Rich & Rox On Autism, ADHD and Finally Unmasking

Comments · 428

• AD

  @ADHD_Chatter_Podcast · 3 months ago · pinned

  I am overwhelmed by the support for my podcast. I started it 2 years ago in my bedroom because I felt different and misunderstood. Two years later, after speaking to hundreds of amazing guests, I have never been more certain that none of us are broken, we are different, and we have always been enough. Thank you so much for your support. Alex 💚

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• CH

  @charliebarli3 · 2 months ago

  Like loads of others, please don&apos;t advertise this by pretending to have upset Rox. It&apos;s not cool. <br>Lovely to see you all together tho 💚✨️

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• OL

  @oliverpirie · 3 months ago (edited)

  The bit where Rich says he became &apos;more autistic&apos; after diagnosis is one of the most honest things I&apos;ve heard about this process. He&apos;d already started unmasking before the formal diagnosis. What the diagnosis gave him was something different — permission to fully stop pushing through. Even alone. Even the small stuff. Less operational on the outside. More himself on the inside. That distinction between unmasking and getting permission to stop suppressing doesn&apos;t get talked about enough.

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• EV

  @evecaroline6754 · 3 months ago

  My three favourite podcasters together... Such an interesting conversation. As a single 55 year old late diagnosed Adhd woman you give me hope that I might eventually find a happy relationship. Keep it up all of you x

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• OG

  @ogpwrs_25 · 3 months ago

  I&apos;m AuDHD and listening to these two is literally what it&apos;s like inside my brain lol

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• LI

  @lish_dizon · 3 months ago

  i haven&apos;t finished watching this episode yet, but Rich &amp; Rox are dear to me. I&apos;m undiagnosed AuDHD turning forty this year. I can see myself in both of them, but as i&apos;m getting older, the autism traits have been more apparent. Hearing a different perspective about how i can come across and how my actions and behavior affect people, esp people i care about, it&apos;s eye-opening, enlightening, and yes a little bit of shame there too. when Rox said about the emotional shutdowns, i cried ngl. i used to do that too. it wasn&apos;t the healthiest thing, and it was very hurtful thing to do. and i&apos;m still healing the space in my heart around grief and guilt. now that i&apos;m aware of my neurodivergence, i dont stop learning about it. this is all for now, perhaps i&apos;ll share later after i watch the episode. thank you.

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• WR

  @Wrath669 · 3 months ago

  Man, please don&apos;t become American style reality TV with the fake drama edits. I think I understand it&apos;s supposed to be a joke? But it&apos;s presented as if it was real.<br>I come here because I need the genuineness of the conversations that happen with you and your guests.

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• JO

  @joycebates6411 · 3 months ago

  I agree with Alex, I CRAVE a neat house, but I am overwhelmed and unable to keep up with the mess.

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• TI

  @tiegrsidesignsandstudio4794 · 3 months ago (edited)

  Oh sweet Rich. It&apos;s not that you used to be able to push through and now you can&apos;t - it&apos;s that you used to do things that caused you to throw up every morning and now you don&apos;t. <br><br>I&apos;m going through this as well, having been diagnosed at 41, and I feel a lot of guilt about it, specifically about not being able to push through and do things for my family that I used to be able to. <br><br>I&apos;ve had my diagnosis for 5 years now, and I&apos;ve realised that even though my conscious brain never said &quot;XYZ thing physically or mentally tortures me to do and I&apos;m keeping a tally&quot;, my subconscious DID keep that tally, until two days later when my daughter accidentally dropped a spoon l on the floor and I&apos;d have to go outside and chop down a tree, or suddenly those dishes I&apos;d been doing all week WERE too much to push through and I&apos;d fall on the floor near the sink in a heap and cry until I&apos;d hyperventilate.<br><br>It&apos;s not &quot;I used to be able to do this&quot;, it&apos;s &quot;doing this used to contribute to me having a meltdown later&quot;. Whether that meltdown looked like anger, or tears, or shut down, or anything else, doing these things that caused overwhelm was the problem. Now you have the solution, and the confidence because of your diagnosis to use that solution and say &quot;I WON&apos;T MAKE MYSELF do this&quot;,. <br><br>That confidence comes from feeling free from criticism about your desire to avoid things (or in some cases to do things not socially acceptable). You have a valid medical reason. You AREN&apos;T crazy, or stupid, or lazy. Those are the critiques we USED to hear and feel we had to accept before we had our diagnosis. Now we know they aren&apos;t true. We don&apos;t have bad brains, just different brains. <br><br>For anyone who read all the way through...thanks for sticking with me. I hope it helped YOU in some way. <br><br>I was diagnosed with AuDHD at 41. Like Rich, I have a neurodivergent partner, but did not realise that I was neurodivergent as well - not for a long time. My partner and I have different flavors of AuDHD...he is much more outwardly calm and methodical and I am much outwardly more flippant and wild, but internally, those roles are switched. I feel like that makes us amazing partners.

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• HU

  @hugglesnz · 3 months ago

  I&apos;m AuDHD with an undiagnosed ADHD husband who doesn&apos;t want to learn anything at all about ADHD, who thinks remaining ignorant about the terminology somehow shields him from it. It doesn&apos;t, it just means we can&apos;t communicate effectively. The shortcomings are still there, they just can&apos;t be expressed. I&apos;m exhausted. I&apos;m doing the best I can, it&apos;s just not enough

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• HA

  @hannahsarthub · 3 months ago

  Hearing Rox talk about her past experience with cleanliness and keeping a tidy house, and then hearing Rich talk about how he can’t function in a messy environment does make me wonder how in the world you guys made it past the first stage. &nbsp;Then again, my husband and I made it to almost 20 years. &nbsp;Unfortunately, at the moment, I’m not sure about the future, so this interview made me kind of sad, especially since ADHD seems to be the biggest point of conflict (I was diagnosed a couple years ago). &nbsp;I really hope that we can make it through this year.

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• SH

  @ShaunaMarieG · 3 months ago (edited)

  Love these two SO MUCH ❤️🩵🖤 And you too of course, Alex 💚

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