Spring is here for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and as the weather starts to warm up it becomes uncomfortably obvious just how extra dependent we were on our digital devices to get us through the cold, winter months. Honestly, regardless of the time of year, most of us are probably on our devices too much; it’s hard not to be when nearly…

There’s a lot of talk right now about autism. Unfortunately, we’re seeing a resurgence of people pathologizing the autistic experience and reinforcing social stigmas and negative stereotypes. Yes, autism comes with its challenges but to demonize it is complete and utter nonsense; it’s simple fear mongering from people who have clearly never truly k…

We’re back again with another installment of Futile or Functional, where we explore the usefulness of the internet’s suggestions for our mental health. This time we’re diving into some ADHD life hacks. Since Autumn isn’t ADHD, we’ve welcomed Jake back for another episode to give his feedback on these suggestions. So join us as Ivy and Jake try to d…

We’ve all heard some iteration of the serenity prayer, but what does that actually look like? What does it mean to accept the things you can’t change and work toward changing the things you can? How do you even decide what to change and what to accept? Join us as we discuss how living by the serenity prayer can positively impact your life. If you’r…

The times are tumultuous and uncertain and, let’s be honest, it’s not exactly bringing out the best in most people. So, let’s take a stroll down memory lane, get a blast from the past, and live for a brief, blissful moment in the delusion that we’re back in the 90s. The 90s may not have been perfect either (we certainly had more than our fair share…

Music is such a powerful tool for emotional processing and personal expression; and with how crazy the world seems to have been in recent years, music seems like a more valuable resource than ever. Whether you use it to help you calm down, vent your frustrations, have a good cry, or find hope on the darkest days music is a fundamental part of our s…

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to visit the mind of someone with ADHD? Well, now you can! But we don’t recommend actually doing it because taking a tour of the ADHD brain may involve getting a head injury. We would know because as sisters, we apparently feel the need to do everything together, so we went and got matching brain injurie…

How do you feel about Valentine’s Day? Personally, we don’t love it, but we also don’t hate it. What we do hate is that the current state of the world is kinda lousy and the long, slow trudge through winter is starting to feel like a real Debbie Downer. So with that in mind, we thought the Love holiday might be a perfect excuse to do something fun …

Are you a fashionista? Us too! Not really. We lied. We’re not even good at faking it, but we’re trying. Is fashion supposed to be so hard? What are the rules? How do you know you’ve committed a fashion faux pas? Is that person staring at you because they like your style or because they think you look vaguely unhinged? How are you supposed to tolera…

We’re starting to settle into 2025 but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ve left the hardships of 2024 behind us (or the previous years for that matter). If you’re anything like us you may find that you’re still a little shell-shocked and unsure of how to move forward. We’re still processing the lessons from the past and the horizon ahead is a …

Here we are, yet again, at the start of another year. If you’re anything like us, 2024 must have put you through the wringer too. We’re ready to put last year behind us, but we’re also giving 2025 that wary, suspicious side-eye until it proves it can play nicer and be more reasonable than its predecessor. So instead of revisiting the usual new year…

'Tis the season for gift-giving, but for many neurodivergent individuals, the holidays can bring more stress than joy. From choosing the right gift to managing limited resources like time, money, and energy, selecting the perfect present can feel like navigating a minefield. The pressure to find something meaningful and the fear of getting it wrong…

Thanksgiving is sneaking up on us again here in the USA, and there’s just so much to be thankful for this time of year! Or is there? That’s the question. Well, maybe not exactly. Are there things to be thankful for? Sure. If you look hard enough you can always find something, but you know what’s often even easier to find? Things you’re not thankful…

This time of year is the perfect opportunity for crafting, creativity, and community! Even if you don’t think you’re “that kind of person” you might be surprised by how much fun it can be and what you can learn about yourself and others. With that in mind, we’ve decided to do something we’ve never done before on the podcast: a craft-along! And for …

It’s spooky season! How are you going to spend your Halloween? Over here, we’ll be having a nice big group hug with the boogeyman and all his friends. Why? Because that’s one of the best parts of spooky season. Join us as we take a look closer at the symbols and icons of the season in order to learn from them and face our greatest fears. You can ev…

What do you do when it all falls apart? Well, you rise from the ashes like a phoenix, of course. Yes, but how? What does that look like and how do you do it? Join us for this two-part episode on what it actually means to rise from the ashes and rebuild your life. In this episode, we’re exploring what it means to rebuild your life and your sense of …

What do you do when it all falls apart? Well, you rise from the ashes like a phoenix, of course. Yes, but how? What does that look like and how do you do it? Join us for this two-part episode on what it actually means to rise from the ashes and rebuild your life. In this first episode, we’ll be discussing survival mode: what it is, how to know you’…

We would say that things have been rough lately but let’s be honest, for many of us it’s not just been “lately”. If you’re a regular listener of our podcast then chances are good that you’ve been trying to manage your mental health or neurodivergence or that you’ve been trying to heal from a significant trauma; and those overarching themes are alwa…

Heeeey! So the bad news is that we don’t have a new episode because Ivy is moving. The good news is that we still have an episode for you, a compilation of some clips from our Patreon vault. The other good news is that we’re finally going to be able to record again in a few days once Ivy finishes unpacking her studio setup so we’ll have a brand spa…

We’ve got something a little special for you guys this time, since Ivy is still living that couch surfing life for now and won’t have a recording space for another couple of weeks. Autumn’s boyfriend Jake has filled in as a guest host for this episode about neurodivergence in committed relationships. Do you ever feel like you’re hard to love? Well,…

Most of us have wondered at one time or another what impact we have on the lives of other people and what legacy we’ll be leaving behind. All too often we fall into the trap of feeling insignificant, like nothing we say or do matters; and the worst of our intrusive thoughts might even have us believing that our impact is negative, that we do more h…

It seems like over the last several years a lot of us have been experimenting with elimination diets as a way to treat everything from hormone imbalances to autoimmune to diseases, and mental health issues to medical mysteries. While the old adage: “You are what you eat” has been around for a very long time it’s only in recent decades that science …

It seems like over the last several years a lot of us have been experimenting with elimination diets as a way to treat everything from hormone imbalances to autoimmune to diseases, and mental health issues to medical mysteries. While the old adage: “You are what you eat” has been around for a very long time it’s only in recent decades that science …

Maybe life is always in flux but it sure feels as though this year has brought with it even more changes than usual. If you feel like your life has been completely upended and you’ve found yourself, willingly or unwillingly, on a transformative journey as a result, you’re not alone. We know what it’s like when the hits keep coming, the universe kee…

To a certain degree we all go through life wearing a mask, or a series of masks that we change out based on the social situation we find ourselves in, but when you’re neurodivergent this masking process is taken to another level. Most of us learn at a very young age that our social survivability is dependent upon our ability to read the social scri…

When we think of our mental health, we tend to immediately start making a list of everything that is wrong; and we fall into that habit so easily because, for many of us, something has been wrong for a long time and we’ve been actively trying to sort it out and work on ourselves. Being on a healing and self-discovery journey is one of the most powe…

The march of time never stops, the demands on our personal time never seem to wane, and there’s always more than enough stress to go around. The truth is, most of us tend to burn the candle at both ends, and that habit has a way of catching up to us in the form of burnout. Yes, sometimes we put ourselves in that position unnecessarily but there are…

S-E-X is almost always a taboo topic of discussion, perhaps especially among neurotypicals and “civilized society”. For those of us who are neurodivergent and already regularly struggle with the subtleties of social scripts, the topic of intimacy can feel more taboo and, at times, even confusing. The lived experience of neurodivergents is often dif…

Like many other things in life, neurodivergence is a bit of a double-edged sword. Some of our neurodivergent traits are so impressive that they almost seem like superpowers, while others impair our ability to function so much that they can feel like a curse. What’s even more interesting is how our own perception of these traits may differ from the …

Increasingly more of us are being diagnosed with some form of neurodivergence and/or are accidentally stumbling upon an unexpected sense of kinship among neurodivergent communities on social media. As our knowledge expands, both clinically and culturally, our vocabulary around neurodivergence is also evolving at a rapid rate. Clinicians have been i…

How’s everyone feeling out there? Not gonna lie, 2024 has started off as a very stressful year for us. We have our tried-and-true coping mechanisms and skills but let’s face it, sometimes you just need a little something extra to get you through the storm; so we did a little internet search to see if there were any suggestions that maybe we hadn’t …

We’ve been doing the podcast now for a little over two years and if you’ve been listening for awhile you’d probably think you know us pretty well by now. I mean we do share a lot about our personal lives and past experiences, and we always try to be as authentic as possible, but if you’re neurodivergent you’re likely also very familiar with a littl…

Happy Valentine’s Day! Do ya’ll celebrate this holiday? To be honest, we don’t really celebrate it much ourselves. There’s too much pressure to make things extra special and it’s uncomfortable to eat at an overcrowded restaurant. Also, does anyone else think it’s strange to romanticize an internal organ, especially since a “heart” looks nothing lik…

We’d like to believe that all trauma and abuse survivors are purely sympathetic characters who would never inflict the kind of pain they’ve been through on another person, but the reality is usually much messier than that. When we hear the phrase “hurt people, hurt people” we often think of it as a way to understand and maybe even develop compassio…

If you’re a neurodivergent person, chances are you’re used to feeling out of step with the rest of the world. Those of us in the community have learned the importance of masking and adaptation because we’ve often been accused of being weird, lazy, unmotivated, easily distracted, overly sensitive, immature, inappropriate, unempathetic, disrespectful…

Happy New Year! 2023 was a wild year, and by that we mean it was a feral beast. We may have all walked away from it a little scratched up, bruised, and shell shocked but we made it! Cheers to our survival and to the hope that 2024 will usher in some much-needed relief and happiness; after these last few chaotic and pensive years, we’ve all certainl…

How’s everyone doing out there? If the answer is “Not so great” we feel you. The holiday season is a bit of a trudge for us too, and few things are more grating on the nerves than the inescapably repetitive songs and movies that play for weeks on end every single year. How many times can you listen to Jingle Bells without losing your mind? How many…

Love it or hate it, the holiday season can be the most challenging and stressful time of year. Sure, there are lots of pretty sparkly things and good food and magical festivities and great sales BUT there’s also so much traffic, so many crowded stores, tons of familial and social obligations, and a surplus of financial woes. Santa always comes bear…

Over the river and through the woods, to our traumatic holiday memories we go. Buckle up folks, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride! We may not be able to pick our families, but we can choose whether we laugh or cry at the madness and chaos they bring to us. We’ve personally cried plenty of tears over the years, and while there may still be one or two of th…

It’s here guys. We’re in the thick of it, and we don’t mean mashed potatoes and gravy. We mean the holiday season. Dun, Dun, Dun! If you grew up with a dysfunctional family, you probably had at least a few traumatic holidays with them and that can make you a little skittish when the turkey and jingle bells start coming out. Family is hard. Holidays…

If you enjoyed our most recent episode, we have a surprise for you. We actually held back one extra story to release for Halloween. We hope you all have a terribly wonderful Halloween!By Ivy Turner & Autumn Braack

Happy Halloween! Spooky season is upon us and we need your help to settle a dispute! While we both love fall, Ivy has a fondness for the creepy, crawly, scary aspects of the season but Autumn most definitely does not. Now we’re not debating whether horror is good or bad entertainment, or even necessarily whether it’s good or evil. No, we’re at an i…

Autumn is here! And we don’t mean the co-host of the podcast either. Are you slipping into your flannel shirts, beanies, and boots yet? Enjoyed any pumpkin spice lattes or apple fritters? Have you been busy decorating, watching horror movies, and picking out a costume for spooky season? We don’t know about you, but this year has been putting us thr…

Okay ya’ll, we’re doing something a little bit different this time. Chances are you’ve heard of inner child work, and if you’re listening to this podcast you’ve probably also done some inner child work yourself or are curious about trying it. When we hear the words “inner child work” we often imagine cathartic moments, full of difficult and complex…

It seems like everyone has an opinion about everything, whether those opinions are educated and well-informed or not. If you’re a trauma survivor you’ve probably heard them all, everything from victim-blaming to toxic positivity and everything in between. Some of the people who are spouting these opinions are willfully ignorant and abusive while ot…

There’s a whole lot of crazy going on in the world right now. Maybe there always is but these last few years it has felt worse than usual. The pandemic, social unrest, political corruption, economic downturn, ongoing war, an uptick in natural disasters, and so on and so on. Nearly all of us are feeling the effects of this combined chaos in one way …

In our last episode, we may have picked on neurotypicals just a little bit so this time we thought we’d level the playing field and talk about The Great Equalizer. No, not death. Awkwardness. While we, as neurodivergent people, often think of ourselves as being the most painfully, embarrassingly awkward people on the planet the truth is neurotypica…

Those of us in the neurodivergent community have had our fair share of struggles with social situations. By the standards of the neurotypical world, our social skills come up lacking and we’re often seen as awkward, eccentric, odd, clueless, weird, off-putting, crass, rude, etc… If you’re neurodivergent, you know what we mean. You probably have a w…

Our experience of emotion is something we generally take for granted. Afterall, feelings just tend to happen. Our hearts beat, our lungs breath, our legs move us forward, and we feel stuff. Unless we’re actively struggling with one those things, we don’t often give them much thought or effort. But maybe we should. Emotions and our relationships wit…

We’re in the sweltering stretch of summer and you know what that means... It’s #hotgirlsummer time. Or is it? Join us as we discuss the concept of the “hot girl summer”: what it’s supposed to be; whether the social media image fits its definition; the pros and cons of pursuing that ideal; and some equally valid alternatives if that particular hasht…