By Emily Linder, LPCC-S | Calibrations Counseling & Consultation I'm writing this on a day where I've already walked into the kitchen three times and forgotten why, my toddler has been velcroed to my body since approximately 6am, and I still have a full evening of parenting ahead of me that requires me to function like a capable adult. I'm a therapist. I know exactly what's happening in my nervous system right now. And I'm still sitting here wondering how everyone else seems

By Emily Linder, LPCC-S | Calibrations Counseling & Consultation I said yes to hosting Thanksgiving dinner even though the thought made my stomach turn. Yes to a networking event I knew would leave me depleted for days. Yes to taking on an extra project at work when I was already drowning. And then I went home and cried in my closet because I couldn't figure out why I kept doing this to myself. This was three years into knowing I was autistic and had ADHD. I'd done therapy. I

By Emily Linder, LPCC-S | Calibrations Counseling & Consultation I was lying on my couch at 2 PM on a Tuesday, unable to get up. Not because I was physically ill. My brain had simply stopped cooperating. I'd been pushing through burnout for months, and my body had finally staged a full rebellion. Work emails were piling up. Projects had deadlines. Clients needed me. And I couldn't make myself move. All I could think was: if I'm not producing, what's the point of me? That thou

For a lot of neurodivergent people, the world asks more than it gives back. Masking in social situations, managing sensory overload, navigating environments built for neurotypical brains, compensating for executive dysfunction. All of it requires effort that most people around you don't see and wouldn't know to account for. Over time, that effort accumulates. And at some point, it becomes too much. That's neurodivergent burnout. And it's not the kind of tired that a good week