Inside the Pickle Jar: Connecting with the Spectrum

***100th Episode***

You don't have to rip the mask off overnight.

Unmasking isn't an event. It's a direction. A slow, gentle turn toward yourself that starts somewhere much smaller than most people expect.

In this episode we talk about what actually comes next after you recognize you've been masking...the first steps, how to find safe spaces to practice, what unmasking looks like in real life, and what to do when it doesn't go the way you hoped.

In this episode:

• Why unmasking feels terrifying and why that fear makes complete sense
• Why you don't have to do it everywhere at once
• How to identify where it's safe to put the mask down
• What small, honest moments of unmasking actually look like
• What to do when it goes wrong without using it as proof to stop
• Coming back to yourself, one data point at a time

FREE RESOURCE:
4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain
https://www.insidethepicklejar.com

WATCH ON YOUTUBE:
https://youtu.be/Lw9PvmuDnbU

THIS EPISODE IS PART OF A SERIES:
Episode 1 — What Neurodivergent Masking Really Looks Like: https://youtu.be/1kATEAoYFxY
Episode 2 — The Hidden Cost of Masking: https://youtu.be/q8YsgAKOY00
Episode 3 — Why Late-Diagnosed ND Adults Feel They've Been Acting Their Whole Life: https://youtu.be/xjqnCWYhQ9g
Episode 4 — The Social Rules Nobody Teaches You: https://youtu.be/m3yMIRMmZWo

CONNECT:
🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar.

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Nobody handed you the rulebook. But everyone expected you to know it. Eye contact. Small talk. When to speak, when to stay quiet, how close to stand, when a question is rhetorical. Most people absorbed these rules without ever being taught them. Some of us had to study them like a foreign language.
In this video we talk about the unspoken social rules that neurodivergent people are expected to just know — and why trying to learn them is one of the biggest reasons masking develops in the first place.

In this video:
-The rulebook nobody hands you and why that matters
-Why social interactions feel like a test you never studied for
-How masking develops directly from trying to survive these rules
-What this costs in the relationships that matter most to you
-Why you were never failing the test


FREE GUIDE: 4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain https://www.insidethepicklejar.com

WATCH THE FULL MASKING SERIES:
Video 1 - What Neurodivergent Masking Really Looks Like: https://youtu.be/1kATEAoYFxY
Video 2 - The Hidden Cost of Masking: https://youtu.be/q8YsgAKOY00
Video 3 - Why Late-Diagnosed ND Adults Feel They've Been Acting Their Whole Life: https://youtu.be/xjqnCWYhQ9g
Video 4 - https://youtu.be/y4mhTPNKCcw

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

#Neurodivergent #UnspokenRules #Masking #ADHD #Autism #LateIagnosis #NeurodivergentAdults #MaskingTax #NDCommunity #InsideThePickleJar #SocialRules #NeurodivergentIdentity #PickleFriends

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If you were diagnosed neurodivergent later in life, you might look back and realize you weren't coping as well as everyone thought. You weren't coping at all. You were performing.

In this episode we talk about the moment of recognition, the one where the whole story of your life gets a new narrator. The relief. The grief. The disorienting question of who you actually are underneath decades of masking. And why the answer takes longer to find than anyone tells you.

If you've ever thought "that's me, that has always been me" and didn't know what to do with that feeling, this one is for you.

In this episode:

-The moment everything in your life gets recontextualized
-Why relief and grief arrive together after a late diagnosis
-What it means to realize how much of your life has been performance
-The question "who am I without the mask?" and how to start answering it
-Why self-compassion matters more than self-criticism at this stage


FREE RESOURCE

If you're recently diagnosed and struggling to find the words to explain what you're going through to the people you love, I made something for exactly that moment.

Four Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain
A free guide that does the explaining for you.

https://www.insidethepicklejar.com


WATCH ON YOUTUBE

Prefer to watch? Find the full video here: https://youtu.be/xjqnCWYhQ9g

Episode 1: What Neurodivergent Masking Really Looks Like
https://youtu.be/1kATEAoYFxY

Episode 2: The Hidden Cost of Masking as a Neurodivergent Adult
https://youtu.be/q8YsgAKOY00

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

IF THIS EPISODE RESONATED

Please subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who is navigating a late diagnosis or just beginning to understand their own masking. Reviews help other neurodivergent adults find the jar.


Start at Episode 1 if you're new here. Each episode builds on the last.


Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar.

Support the show

What if the version of you that everyone praises for coping is actually the version that's burning you out?

In this episode we go deeper into neurodivergent masking, moving past what it is and into what it actually costs. The exhaustion that doesn't make sense given what you did today. The performance of "fine" when you're anything but. The slow drift away from knowing who you actually are underneath all of it.

If you've ever come home from a completely ordinary day and had absolutely nothing left, this one is for you.

In this episode:

• Why "fine" is a performance word and what it's actually hiding
• What the cost of masking really looks like day to day
• The masking tax, and why it doesn't reset overnight
• The disconnection that happens when you mask for long enough
• Why none of this is your fault

FREE RESOURCE

If you're struggling to find the words to explain your experience to the people you love, I made something for you.

Four Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain A free guide that does the explaining for you.

https://www.insidethepicklejar.com

WATCH ON YOUTUBE

Prefer to watch? Find the full video here: [INSERT YOUTUBE LINK]

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

IF THIS EPISODE RESONATED

Please subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. Reviews help other neurodivergent adults find the jar.

PREVIOUS EPISODE

Episode 1: What Neurodivergent Masking Really Looks Like https://youtu.be/1kATEAoYFxY

Start here if you haven't listened yet. It lays the foundation for everything we cover in this episode.

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar.

Support the show

FREE: The Four Things I Want My Friends to Know
~~~~ https://www.insidethepicklejar.com

### Understanding Neurodivergent Masking: A Survival Strategy

In today's world, many neurodivergent individuals often find themselves engaging in a behavior known as masking. This is the practice of hiding one's true self to fit into a neurotypical society, and it can leave one feeling exhausted and disconnected. By exploring the concept of masking, we can gain insight into the struggles faced by those who are neurodivergent.

### What is Masking?
Masking, or camouflaging, is the process of suppressing natural neurodivergent behaviors to appear more neurotypical. It's not merely a choice but a survival strategy developed during childhood. Many children notice that their natural behaviors do not align with those of their peers. They learn to adapt, rehearsing conversations and suppressing certain behaviors to avoid negative feedback. This leads to a mask that feels so integrated into their identity that it becomes difficult to distinguish between their true self and the persona they've created.

### The Origins of Masking
For most neurodivergent individuals, masking begins in childhood. In a classroom setting, neurodivergent children often struggle to understand unspoken rules of social interaction. They may be labeled as "too loud" or "too sensitive" for expressing themselves naturally. This feedback, whether explicit or implicit, prompts them to adapt by mirroring the behavior of their peers. Over time, this adaptation becomes automatic, leading to a deeply ingrained habit that can feel like the only way to interact with the world.

### The Cost of Masking
Masking is more than just a habit; it can be exhausting. Neurodivergent adults often find themselves drained after a typical day. While others may see a normal workday, these individuals have been managing complex social interactions, processing sensory input, and performing a version of themselves that feels safe to show. This "masking tax" accumulates over time, resulting in profound fatigue and disconnection from their authentic selves.

### Recognizing and Understanding Masking
The moment of recognition often comes with a diagnosis or hearing someone describe masking for the first time. This recognition can evoke relief, as individuals finally have language for their experiences. However, it can also bring grief for the years spent performing a version of themselves that was not true. Understanding that masking is not a flaw but a necessary adaptation can be liberating.

### Finding Authenticity
Once individuals recognize their masking behaviors, they can start to make choices about when and where to mask. It’s not about removing the mask entirely but rather finding safe spaces where they can be themselves. This journey towards authenticity can lead to deeper connections and a greater sense of belonging in their personal and professional lives.

### Conclusion
Neurodivergent masking is a complex survival strategy that many individuals have developed to navigate a world that often feels unwelcoming. By understanding this phenomenon, we can foster greater empathy and support for neurodivergent individuals, encouraging them to embrace their authentic selves. If you resonate with this experience, know that you're not alone, and there are communities and resources available to support your journey toward authenticity.

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

Support the show

In Part 1, Raymond Lavine made the case for why ND families need a plan. In Part 2, he shows you how to build one even if you don't know where to start, even if resources are tight, and even if the whole idea feels overwhelming.  Raymond is the Principal at Lavine LTC Benefits, co-author of the Amazon bestselling book Empathy and Understanding in Business, and a man who has spent his career helping families have the conversations most people avoid. In this second half of their conversation, Tonya pushes Raymond to get practical...and he delivers.  In this episode: 

• What planning looks like for families who are already financially stretched thin.
• Why 'you deal with what you have' and how to start from wherever you are 
• What keeps Raymond up at night: all the families who should have a plan but don't 
• The urgency question: why waiting costs more than starting 
• Why planning feels like reorganizing a drawer and why it's never as bad as you think 
• The five baby steps to getting started: family conversation, talking to your ND child, reaching out to your network, finding your advisors, and building incrementally 
• Why asking your neurodivergent child what THEY want is the most important step most families skip 
• The three things everyone needs: to not feel invisible, to have attention, and to never feel vulnerable 
• The paradox of choice and why too many options leads to no action 
• The Power of Habit and why incremental change is the only change that sticks 
• Raymond's contact information and the tools available on his website  

If Part 1 was the why, Part 2 is the how. This is where the conversation becomes something you can actually act on. 🫙  

📞 Connect with Raymond: 
Website: lavineltcins.com 
Phone: (253) 275-6091 
Social: Search Raymond Lavine  

📖 Books mentioned: 
Empathy and Understanding in Business by Raymond Lavine 
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg  

Inside the Pickle Jar is a podcast and community for neurodivergent adults and everyone who loves and supports them. 
Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

long-term care planning, neurodivergent families, autism parents, caregiving plan, special needs planning, five baby steps, disability planning, Raymond Lavine, estate planning, ND community, Inside the Pickle Jar, caregiver burnout, financial planning

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What happens to the people we love when we can't be there for them anymore?  For parents of children with Level 2 autism, PDD-NOS, and similar diagnoses, that question lives somewhere close to the surface. You're caregiving today, right now, doing something that requires everything you have. And somewhere in the back of your mind is the harder question: what is the plan for when I can't do this anymore?  

In Part 1 of this conversation, Tonya sits down with Raymond Lavine, Principal at Lavine LTC Benefits and co-author of the Amazon bestselling book Empathy and Understanding in Business. Raymond has helped thousands of families prepare for long-term care, and his path to this work began with his own remarkable story.  Raymond grew up the son of immigrants who fled persecution, enlisted in the Army and served in Vietnam, and watched his mother, an estate planning attorney, rely on her own long-term care plan for eighteen years. 

In Part 1, he shares that story and explains why so many families are one crisis away from a situation they never planned for.  In this episode: 

- Raymond's childhood in the Hollywood Hills as the son of immigrant lawyers - How military service in Vietnam expanded his worldview and deepened his empathy 

- His family's personal connection to the autism community through United by Music North America 

- The US vs. Europe gap in neurodiversity infrastructure and support 

- Why 'hope is not a plan' and what happens to ND families when no plan exists 

- The difference between independence and genuine self-sufficiency 

- Estate planning essentials: wills, trusts, guardianships, and powers of attorney 

- Why planning is not just for the wealthy and what caregiving actually costs 

- His mother's words that stopped him cold: 'Nobody has that much money to pay for their care and for their lifestyle'  

Part 2 coming soon where Raymond breaks down the five baby steps to getting started, what to do when resources are stretched thin, and how to find the right people to guide you.  

📞 Connect with Raymond: 
Website: lavineltcins.com 
Phone: (253) 275-6091 
Social: Search Raymond Lavine  

📖 Mentioned in this episode: 
Empathy and Understanding in Business by Raymond Lavine 
United by Music North America  

Inside the Pickle Jar is a podcast and community for neurodivergent adults and everyone who loves and supports them. 
Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

long-term care planning, neurodivergent families, autism parents, Level 2 autism, caregiving, estate planning, PDD-NOS, disability planning, Raymond Lavine, United by Music, ND community, Inside the Pickle Jar, future planning, special needs planning 

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Part 2 of my conversation with Linda Carmella Sibio picks up right where we left off and goes somewhere I didn't expect.

 In this half, Linda talks about what happened after she left Los Angeles: a seven-year nervous breakdown in a desert house with no heat, no water, and one enormous room she turned into a studio. She talks about the drawings that came out of that period. Hundreds of miniature hallucinated images filling every piece and how those drawings became the foundation of the original Cracked Eggs workshop. She describes starting the program with a single student, doing their first show at a local cafe, and slowly building a community from nothing.

 We also talk about what resistance actually looks like in the classroom and why movement and voice are harder to teach than painting. About the $1.5 million county grant, the COVID year they all worked without pay, and what got cut from the curriculum as a result. About the mental health coloring book See, See, See, More! Listen with Your Eyes, which grew out of a class idea and became a grant-funded community project. About the neuroscience study she wants to do on Cracked Eggs to understand whether it's her teaching or something inherent in the exercises themselves that is helping people.

 And at the end, I asked Linda the question I'd been saving: you've been doing this for fifty years. What did the eighteen-year-old not yet know about what her mind was capable of?

 Her answer is quiet and real and worth the wait. She also tells us she just finished an oil painting, her first in years, after her sister accidentally lost her entire New York body of work. And right before we close, she remembers one more thing: there's a documentary film coming.

 Her closing words to the pickle friends: never give up.

 Note: This episode is unedited — an intentional choice. Linda's tangents, pauses, and mid-sentence redirects are the methodology. What you're hearing is the real Linda Sibio.

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

Find Linda:
 https://www.bezerkpro.org

neurodivergent podcast, schizophrenia and creativity, mental health and art, Linda Sibio, Bezerk Productions, Cracked Eggs, cracked eggs documentary, mental health coloring book, Joshua Tree artist, neurodivergent community, Inside the Pickle Jar, Tonya Weaver, creative methodology, never give up, mental health recovery through art

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What if the thinking patterns your diagnosis named... the fragmentation, the loops, the leaps your mind makes... were actually the most generative creative tools you have? Not a metaphor. Not a coping strategy. A methodology.

 This week on Inside the Pickle Jar, I sit down with Linda Carmella Sibio...an interdisciplinary artist, performer, educator, and founder of Bezerk Productions for a conversation that I think a lot of pickle friends have been waiting for without knowing it.

 Linda was diagnosed with schizophrenia at eighteen while earning her BFA in painting at Ohio University. She grew up in West Virginia, spent time in a children's home where the staff gave her a basement studio to paint in, turned down a law school scholarship to follow art, and landed in Los Angeles with twenty dollars in her pocket and nowhere to stay. What followed was fifty years of building — a performance practice, a pedagogy, a nonprofit, and a methodology that takes so-called psychotic thinking and treats it not as a pathology to be managed, but as a lens through which to make art, build community, and reclaim a life.

 In Part 1, we cover Linda's childhood in West Virginia and Florida, the moment of her diagnosis and what it meant knowing her mother had the same condition, her journey to Los Angeles, studying with acting coach Eric Morris and interdisciplinary performance artist Rachel Rosenthal, her early work teaching on Skid Row through the Los Angeles Poverty Department and her own collective Operation Hammer, and the moment a woman named Molly Lowry asked her to come out publicly as schizophrenic — and why Linda said yes.

 A note: this episode is unedited. You'll hear the sounds of the room, the pauses, the conversation finding its shape. That was an intentional choice. Linda's way of moving through a story — the fragments, the loops, the interrupters — is itself a demonstration of the methodology she's spent fifty years developing. I didn't want to clean it up. What you're hearing is the real and authentic Linda Sibio.

 Part 2 is coming. This one will stay with you.

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

Find Linda:
 https://www.bezerkpro.org

neurodivergent podcast, schizophrenia and creativity, mental health and art, psychotic thinking, Linda Sibio, Bezerk Productions, Cracked Eggs, interdisciplinary art, neurodivergent community, Inside the Pickle Jar, Tonya Weaver, creative methodology, mental health stigma, Los Angeles Poverty Department, Rachel Rosenthal

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Late at night, when the day is done and my brain finally gets quiet — I put on crinkle paper videos.  Not music. Not a show. Not a podcast. Crinkle paper.  For years I thought this was a little weird. A little embarrassing. The kind of thing you don't bring up in professional settings. And then I learned what was actually happening in my brain when I watched those videos and it changed everything about how I understood my own nervous system.  In this episode of Inside the Pickle Jar, Tonya breaks down the neuroscience of ASMR and why neurodivergent brains are disproportionately drawn to it. This isn't just an explainer...it's a full reframe of something a lot of ND people do quietly and a little guiltily, and what that behavior is actually telling you about your brain.  Topics covered: 

• What ASMR actually is and how the physical sensation works  
• The default mode network and why ASMR creates the neurological sweet spot between stimulation and calm 
• Dopamine, oxytocin, and why ASMR feels intimate even with a stranger on screen
• The parasympathetic nervous system and what's measurably happening in your body during ASMR 
• Interoception and why ASMR is especially regulating for ND brains 
• The masking tax...why ASMR is the perfect recovery tool after a day of performing neurotypicality 
• Misophonia...the flip side of sensory sensitivity and why some ND people find ASMR unbearable 
• The shame we put on neurodivergent self-soothing and why a weighted blanket and crinkle paper video beats a glass of wine every time 
• How to use ASMR intentionally as a nervous system regulation tool 
• Tonya's personal ASMR journey including why it's become her off-ramp from wine 

ASMR creator mentioned in this episode: 

🎧 Poisebloom on YouTube...crinkle paper ASMR and Tonya's personal favorite: https://www.youtube.com/@poisebloom  

This episode is for everyone who has ever watched a crinkle paper video at 11pm and wondered what was happening to them. The answer is: something smart. Something your nervous system knew before your brain had the language for it.  No shame. Just science. And some crinkle paper. 🫙  

Inside the Pickle Jar is a podcast and community for neurodivergent adults built for the brains that never quite fit anywhere else. New episodes every week.  

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

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