There is something ever so unique about Alison, my loving partner. She is AuDHD (Autistic and has ADHD). Although she hasn’t had an official diagnosis, shes is on a very long list to get these (7 years for ADHD she has been told).
If you were to meet her, its unlikely you would ever know she is AuDHD because shes highly masking through life. Masking is exactly what it sounds like and its super draining. I couldn’t even really understand how draining without Alison breaking it down for me.
Recently she decided to write about this all in a public Facebook post.
I also took the test Autistic spectrum test Alison mentions and got these results. As you can see mine is quite different from her’s.
Ultimately I stand with her, proud to be her partner and I’m so glad she wrote the post not only to friends and family but to the public.
Alison is wonderful, creative, loving and a joy to be with. The mix of neurodiversity, life experiences, modern values and her personality means our relationship is full of mainly ups and some downs (which relationship isn’t?). I certainly didn’t expect the dopamine filled date nights!
Neurodiversity is full of stereotypes and misunderstandings. Some of it is ignorance but some of it is deliberately offensive and I’m looking at mainstream media. The social media space has its own problems but you are getting first hand perspectives which are sometimes interesting. Something I might pick up on again in a future blog post.
Till then, have a read of Alisons post and share with others.
Continue reading “Dating a highly masking AuDHD (Autistic and ADHD) woman“