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The AuDHD Psych Podcast

The AuDHD Psych Podcast

By: HowearthPsychology
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Clinical psychologist, PhD student and AuDHDer, Aaron Howearth chats about Autism, ADHD and their combination in humans, framed within their lived experience, their work in clinical psychology, and the neurodiversity-affirming paradigm.




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The AuDHD Psych Podcast is part of a longer-term plan to fund and undertake independent research into early intervention programs for neurodivergent children.


Our goal is to eliminate the experience of deficit and disorder by helping neurodivergent children grow to be adults understand their own characteristics simply as differences and choose “good-fit” environments that align with their goals.

© 2026 The AuDHD Psych Podcast Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Ep33: Neurodivergent Experience — Self-Concept and it's Influence on Experience

    Ep33: Neurodivergent Experience — Self-Concept and it's Influence on Experience
    Oct 13 2026

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    🎙️ Episode 34: AuDHD (& Human) Experience — Self-Concept & It's Influence on 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 view of ourselves as humans with strengths, weaknesses, and neutral characteristics alike.

    Key Themes & Takeaways:

    • Self-concept as integrated beliefs – our understanding of who and what we are, across every important life domain
    • Every experience is a lesson – successes and failures alike continually update our self-concept, which is never set and forget
    • Failure experiences and anxiety-driven motivation – relying on urgency and deadlines without the right anchors can build a history of perceived failure
    • The deficit model's implicit lessons – when the construct itself is framed as a deficit, neurodivergent people learn they are "not right" simply by being different
    • The self-fulfilling loop – a negative self-concept raises anxiety, reduces performance, and makes mistakes the salient memory
    • Success experiences change self-concept – scaffolded challenges teach us "I can cope with this" and build confidence
    • Community as a realistic comparison – being among similar people replaces comparison against "normal" with a fair and appropriate norm
    • Balanced, not superpowered – a truthful self-concept includes strengths, weaknesses, and value-neutral characteristics
    • Self-concept drives emotion, and emotion is the quality of our lives

    Referenced Concepts:

    • Self-concept and CBT core beliefs
    • Working model of emotions (previous episode)
    • Deficit-based and medical models of neurodivergence
    • Implicit learning and the "normal equals right" heuristic
    • Scaffolded exposure and success experiences
    • Community and realistic social comparison (queer theory and minority community)
    • LOAPAC – the League of Autistic Psychologists and Affirming Colleagues

    We are different, not defective.

    Follow us on Instagram for updates and community discussion.

    Got a question or story to share? Send us fan mail — we'd love to hear from you.

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    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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    18 mins
  • Ep33: AuDHD Experience — Disclosure and Self-Advocacy

    Ep33: AuDHD Experience — Disclosure and Self-Advocacy
    Oct 6 2026
    Send us Fan Mail🎙️ 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 would help, and whether seeking it is worth the cost. That list tells you where disclosure actually serves you.Key Themes & Takeaways:Disclosure is a process, not an event – we invite people in repeatedly, to new supervisors, HR, teachers, colleagues and friends, across settings and across our livesPartial disclosure is normal – telling some people and not others isn't doing it badly; it's the most common pattern and reflects safety, not commitmentCost-benefit analysis sits at the centre – weigh the energy and anxiety of disclosing, and the risk of prejudice, against the accommodations and expectation management it could unlockSpoons matter – capacity to disclose and self-advocate fluctuates day to day with everything else going on in your life, and it's okay to say not todayYou don't have to name the diagnosis – in Australian workplaces you can describe difficulties and propose solutions without disclosing a health conditionAccommodations are a structural good – for employers, adjustments aren't an inconvenience but the way to keep goal-aligned people who feel safe, included and respectedIf nothing improved, it isn't you – partially met, unmet, delayed and self-funded accommodations are a documented pattern in the research, not a personal failingThe AuDHD research gap – almost all disclosure research lumps neurodivergent people together; ADHD is thin and AuDHD is near-absent, so prospective PhD students take noteKnow your needs before you disclose – mapping environment, differences, impact, accommodation and worth-it-ness tells you where disclosure is actually in your interestReferenced Concepts:Romualdez et al. (2021), "People Might Understand Me Better": diagnostic disclosure experiences of 238 autistic adults in UK workplacesLove et al. (2023) / Aspect Australia: experience-sampling study of 36 autistic adults across 231 disclosure opportunitiesReasonable adjustments and undue hardship in Australian workplacesLearning plans in school and university settingsSpoon theory and fluctuating cognitive and social energyMasking, stress-related rigidity and sensory differences (including misophonia)LOAPAC (League of Autistic Psychologists and Affirming Colleagues; LOAPAC.org) register of affirming practitionersThis episode is psychoeducation for general information only and isn't individualised therapy. If you need individual support, please find an affirming clinician in your area.We are different, not defective.Follow us on Instagram for updates and community discussion.Got a question or story to share? Send us fan mail — we'd love to hear from you.Support the showKeywords: 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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    26 mins
  • Ep 32: AuDHD Experience - Understanding Emotions - A Conceptual Working Model

    Ep 32: AuDHD Experience - Understanding Emotions - A Conceptual Working Model
    Sep 2 2026

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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 fawn each reflect a different appraisal of available resources to manage a threat
    • Flop and hopelessness – depression's low-arousal presentation is framed as a response to perceived hopelessness about safety
    • Disgust as a distinct response – slower-threat, memory-enhancing, and less about urgent escape
    • Thriving states – curiosity, interest, and play are framed as extensions available once safety is established
    • Practical self-reflection tool – simple questions (expectation, direction, activation, agency) can help identify emotions without relying on interoceptive cues

    Referenced Concepts:

    • Alexithymia and interoception
    • Schema theory and internal working models
    • Darwin's theory of natural selection
    • Fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and flop responses
    • Disgust and contamination-avoidance
    • Kelly McGonigal's TED talk on stress reappraisal

    We are different, not defective.

    Follow us on Instagram for updates and community discussion.

    Got a question or story to share? Send us fan mail — we'd love to hear from you.


    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
    Show More Show Less
    24 mins
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