Stories, insights, and hard-earned wisdom from the AuDHD human experience. I write about autism, ADHD, resilience, relationships, grief, healing, and the everyday challenge of being human. Part personal reflection, part practical wisdom, and part ongoing experiment, my work helps people feel less alone while discovering what becomes possible when they stop trying to be someone else.
Notes From the Thick of It (Sept 2, 2026)
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I call this Notes From the Thick of It because I’m writing from inside real life, not from a polished finish line. These are reflections from the messy middle of AuDHD and chronic Illness, where overwhelm, grief, humor, healing, and small flashes of clarity all show up together. If you like what you read, please share it. Meanwhile, in My BrainWe don't have cookie cutter brains. Accommodating one person's ADHD doesn't mean the problem is solved for all of us. To suggest otherwise is profoundly ignorant. When "Not Bad" Doesn't Mean GoodI’ll ask someone how their day or week went, and the answer is often, “Not bad.” Over my 20+ years working with the autism/ADHD community, I’ve noticed a pattern that has stayed pretty consistent. When I hear "not bad" and dig a little deeper, I realize “not bad” doesn’t mean good things happened. It can mean they avoided the land mines. Nobody got mad at them. They didn’t embarrass themselves. They didn’t feel stupid. They didn’t disappoint someone. They made it through without getting hurt. Then I’ll ask, “What went well or what worked?” And many of them draw a blank. Not because nothing went well, but because they’ve spent so much of their lives in survival mode they learned to scan for red flags at the expense of green ones. So much that any green flag feels like a fluke. I was raised on a steady diet of criticism, correction and shame. There were a handful of people who saw the positives I bring to the world, but they always felt like outliers whose work was undone once I had to jump back into the snake pit of daily life. So I get how difficult it can be when you measure a good day with “Nobody got mad at me”; it becomes very difficult to build a sense of yourself as capable, successful, or even worthy of feeling proud of yourself. Sometimes part of learning to see ourselves differently is learning to notice more than the land mines we managed to avoid. We also have to notice the ground we covered. What If Your Child Doesn't Need to Fit the Box? with Dr. Norrine RussellWhat if the problem isn’t your child, or your parenting, but the environment they’re being asked to succeed in? In this conversation with Dr. Norrine Russell, we talk about the part of raising a neurodivergent child that parents don’t always feel safe admitting out loud. The exhaustion. The second-guessing. The strain on relationships. And the fear that despite everything you’re doing, you might still be getting it wrong. Dr. Russell brings both professional expertise and the lived experience of raising a neurodivergent son. Together, we explore what can change when we stop asking children with ADHD, autism, anxiety, and emotional regulation challenges to fit someone else’s definition of success, and start asking what they actually need to thrive. If you’ve ever wondered, Am I doing enough? Am I doing this right? Will my child be okay? I think you’ll find some hope in this conversation. 🌿 Get Your Copy of Agatha’s Garden 🌿Have you purchased your copy? I'd love to hear your feedback. Thanks for being you, |
Brian R. King MSW
Stories, insights, and hard-earned wisdom from the AuDHD human experience. I write about autism, ADHD, resilience, relationships, grief, healing, and the everyday challenge of being human. Part personal reflection, part practical wisdom, and part ongoing experiment, my work helps people feel less alone while discovering what becomes possible when they stop trying to be someone else.
I call this Notes From the Thick of It because I’m writing from inside real life, not from a polished finish line. These are reflections from the messy middle of AuDHD and chronic Illness, where overwhelm, grief, humor, healing, and small flashes of clarity all show up together. If you like what you read, please share it. Meanwhile, in My Brain Life with AuDHD lends itself to latching on to a lot of unhelpful ideas about our own worth, how relationships work, and more. Then the day comes when...
I call this Notes From the Thick of It because I’m writing from inside real life, not from a polished finish line. These are reflections from the messy middle of AuDHD and chronic Illness, where overwhelm, grief, humor, healing, and small flashes of clarity all show up together. If you like what you read, please share it. Meanwhile, in My Brain Unmasking isn’t safe to do in every situation. There are times when masking makes sense because stripping naked in front of others isn’t always safe....
I call this Notes From the Thick of It because I’m writing from inside real life, not from a polished finish line. These are reflections from the messy middle of AuDHD and chronic Illness, where overwhelm, grief, humor, healing, and small flashes of clarity all show up together. If you like what you read, please share it. Meanwhile, in My Brain Acceptance isn’t the same as submission. The School System Gave Up on My Father My father spent much of his life believing he wasn’t very smart....