If you've ever felt that you were doing your actual job perfectly well but somehow failing at the social expectations that come with it, in this episode you’ll hear the reasons, how bosses see you and what you can do to be understood.

The Articulate Autistic, Jaime Heidel, discusses her new book Before You Fire Them: A Practical Guide to Understanding Your Autistic Employee's Traits, Intentions, and Communication Style. She explains how autistic employees are seen by bosses and other employees and how we can navigate our workplaces as autistics.

We talk about things like:

• The hidden meanings behind questions
• The written instructions dilemma
• The problem with asking why
• The office greeting mystery
• The eye contact double standard
• Feedback that feels like an attack
• The mystery of being a team player
• The hyper-competence trap
• Getting promoted and paid what you're worth

And more!

Jaime A. Heidel is The Articulate Autistic, an autistic writer and content creator who explores the misunderstandings between autistic and neurotypical people.

Her new book, Before You Fire Them: A Practical Guide to Understanding Your Autistic Employee's Traits, Intentions, and Communication Style

Another Jaime Heidel book: What Did I Do Wrong?

Find Jaime here:
Website: https://thearticulateautistic.com
TikTok: @thearticulateauti

Link to previous episode with Jaime Heidel: What Did I Do Wrong?

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Subscribe to Meet My Autistic Brain for more conversations that go beyond the usual autism explanations and get into the experiences, frustrations and unexpected discoveries of being an autistic adult.

Ranked #1 in FeedSpot's 40 Best Adult Autism Podcasts

RATED IN THE TOP 0.5% GLOBALLY with more than 1.3 million downloads!

If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to help me continue making new episodes, you can support the show on Patreon, PayPal or KoFi. You can also give a gift to someone who can benefit from learning more about autism.

If you are an autistic person who has written a book about autism or if you have a guest suggestion email me at info@theautisticwoman.com.

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Sol Smith, author of The Autistic’s Guide to Self-Discovery, returns to the show to share what he’s learned from his own late diagnosis, more than two decades in the classroom, and years of coaching neurodivergent adults. His new book, The ADHDer’s Guide to Self-Discovery: Thriving with Your High-Energy Mind, is packed with real-world strategies. This episode helps you put them to work.

What you’ll hear more about in this episode:

• Making sense of the overlap between ADHD and autism
• Why you feel lazy when you know you’re not and what you can do about it
• Building relationships and support that work for you
• Getting a lot done in a way that fits how your brain works
• Creating a schedule that supports your natural energy
• Why habits are harder for ADHDers and a better way to approach them
• How to get out of the trap of perfectionism and overworking

Also in this episode:

• How Sol’s years of teaching shaped his coaching
• What to say when people brush it off with “everybody does that”
• What good support from friends, family, and therapists can look like
• A question Sol wishes more people would ask

About the guest:

Sol Smith, PhD, is an author, coach, and former professor who taught for more than 25 years. He is autistic and ADHD, and he reaches a wide audience through his YouTube channel and an online support community.

Connect with Sol:

Sol’s website https://www.professorsol.com/

Book: The ADHDer’s Guide to Self-Discovery: Thriving with Your High-Energy Mind

Book: The Autistic’s Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing As A Neurodivergent Adult

Sol’s YouTube Channel

Support the show

Ranked #1 in FeedSpot's 41 Best Adult Autism Podcasts

RATED IN THE TOP 0.5% GLOBALLY with more than 1.3 million downloads!

If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to help me continue making new episodes, you can support the show on Patreon, PayPal or KoFi. You can also give a gift to someone who can benefit from learning more about autism.

If you are an autistic person who has written a book about autism or if you have a guest suggestion email me at info@theautisticwoman.com.

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Email: info@theautisticwoman.com
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There’s a reason routine appeals so strongly to some autistic minds while feeling like the enemy for others. Learn the surprisingly powerful rituals many neurodivergent people rely on, the everyday tasks that are worth putting on autopilot, and the parts of life better left wide open. And you might want to know why a routine you choose feels entirely different from one imposed on you. Whether routines are a lifeline, a struggle, or a bit of both, this episode offers fresh ways to think about them.

Support the show

Ranked #1 in FeedSpot's 40 Best Adult Autism Podcasts

RATED IN THE TOP 0.5% GLOBALLY with more than 1.3 million downloads!

If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to help me continue making new episodes, you can support the show on Patreon, PayPal or KoFi. You can also give a gift to someone who can benefit from learning more about autism.

If you are an autistic person who has written a book about autism or if you have a guest suggestion email me at info@theautisticwoman.com.

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Email: info@theautisticwoman.com
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What if you had a doctor who supported you in all the ways you need help? From chronic illness to employment support and beyond, that kind of healthcare exists and in this episode you’ll learn about the resources that will guide you toward getting it.

Dr. Melissa Houser, author of A Failure of Imagination: How the Healthcare System Fails Neurodivergent People—And What We're Doing Instead, tells how you can be empowered to recognize how your body feels and trust your intuition about your health. She provides the tools for you and for your healthcare provider to understand each other’s language. She explains how involving her community of patients defines how she practices neuroinclusive medicine.

In a world of growing isolation, Dr Houser reveals the serious health implications of loneliness and offers a solution.

It’s time for a change and this is where you can make a difference in your own life. Find out how in this conversation with Dr. Melissa Houser.

Website: All Brains Belong

Book: A Failure of Imagination: How the Healthcare System Fails Neurodivergent People—And What We're Doing Instead

Resources: All Brains Belong Digital Resource Library

Support the show

Ranked #1 in FeedSpot's 40 Best Adult Autism Podcasts

RATED IN THE TOP 0.5% GLOBALLY with more than 1.3 million downloads!

If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to help me continue making new episodes, you can support the show on Patreon, PayPal or KoFi. You can also give a gift to someone who can benefit from learning more about autism.

If you are an autistic person who has written a book about autism or if you have a guest suggestion email me at info@theautisticwoman.com.

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Email: info@theautisticwoman.com
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Menopause touches almost everyone eventually, whether you're the one going through it, supporting someone who is, or know it's coming someday. Most of us walk into it with almost no real information. This episode is here to change that especially if you're autistic or love someone who is.

This conversation, with information drawn from a recent study and the book Dr. Rachel Moseley wrote with her co-author Dr. Julie Gamble-Turner, Autistic Menopause: A Guide to the Menopausal Transition for Autistic People and Those Supporting Them gives you the information that’s important to know for this significant time of our lives, including:

• why menopause can hit autistic people harder;
• the double impact on memory and executive function;
• why masking often becomes impossible to sustain;
• what it does to communication while managing eye contact, tone, and content all at once.

Rachel talks about something rarely discussed—the genuine upsides many autistic women report once they're through it.

This is an enlightening conversation with researcher and psychologist Dr. Rachel Moseley. Check the link below to learn how you can participate in a study about menopause and its treatment.

About the guest: Rachel Moseley, PhD, Principal Academic in Psychology at Bournemouth University (PhD in cognitive neuroscience) co-author of Autistic Menopause: A Guide to the Menopausal Transition for Autistic People and Those Supporting Them.

Rachel’s website: Science on the Spectrum

Contact Rachel

Get the book here: Autistic Menopause: A Guide to the Menopausal Transition for Autistic People and Those Supporting Them

*You’re invited to participate in a new study on menopause symptoms, treatment and neurodiversity. Use this link to get started. This is an online survey about menopause and menopause treatment. The researchers are particularly interested in how experiences of menopause treatment might differ between neurotypical and neurodivergent people and need to hear from people of all neurotypes.

Thank you for listening!

Support the show

Ranked #1 in FeedSpot's 40 Best Adult Autism Podcasts

RATED IN THE TOP 0.5% GLOBALLY with more than 1.3 million downloads!

If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to help me continue making new episodes, you can support the show on Patreon, PayPal or KoFi. You can also give a gift to someone who can benefit from learning more about autism.

If you are an autistic person who has written a book about autism or if you have a guest suggestion email me at info@theautisticwoman.com.

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Email: info@theautisticwoman.com
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Occupational therapy can empower autistics in our every day lives. Carolyn Gillen, an autistic occupational therapist working with neurodivergent women, breaks down how occupational therapy for autistic adults can help with:

• recognizing hunger, thirst, and nervous system signals your body may not flag clearly;
• navigating sensory processing that can swing between overwhelming and numb;
• advocating for yourself in a doctor's office when your pain doesn't match your expression;
• making small, practical shifts you can actually use;
• breaking burnout into function, not willpower;
• how OT treats these as functional, fixable friction points in daily life, not personality flaws to correct.

She tells how to recognize a safe, supportive therapeutic space. She explains why coaching, burnout, and meditation might be worth a second look from an OT perspective.

Find Carolyn at her website

Contact page

Support the show

Subscribe to Meet My Autistic Brain for more conversations that go beyond the usual autism explanations and get into the experiences, frustrations and unexpected discoveries of being an autistic adult.

Ranked #1 in FeedSpot's 40 Best Adult Autism Podcasts

RATED IN THE TOP 0.5% GLOBALLY with more than 1.3 million downloads!

If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to help me continue making new episodes, you can support the show on Patreon, PayPal or KoFi. You can also give a gift to someone who can benefit from learning more about autism.

If you are an autistic person who has written a book about autism or if you have a guest suggestion email me at info@theautisticwoman.com.

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You did everything you were supposed to do — showed up, did the homework, tried the techniques. And it left you feeling worse…or definitely not better. This episode gets into why standard talk therapy often misses autistic people and what a version built for our brains actually looks like.

Support the show

RATED IN THE TOP 0.5% GLOBALLY with more than 1.3 million downloads!

If you are an autistic person who has written a book about autism or if you have a guest suggestion email me at info@theautisticwoman.com.

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Email: info@theautisticwoman.com
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We autistics have a type of wealth, or capital, as a result of adapting, coping and growing as individuals with neurodivergent challenges. Essy Knopf, a therapist and author, has developed the Neurodivergent Cultural Wealth Framework, a valuable way to look at our neurodivergence. In this episode he explains what makes up the framework and how it enriches our lives with:

• Self-Knowledge Capital
• Adaptation Capital
• Pattern Recognition Capital
• Community Capital
• Resistance Capital
• Embodied Capital
• Passion Capital
• Identity Capital
• Meaning-Making Capital

This framework goes beyond deficit views of autistics and neurodivergents and explains how we have developed forms of knowledge, adaptation, perspective, and wisdom that are often overlooked when attention is focused solely on those deficits. This framework gives us a whole new way of looking at our lives.

Website: https://www.essyknopf.com

Check out Essy's YouTube channel

Essy on Instagram

New book: Unscramble Your Brain: A Neurodivergent Guide to Getting Things Done, Your Way

Other books by Essy Knopf available at https://www.essyknopf.com and book retailers:

Book: Unmasking: What We Lose by Pretending and How to Get It Back

Neurodivergent Game Plan

Neurodivergent Game Plan: The Workbook

The Neuroaffirming Therapy Handbook

Unmasking

Nepo

Support the show

RATED IN THE TOP 0.5% GLOBALLY with more than 1.3 million downloads!

If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to help me continue making new episodes, you can become a member of the community on Patreon at patreon.com/theautisticwoman. You can even give a gift to someone who can benefit from learning more about autism.

If you are an autistic person who has written a book about autism or if you have a guest suggestion email me at info@theautisticwoman.com.

Instagram
Ko-fi, PayPal, Patreon
Linktree
Email: info@theautisticwoman.com
Website