and Uma explore what AuDHD can look like beyond stereotypes and diagnostic labels. Aaron shares his lived experience as an AuDHD clinical psychologist, unpacking why ADHD and autism were historically seen as mutually exclusive, how this has shaped diagnostic practices, and why many people have had parts of their neurodivergence misunderstood, minimised, or overlooked. The conversation examines co-occurrence, diagnostic bias, categorical versus dimensional thinking, and the importance of self-understanding — whether through formal diagnosis or self-identification — as a foundation for meaningful, affirming support.
Takeaways:
- ADHD and autism frequently co-occur, even though they were historically excluded from being diagnosed together
- AuDHD presentations can mask or complicate how characteristics are recognised and supported
- Diagnostic systems often miss nuance, particularly when relying on rigid, categorical frameworks
- Understanding both strengths and difficulties leads to more effective and affirming support
- Identity, diagnosis, and self-identification should be guided by individual goals and needs
Keywords:
AuDHD, ADHD and autism, neurodivergence, co-occurring diagnoses, self-identification, diagnostic bias, lived experience, neurodiversity-affirming practice, mental health stigma, clinical psychology, ADHD awareness, Lived ExperienceSupport the show
Keywords: AuDHD podcast, autism and ADHD, neurodivergent psychologist, neurodiversity affirming, Howearth Psychology, queer psychologist, autism diagnosis, ADHD awareness, lived experience, neurodivergent mental health, clinical psychology podcast
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Ep 3: Understanding ADHD: Traits, Truths, & Lived Experience
10 december 2025 · 20 min
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🎙Episode 3: Understanding ADHD: Traits, Truths & Lived Experience
“You’re not inherently broken. Your characteristics aren’t disordered — they just don’t always match what the environment demands.”
Summary:
In this episode, Aaron takes a deep dive into ADHD through a neurodiversity-affirming lens. He explores what ADHD actually looks like in daily life, why inattentive and internalizing ADHD is so often misunderstood, and how early labels like “lazy” or “unmotivated” shape lifelong beliefs. Aaron unpacks myths, stereotypes, gendered expectations, cultural influences, and the difference between ADHD traits and ADHD disorder. Blending clinical insight with personal stories, he shows how impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity can create both challenges and unique strengths — depending entirely on the environment that surrounds them.Takeaways:
- ADHD is defined clinically by impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity, but lived experience goes far beyond these criteria.
- Internalizing ADHD (common in women and quieter kids) often shows up as daydreaming, anxiety, stress, and masking — not disruptive behaviour.
- Early messages like “lazy” or “not trying hard enough” become internalized beliefs that shape self-worth.
- ADHD traits are not inherently disordered — difficulty appears when the environment demands something mismatched to the person’s natural wiring.
- Culture and gender expectations influence how ADHD is expressed and who gets diagnosed.
- Social stereotypes and TikTok trends capture tiny fragments of ADHD but often romanticize or oversimplify it.
- Impulsivity and inattention can lead to challenges (like overspending) and strengths (like creativity, hyperfocus, career pivots).
- Neurodiversity-affirming practice reframes ADHD as a difference, not a defect.
- The right environment can turn traits that look “disordered” in one context into superpowers in another.
- You are not broken — you simply have a brain that works …
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Ep 2: Understanding Autism: Traits, Truths & Lived Experience
25 november 2025 · 28 min
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🎙 Episode 2: Understanding Autism: Traits, Truths, and Lived Experience
"When viewed through the lens of difference, rather than disorder, we often find that it's expectations that warrant changing, not humans."
Summary:
In this episode of the AuDHD Psych podcast, Aaron Howearth, a clinical psychologist, discusses the diagnosis of autism, its characteristics, and some of the lived experiences of some on the spectrum. The conversation delves into sensory overload, the impact of masking and unmasking, and the phenomenon of autistic burnout. Aaron shares personal insights on communication challenges and reframes neurodivergent strengths, emphasizing that autism is a unique way of being rather than a deficit.Takeaways:
- Autism is diagnosed based on social communication differences and restricted patterns of behavior.
- Neurodivergent individuals may communicate in a "different dialect" leading to social disconnects.
- Sensory overload can be overwhelming, especially in busy environments.
- Masking is a common behavior among autistic individuals to fit in socially.
- Unmasking can be a liberating experience but is not easy for everyone.
- Autistic burnout can manifest as chronic fatigue and withdrawal from social situations.
- Scripting can help autistic individuals navigate social interactions more comfortably.
- Neurodivergent strengths, such as detail orientation, can be valuable in various contexts.
- Distractibility can lead to creativity and beauty in art and life.
- Autism should be viewed as a way of being, not a deficit.Support the show
Keywords: AuDHD podcast, autism and ADHD, neurodivergent psychologist, neurodiversity affirming, Howearth Psychology, queer psychologist, autism diagnosis, ADHD awareness, lived experience, neurodivergent mental health, clinical psychology podcast
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Ep 1: Understanding AuDHD - Lived Experience, Clinical Insight, Different-not-Defective.
31 oktober 2025 · 16 min
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When viewed through the lens of difference, rather than disorder, we often find that it's expectations that warrant changing, not humans.
🎙️ Episode 1: Understanding AuDHD - Lived Experience, Clinical Insight, Different-not-Defective.
Episode Summary
Welcome to the first episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast — hosted by Aaron Howearth, a clinical psychologist, queer, non-binary, and proudly neurodivergent (AuDHD) individual (the co-occurrence of autism and ADHD).
In this powerful introductory episode, Aaron explores what it means to live, work, and thrive as an AuDHD person — blending clinical psychology, lived experience, and the neurodiversity-affirming paradigm. Aaron dives into why understanding AuDHD is vital for both clinicians and the neurodivergent community.
Aaron shares their personal and professional journey — from 23 years in the Royal Navy to founding Howearth Psychology, a therapeutic space serving neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ communities. With honesty and humour, Aaron reflects on how their unique perspective helps bridge the gap between traditional clinical psychology and the affirming lens that celebrates difference rather than pathologising it.
Key Themes & Takeaways
What is AuDHD? — Understanding how autism and ADHD can coexist, despite past diagnostic misconceptions.
The “Unhelpful Expressions” Concept — Why neurodivergent traits aren’t inherently disordered, but can express in ways that either help or hinder our goals.
Diagnosis Through a Neurodiversity-Affirming Lens — How psychological assessment can empower rather than label.
Living Authentically — Aaron’s journey through gender identity, neurodivergence, and finding meaning in community service.
Changing Clinical Perspectives — Encouraging fellow psychologists to view neurodivergence through strength-based, person-centred practice.
Engaging With The Podcast — Listeners are invited to interact, question, and shape future discussions — from diagnostic frameworks to l…