GlisZENing (Page 2)

Latest

The Communication Illusion: Why We Need to Rethink Autism and "Social Deficits"

If you open the DSM-5, the diagnostic manual used by mental health professionals worldwide, you will find autism described largely through a lens of lack. Specifically, it highlights "deficits in social communication." For decades, the medical community has used the non-autistic (neurotypical) majority as the undisputed

Welcome to the new home!

This is the new home of GlisZEN, moving into our own home. You will see that all of the previous GlisZENing with Swift Mind Care (Substack Site) content should be here, and likely unlocked...and the hope is to make this so it is less cumbersome to read, and to

Autism Was Never One Thing. The Science, and the Diagnosis Itself, Prove It.

You’ve probably seen a headline claiming scientists found a drug that “treats autism.” It happens every few years, with a different molecule each time. Oxytocin. Psychedelics. The gut microbiome. Most recently, a drug called rapamycin. I’m not going to spend much time on the drug itself, because the

What My Diagnosis Explained About Trust

...your instinct to believe people and assume good faith is not a bug

The Measuring Stick Was Never Mine

For most of my life, I measured myself against people whose brains worked nothing like mine. I didn't know that's what I was doing. I just knew I kept coming up short. Too sensitive. Too inconsistent. Too much, and somehow also not trying hard enough. I

The Kid Who Felt Too Old, the Adult Who Feels Too Young

There’s a pattern I hear constantly in session, and I hear it almost word for word every time. A client will describe their childhood self as an old soul. Then, in the same breath, they’ll describe their adult self as somehow behind. Not behind everyone. Behind their peers

The Hidden Tax of an Ordinary Day

A client told me that they’d had a “good day.” No meltdowns, no shutdowns, nothing dramatic. Then they described that day to me. They’d worn their Loop adaptable earplugs on the drive to work because the radio ads felt like static in their skull. They’d rehearsed a

ADHD Isn’t an Attention Deficit. It’s an Attention Regulation Difference. And the Name We Use Matters More Than We Think.

“ADHD isn’t an attention deficit.” That sentence surprises people every time I say it in session. It surprises parents. It surprises the executives I coach. It even surprises clinicians who learned the diagnostic criteria one way and never questioned the label itself. Here’s the problem. The name we

Feeding the Neurodivergent Brain: Why “Just Eat Better” Doesn’t Work

Brain Fog, Sensory Aversion, and the Misunderstood Reasons for

Why Divided Attention Feels So Different for an Autistic Brain

Explaining the "Monotropic Split"

Your Body Reacts Before Your Brain Even Knows What Happened

You’ve probably heard some version of this before. “Just calm down.” “Choose differently next time.” “You have more control than you think.” Here’s why that advice falls apart in the actual moment. Your thinking brain is not first in line. It’s not even close. The timeline nobody