Guides for brains that work differently

The government is reviewing why ADHD and autism diagnoses keep rising, and the interim report is out. Here's what it actually says — minus the scary headlines — and what it means if you're on a waiting list.

You can’t feel twenty minutes — so make it something you can see shrinking. Why visual timers work where alarms fail, and how to choose between sand, disc and cube.

Nothing to do with food — a sensory diet is scheduled sensory input that keeps you in the regulation band all day, instead of lurching between flat and fried.

The leftovers stop existing. The bill achieves invisibility. The friend you adore times out. It’s not object permanence, technically — but the fix is the same: make everything visible.

Not fussiness — a fast, involuntary fight-or-flight response to ordinary sounds. What misophonia is, why it travels with ND brains, and the management kit that actually helps.

Tired since 3pm, wide awake at 12:40am watching submarine videos — the ADHD bedtime paradox is a stimulation debt collecting itself. What actually helps (it isn’t “go to bed earlier”).

Engine revving, clutch down, going nowhere: task paralysis, choice paralysis and shutdown are three different jams with different keys. None of them are laziness.

A dopamine menu is a pre-written list of things that reliably feed your brain — built for the moment you’re circling the kitchen like a shark. Here’s how to make one that survives contact with a real ADHD evening.

Skills regress, sensitivity spikes, and rest stops working — autistic burnout is what happens when demands exceed capacity for too long. How to recognise it, and the slow honest route out.

Everyone stims — autistic and ADHD people just do it more, more visibly, and with more riding on it. What stimming is for, why “quiet hands” was terrible advice, and how to build a stim toolkit.

Eye contact in instalments, scripted small talk, the human suit that comes off at the front door. What masking costs, why high maskers get missed, and how to unmask without the cliff.

ADHD time comes in two flavours — now and not-now. Why alarms don't fix it, what making time visible actually means, and the launch-window trick for leaving on time.

Open-plan offices, the masking tax, dopamine menus and the disclosure question — rigging the workday in your favour, corner by corner.

Why normal planners fail ADHD brains, the five features that matter, digital vs paper honestly weighed — and a straight comparison of our own line-up, including who shouldn't buy which.

An honest map of the fidget category — what passes the meeting test, what works for anxiety vs boredom, the two-fidget kit, and what to skip entirely.

The humble SEN-classroom tool that escaped into ADHD households and adult desks — why two boxes beat a full timetable, and how to set one up without it becoming a nag.

Why ADHD brains reach burnout by a faster road, spoon theory in plain English, and recovery that's mostly subtraction — not another to-do list.

Input exceeding processing — that's all it is. How to audit your triggers, pack a pocket-sized kit by channel, and exit gracefully when the world gets loud.

Why you can suddenly do three hours of work the moment someone else is in the room — and how to use it on purpose, in person, online or with no people at all.

The gap between knowing and doing has a name. What executive function actually covers, why ADHD paralysis isn't laziness, and the scaffolding that genuinely helps.

RSD explained by people who live it — the spiral mapped stage by stage, why ADHD brains feel rejection at volume 11, and the practical circuit-breakers that actually help.