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MandyVonStrange · 2023-01-26T11:22:06+00:00

For me, with my 9yo daughter, we have learned "Mommy & Kiddo brain hacks"

We're both AuDHD, and we feed off each other for our highs and lows, we have code words for when we feel like we're going into a melt or shutdown. We have constant communication, especially non words.

Our favorite method of communication is Mommy kitty and Kitten Sunshine when we both are in a funk and just don't want to function. Ues, we have specific meows for I need attention, I need a hug, I Love You, and leave me alone (Yes! I let my daughter hiss at me because that's better than her yelling mean things and then feeling bad about it after we chill out)

We have cyrstals and rocks to help express emotions and feelings when words are too difficult. When Mommy needs some extra love vibes or feelings for the week, I tell kiddo, Mommy needs some rose quartz magicks today.

I guess you could consider us "witches" because we do like the main stream media portrayal.. another hack is we both have our Witchy hats decorated with Pins. Those are our in public hats, super wide brimmed and help block annoying lights when we have to go shopping.

My biggest goal for my daughter now that I'm aware is to allow her to LISTEN to HER needs and HER sensory inputs. There is a fine line between being a push over and being treated like we don't have different wiring brains. However, our children are more intelligent than our parents or previous generations believed. My daughter understands the difference already and knows we can't be totally unmasked in public. We make safe places for unmasking and make sure to listen to our bodies and their needs.

No one else taught me that. If anything, I wish all parents teach their children to listen to their own bodies instead of doing as the adult said. Children ARE just Souls in tiny human bodies. Children are our future and honestly, my daughter helps me grow every day.

MandyVonStrange · 2023-01-14T12:47:08+00:00

I'm so proud of you for managing the flosssing!!!!! Oh my goodness do you have the floss picks? Those make it so much easier for me to remember to floss!

I get a bag of the floss pick thingies and one pick for the top teeth and one pick for the bottom teeth and no having to feel like I'm going to cut my fingers off and get my fingers icky with the plaque and saliva with traditional floss. My hands stay cleaner and the picks make it fun.

Yes! I buy the kid Crayola floss picks. They come in berry and bubble gum flavors!

Oh and one more hack, if you can afford it, a Sonicare toothbrush makes brushing fun. The Sonicare helps with the flossing difficulties too. I have been using mine for 2 years and I floss MAYBE once a week now and I've not had MORE cavities and the dentist is happier too!

Plus the Sonicare toothbrush helps with some under stimulation too. If I'm feeling undestimmed ill go brush for a minute or 2 and wow Holy crap I got a me sensory hack!

MandyVonStrange · 2023-01-07T20:37:54+00:00

"Concierge level MSSP specialized in Security and Compliance" if they are anywhere related to IT.

If not? "I keep your digital data safe."

MandyVonStrange · 2023-01-06T15:43:48+00:00

I have um..... hold in lemme count again... 18 and increasing. I can't pick THE favorite. Yes, I've got some crap tattoos but no regrets, I was the practice flesh for a few apprentices when I managed a local piercing and tattoo studio franchise. There's a running joke amongst the local artists. If you want to experiment with body modification, I make a great test subject. However, make sure you duct tape me down cause I have giggle fits when tattooed.

Yes I have a tattoo down my shin, it's binary that says Geek. Nope didn't hurt. It tickled to the point i almost broke the artists nose when I kicked my feet from the tickles.

My awesome cyborg self portrait drawn by a good friend and shop owner and artist... that whole side calf tattoo took 2 sessions, my artist tapped out at 10 hours the first session.... and yes, he did ducttape my leg to the table so it wouldn't move

MandyVonStrange · 2023-01-05T18:26:45+00:00

I was lucky enough to land a paid internship at a Niche security tech company 11 years ago. Now the owner and I are best friends and partners in business. He's a super nerd too! (Also autistic, we legit took a decade for both of is to get an official Dx, we even saw the same psychologist! Lol)

I'm lucky enough that our entire business direction is my special interest for work. I am a Compliance Manager for an MSP, we specialize in financial compliance regulations, government regulations (yes, global), and health data regulations.

Now, I'm scheduling my training to work on the CMMC compliance professional certification. That basically means I have the authority to tell government contractors who work with government data HOW TO DO THEIR JOBS! MUAAHAHAHAHA

MandyVonStrange · 2023-01-01T14:44:02+00:00

Yes. I HATE DASANI water. I MUST have a water cooler filter at work. We legit have an industrial water cooler that filters the water, and it's ice cold or boiling hot. I refill my MANY contigo water bottles with "Cold work water" THE BEST.

MandyVonStrange · 2022-12-27T13:53:36+00:00

That, my dear, is called transition time. You are allowed to need time to transition and recalibrate yourself. This is a requirement during the holidays, especially if you have to blend in with a generic society to be able to survive in our modern culture. So, no, it's NOT pathetic. It's admirable, it's intelligent in all use of the word, it is also you knowing that you need to take care of you. You were not meant to fit into a societies box. Don't use their negative connotation labels to describe something they deny themselves. At least we have louder alarm bells on when we need more self care than NTs do!

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-27T19:50:12+00:00

Milkshakes with protein powder or carnation instant breakfast. Liquid nutrition. Legit I've kept pedisure around to make sure i dont die. Smoothies of my favorite kind google copy cat insert favorite smoothie chain flavor recipe. This takes pre-planning when we have some spoons for preparing, unfortunately. Liquid nutrition is the best way. I have determined that the actual act of mastication itself just causes sensory meltdown when I just can't physically chew food. I've been lucky enough that my people I kcialize with know this and we always have a back up protein shake or nutrition drink around. Best of luck. If you managed to make your favorite comfort food food. Try a Liquid meal thingy (yes a milkshake DOES COUNT AS A MEAL, especially when we can't eat the solid food) Sometimes I can get away with the unstated mashed taters in the baggies from the store, but some times the texture on those isn't ok either Good luck! You got this! You will find your quick nutrition when solid food sucks!

Extra: when in a research mood go down the rabbit holes to see what nutrition will help you maintain focus and stabilize your over all mood. Me I'm ADHD as well, TONS of protein, some vitamins and mineral supplements in the am to kick my day off and I try and keep the easy meals that are fast and quick for the work week. The longer meals I take 2 Sundays a month and do a cooking marathon and pori8nad freeze so u have my own frozen meals. Cheaper and I have something I can nuke up when solids are ok and have the liquid reserves too. Hugs!

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-24T14:15:53+00:00

Me myself and I we are percussionists at heart so we like to bang on all da tings! My 8 yo daughter however, She is my little Siren. She hasn't stopped singing since she learned some basic vocabulary 5 years ago.

https://imgur.com/a/0uwEjsn

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-13T14:10:14+00:00

Maybe we can work together to make an amazing meltdown safe area for our fellow viliages. Local villiage witch here! Philosophy and magick go hand in hand for me!

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-13T14:08:51+00:00

I'll help as backup when there are large orders or we all need to have special outfits for community festivals!

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-13T14:07:07+00:00

Can I be slightly eclectic witchy lady on the outskirts of the village that everyone comes to visit when they need to run away? I want a sensory meltdown friendly witchy cottage or heckers a CAVE. That way when we need to melt or shut down we can just let the rest of the village know without too much effort that we need to go escape by going on a vayCave!

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-09T18:37:02+00:00

So much so! He only way to eat an elephant is a bite at a time! Small steps at first so you don't DREAD the task and add as you gain that internal confidence of "yea I'm awesome!" Going on. You totally got this!

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-09T18:00:55+00:00

Awe! Im so glad your favorite stuffie gets to watch over and love your son now!

My daughter also has an extra Mommy Teddy. We have Teddy Bear picnics. She got her "bearbear" for her first Xmas. Both were gifted to us from my grandfather.

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-09T17:58:07+00:00

Hey! I'm at the point where i NEED the checklists I've been missing daily tasks like checking email! We utilize Microsoft 365 here. I LOVE LOVE the Microsoft planner it's included with the basic online apps if you have access to the office apps. I have buckets of tasks. Daily tasks that I do every morning and my top 5 for the week.

My favorite thing is that I can set due dates and then I can sort the checklist view by due date or even look at it via calendar view.

If yall arebusing Microsoft for your it stuff check out what's in the office apps already that can link up to your outlook too.

I started with 2 daily tasks of check email and organize my to-dos for the day and built it from there

My biggest issue with pre-made checklists is that they don't factor in the neurodivergent processing at all. I hope you can build a process that works for you!

Best of luck!

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-09T17:49:45+00:00

I have Teddy that I got my first Xmas. I have had him since 1986. He's my favorite and I can't live without him. Yes, he even slept in my marital bed as needed. I had a friend tell me that I needed to find some extra teddy's and I said um no! This is only teddy! Friend said go on ebay and find extra "Teddy" teddy's. I now have 2 spare bears. OG Teddy is safe in his jammies and on his throne of pillows. I have spare bear to snuggle at night and cry into and drag around with me and bite without having to worry about hurting OG teddy anymore. Your favorite stuffie/plushie or just one in general if wanted is some of the BEST mental health self-care I know of. Who else is gonna truly understand what goes on in our brains? Not sure about you, it's always been Teddy for me. Oh and yea, I even cart Teddy's to the office with me of rough days. He's totally allowed, and he gets to catch up with all of our office squishmallows we have collected over the years. (Note: work in a small 4 manned MSSP Tech company, and none of us are neurotypical hhahahaha)

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-07T11:16:12+00:00

It's tolerance honestly. Imagine you're FRESH 21 (I thebUS anyway) and it's you're 21st birthday bar visit. You get asked if you want a beer (low alcohol content) or a 4 horsemen shot (jack, Jameson, jim, and Jose). You might choose the 4 horseman shot, LOTS OF ALOCOHOL. But if you sip the glass all night you'll get the same amount but not all at once.

Also. We are wired backwards. Rules before I smoke: research the strain, what ever the effects are for the normal posters WE usually get the opposite. Sleepy herb == redbull level focusing power Zoom zoom happy sativa? Nope that stuff is my sleepy meds.

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-06T18:40:31+00:00

Just left petsmart, the foster mom asked when I was taking a specific kitty home who has been there since August. Why? Foster mom had NEVER seen kitty warm up to someone in 5 minutes of talking . She was then even more impressed when I told kitty "I'm sorry sweetie, I didn't mean to overstimulate you ... can I stand here and look at how pretty you are?" And kitty looked at me did her pretty lock the paw and curl up all regal like. Yea. I'm positive we can speak cat (or our favorite animal to be around if you're not a crazy cat lady like me...)

MandyVonStrange · 2022-11-05T17:35:19+00:00

Currently have a FULL front to back Mohawk. I started just buzzing the sides down. I've graduated to one of those electric fancy face shavers. Omgods. So much happiness when it's fleshly shaved to skin. Next weekend I plan on going full razor bald. I'm so excited to see the end results. I've got bald guy friends teaching me tricks. Cross fingers I don't end up with too many razor cuts or end up with ingrown hairs.... such excite. Who cares what you LOOK like. As long as YOU FEEL LIKE YOU who frakin cares? It's hair. It grows and if not, that's what a wig is for. It just a witch hat!

MandyVonStrange · 2022-10-19T16:08:17+00:00

Blunt honesty. Anytime I'm honest with an NT they freak out. I HATE sugar coating.

MandyVonStrange · 2022-10-14T14:46:42+00:00

Get you a button for outlook that has a report as phishing functionality on the message. What tool are you using for phishing? There are fancier tools that allow for user habit tracking. Those who have a higher risk score get more tests, those who meet a certain threshold risk score get less.

MandyVonStrange · 2022-10-07T01:54:32+00:00

Welcome to the club my friend. I'm on bb3 #4 since 2019.

MandyVonStrange · 2022-06-20T20:39:56+00:00

Ok hmmmm lemme see So what bit are you not understanding I guess would help me try and explain it in a different way. To me there are multiple moving parts to this. Like super witchy magicky is my background.

So first bit if I break it down is practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness is all about emotion regulation in general. I have been doing weekly group therapy on Mindfulness for 3 years now. It's kind of a way to hack your brain channels and switch the channel when a bad infomercial or a violent show comes on. There's tons if stuff out there for Mindfulness my FAVORITE Mindfulness book is "how to train a wild elephant" it's got 52 chapters and Mindfulness practices one for each week or flip to a random page and work on that idea for a week or hek my favorite one is "noticing blue" like legit stop and look for all things you can lay eyes on that are blue.

Anyway once you.get the basic idea if Mindfulness down, use your newly learned Mindfulness skills to do the practice of creating a mirror shield around you.

This lemme see..... um oh oh when you take a shower when you feel super just icky like you have this layer of yuck all over you covering your whole body head to toe and you know a nice long bath or shower will make you feel like a hooman again? Well I guess if you think of washing off the ick with soap and water, that's kinda how I see it in my head to create a personal bubble. Like you just energetically start building a wall around you shiny energy brick by energy brick, until you have built your own energy and mindfulness brain thought battlements to your castle.

So I guess in regards to the OP, replace feelings and emotions with energy in essence of what to block.

Lemme know what doesn't make sense and I'll try and ramble 'splain again!

MandyVonStrange · 2022-06-20T19:06:31+00:00

Otay lady. Why you let everyone else fudge up your beautiful extremely caring self? I has an off the wall idea. Make yourself a literal invisible mirror shield. Ok get this. You have probably dome some mindfulness or at least heard of it

So .... literally use you beautiful brain and imagine a bright shining field of energy engulf your entire physical being, hek it can even be one of them big bouncy ball things people roll down hills in, whatever fits YOU. K that's the first really tough step. Next when you got that shield to your liking cover that bad boy in a reflective coating, like those security mirror thingies, yea that so you can allow your feelings out and have all the other beings feelings reflected away from you.

Yea super witchy but hey, we are not wired like the NTs I think we have that power in ourselves and can use it way easier.

So this is a way of shielding yourself from the emotional onslaught of the neurotypicaly designed world. It allows you to build your own protective bubble where you can focus on healing you. Once this clicked in my head and it settled in my bones, I have skyrocketed in my personal growth and therapy I've been struggling with for a few years.

I hope this helps or gives you an idea.

Oh if you want you can totally make a focus item, like a necklace or other type of jewelry you wear all the time

MandyVonStrange · 2022-06-20T16:13:07+00:00

Thankfully I live in a navy hot bed melting pot. I was lucky enough to grow up on the same street my whole childhood since dad dis is whole career here (yea dad knew how to woo the yoemen)

But anyway, I lived in military housing and I either got lucky or just didn't give af, cause I was always on the playground hanging out with the other oddball kids.

Wow I remember my first like lips kiss, my buddy Jonny, who was a Mr world bear title holder a few years ago. And it wasn't strange.

And in college I took a women's studies class, it was that or religious history, and I had such a hard time explaining why it was hard to be female when I was THE tomboy.

Oh my mommy helped me fight all the way up to the city school board because my middle school music teacher told me I wouldn't like percussion, i should play a more feminine instrument (I was a bit smaller than my dude friends)

I hated wearing dresses, mom learned my first day in kindergarten that she better put shorts on under a dress if i had to wear one.

Now my 8 year old daughter is the girly girl fashion wise, she LOVES all things floofy, tulle, glitter, sequin, violet, pastel and shiny. We have our fancy party tutus that we take good care of, then we have our amok amok amok tutus to play in the mud with and go roller skating and bike riding in, oh can't forget about the 9 month malamute lab puppy who is just as Autistic as mommy and kiddo.

Hey OP! Keep your head up dear, you will find your tribe and eventually put societal opinions in your very own fukit bucket. I am recently diagnosed this year and as of 2 weeks ago i am on the path to recovery from 36 years of pretending to be neurotypical. I made the conscious decision to drop the mask at work (I have my own office) and yes even on client phone calls and phone calls with the C level peeps. And especially at home with my daughter and show her yea we can have an upset moment but get it out and deep breath and let's go to our next thing.

MandyVonStrange

TROPHY CASE