The Whispers of an Autistic Mind

    Leaving social media for good was a decision I made earlier this month. I had been taking breaks on and off from it every time I got burnt out. But I realized, being on social media was doing way more damage than I could handle mentally and emotionally. I don't like to use my diagnosis as a pass; however, I do tend to refer to it to give more context of where I am at emotionally and my perspective. I feel like people in general really don't get the struggles we face being neurodivergent.     Firstly, for those of you who are new to my blog, welcome! My name is Arifa Kokab, and I am a scientist with Autism and ADHD. I am also very OCD and struggle to read and spell properly believe it or not, lol!     Now back to social media. It is easy for a neurodivergent individual to begin comparing themselves to other people of their age and realizing how very different they are. At least, that is what happened to me. I realized (no I am not complaining) that I don...

       Hello Folks!! Today is an interesting topic I have to talk about. Ever since my brain surgery last year in August 2024, I realized that my thought process has become faster than before. Not just that, I noticed I am able to "absorb" information more thoroughly and learn things quicker. At first I thought that I am probably just being delusional. But then I started measuring my brain's cognitive performance on quantitative and qualitative scales. I checked how many days it took me to learn a new skill, how it felt mentally and emotionally from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective, and how many times I melted down learning these new skills due to Autistic and ADHD overstimulation. For those of you new to my blog, welcome! I am Arifa Kokab, a scientist with Autism and ADHD and I struggle to read in general and my spelling skill sucks big time. I am also very OCD. Anyways, back to my story.      So I began "re-learning" the piano along wi...