In this Pride Month episode of The Neurodivergent Creative, Caitlin Fisher dives into bisexuality, queer history, compulsory heterosexuality, and the social systems that taught us to treat straightness as the default.
💬" Heterosexuality as norm is a social construct. Without hierarchy, it's all just neutral behavior." - Caitlin Liz Fisher
They also explore the Kinsey Scale, its historical importance, its limitations, and why newer models of sexuality offer more nuance. Caitlin connects this conversation to queer erasure, religious and patriarchal control, colonialism, defunded queer research, and the ways queer history has been intentionally suppressed.
At the heart of this episode is a liberating reminder: human sexuality is fluid, layered, and far more expansive than the rigid categories society often tries to enforce.
What We Explore in This Episode:
- Compulsory heterosexuality and how it shapes self-understanding
- Bisexual erasure, queer gatekeeping, and the fear of not being “queer enough”
- The Kinsey Scale as an early model of sexual orientation and where it falls short
- Alternatives to the Kinsey Scale, including the Klein Grid, SASO, and MSS
- Queerness in animal behavior and why “natural” is not synonymous with heterosexual
- How religion, patriarchy, colonialism, and political power have shaped sexual norms
- The intentional erasure of queer history and queer research
Mentioned in this episode:
- Episode 167: Why We Are 60 Years Behind on Queer Rights: https://youtu.be/YM24FA_s9lg
- Episode 168: Pride, Bisexual Erasure, and the Harm of Queer Gatekeeping (with Bailey Merlin): https://youtu.be/f7JBJYXAC44
- Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey Scale - https://bi.org/en/famous/alfred-kinsey/
- The Klein Sexuality Grid - https://bi.org/en/bi-101s/kinsey-klein/
- The Sell Assessment of Sexual Orientation - http://www.lgbtdata.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10884149/ms003_sell_details.pdf
- The Multidimensional Scale of Sexuality - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2230111/
- Queerness and bisexual/homosexual behavior in animals - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals
- History of Human Sexuality - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_human_sexuality#Religion_and_sex

It’s Pride Month, and Caitlin is kicking things off with a very queer, very passionate, very neurodivergent deep dive into Heated Rivalry—the gay hockey romance that has officially become a hyperfocus.
💬"If we didn't have the hetero patriarchal state that we live in that just assumes straight is the norm, people would be so much more fluid and open and just not scared of their own sexualities." - Caitlin Liz Fisher
This episode begins with a Pride Month PSA about visibility, queerness, shame, and the ridiculous amount of work people do to avoid accepting the full spectrum of human sexuality. Caitlin reminds listeners that Pride is not about “shoving sexuality in people’s faces.” It is about being alive, being out, and refusing to disappear in a world that still tries to push queer people back into the closet.
What We Explore in This Episode:

• Why Pride Month is about survival, visibility, celebration, and resistance
• The shame and fear many people carry around sexuality and same-sex attraction
• How heteronormativity limits people’s ability to explore their own desire
• Why Heated Rivalry became Caitlin’s latest hyperfocus
• Why slow-burn enemies-to-lovers stories can feel so emotionally powerful
• The risks Shane and Ilya face as queer athletes in a deeply unsafe world
• How fear, secrecy, intimacy, and longing shape the central romance

Queer media resources mentioned:

• Heated Rivalry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35495073/
• Game Changers book series by Rachel Reid: https://www.goodreads.com/series/245053-game-changers
• Schitt’s Creek: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3526078/

In this episode, Caitlin reflects on nervous systems, shame, emotional safety, and what happens when we finally experience relationships where we don’t have to suppress ourselves to be loved.
💬"If somebody's shaming you and telling you to, like, 'Shut that up and get a handle on it,' I don't think they have your best interests at heart. I think they have their best interests at heart, and their best interests are, 'You don't make them deal with anything.' And part of humanity is dealing with each other, right? That's community. That's love. That's relationship."
Through stories about startling easily, autistic burnout, relationships, and midnight dog walks, this conversation explores how healing often begins when our reactions stop being treated like inconveniences.
What We Explore in This Episode

• How shame can train us to suppress normal human reactions
• Why safe relationships can reveal old wounds and triggers
• The difference between being told you're safe and actually feeling safe
• Nervous system healing and learning that you do not have to carry everything alone
• Why healthy relationships create room for your full humanity

In this episode, Caitlin Fisher reflects on trauma responses, people-pleasing, relationship conditioning, compulsory heterosexuality, polyamory, patriarchy, and the surreal realization that maybe… not everything is her fault.
💬"I'm constantly blaming myself for emergencies and problems that have not even occurred yet. I'm just walking around with a little sign above my head that says, 'You can blame me for that.' And I've been giving that away for free to people. I've just been giving them a get out of accountability free card... We're not doing that anymore because I'm tired, and I have better things to do with my life, such as living a life." - Caitlin Liz Fisher
What begins as a story about running out of whipped cream spirals into a layered conversation about nervous system healing, accountability, toxic conditioning, queer identity, relationship structures, and the strange cultural expectations we absorb without realizing it.
And honestly? Sometimes healing looks like sitting in your kitchen realizing someone said “damn it” and your body didn’t immediately prepare for a full on emotional battle.
What We Explore in This Episode

• How trauma can create hypervigilance and chronic self-blame
• The emotional relief of realizing you are not responsible for everyone’s feelings
• Compulsory heterosexuality and questioning relationship norms
• Polyamory, kitchen table dynamics, and relationship hierarchy
• Patriarchy, gender conditioning, and why hygiene somehow became “feminine”
• The relationship escalator and why default societal scripts deserve questioning
• How nervous system safety changes the way we experience conflict and mistakes

In this episode, Caitlin reflects on taking their first in-person drawing class in years and accidentally stumbling into a bigger realization about creativity, friendship, perfectionism, and neurodivergent self-worth. What starts as a story about pencils, charcoal, and sensory nightmares slowly unfolds into a conversation about being perceived, finding safe people, and realizing that maybe making friends isn’t about performing correctly after all.💜
💬“Apparently all you have to do is just be yourself, and the people that like that will come sit by you.” - Caitlin Liz Fisher
What We Explore in This Episode

• Perfectionism and the fear of “wasting” good art supplies
• AuDHD work experiences and supportive workplaces
• Friendship, authenticity, and accidental community-building
• Letting hobbies exist without monetizing or mastering them
• Reconnecting with the crafty, playful parts of yourself

Gentle Reminders From This Episode

• Your hobbies do not need to become productive to matter.
• Warm-ups count.
• Tiny creative crumbs count.
• You do not have to earn the right to use nice materials.
• Friendship is often less complicated than trauma taught us it would be.
• Accommodating yourself is not failure.
• Your human experience is worthy of the paper.

Attention is not just about being seen. It’s about being known. The people closest to us are close because they notice us.  They pay attention to our needs, our moods, our patterns. Giving our attention says: This matters to me. And when that’s missing, it can shape how we show up in relationships—whether that looks like avoiding needs altogether or longing to be noticed without knowing how to ask.
In this episode, Caitlin explores something many of us quietly wrestle with: our very human need for attention. They also introduce us to a psychological concept called the Spotlight Effect, which explains why we tend to overestimate how much people notice us. This conversation reframes attention not as something shameful, but as something we need to feel seen, held, and understood.
“We are shaped and molded by people around us. But at the end of the day, like we have to know ourselves and we have to know how to take care of ourselves. So like your world should include other people, but it cannot revolve around other people because then you are losing yourself."
What We Explore in This Episode

• Why needing attention is a fundamental human experience
• The difference between healthy attention and shame-based narratives
• How trauma can push us to center others and abandon ourselves
• Becoming the center of your own world (without losing connection)
• The “spotlight effect” and why people notice you less than you think
• Reframing attention as intimacy, care, and mutual recognition

In this super short episode, Caitlin reflects on masking, honesty, and the complicated relationship many neurodivergent people have with truth, safety, and self-expression.
💬" You can't just academically study yourself, right? You're still living a life. So it's very hard for me to like be able to talk about the effects of masking if I am like constantly demanding of myself that I never mask." - Caitlin Fisher
Through the lens of a romance novel character perceived as “difficult,” we’re invited to question our assumptions about behavior. Because WHAT IF what looks like dishonesty or harshness is actually someone creating distance to feel safe?
And while masking can be exhausting, this episode also gently reframes it as something more nuanced:
Masking can be a boundary.
Masking can be a shield.
Masking can be survival.
Tune in as they explore what it means to protect your peace, even when that means not being fully “honest” all the time.
What we learn in this episode:
- What masking actually is (beyond the usual definition)
- Why honesty can feel like a moral obligation
- The link between neurodivergence and black-and-white thinking
- How to choose safety without guilt
Things to reflect on:
- Where am I demanding total honesty from myself in ways that feel unsafe?
- Who in my life has earned access to my full, unmasked self?
- Where can I offer myself more flexibility instead of rigid rules?

It's Caitlin's Birthday Month and we are celebrating with an episode that talks about enjoying your special day, asking for what you want, and finding delight in being the kind of person other people feel safe to share their wants and needs to.
💬" I'm allowed to do things I like without having to earn it or qualify it or justify it."
If you've ever felt like you had to downplay your joy or not ask for nice things just to fit in the mold and be taken seriously, then this is your wake up call to STOP DOING THAT! The people who love you will be so pleased to have a roadmap directly to your heart. Got it? Kthxloveyoubye!
What You Will Learn:
- The work of enjoying little things
- Why we end up expecting judgement on what we ask for
- Practicing how to ask for what you want
- The people who love you actually want to know what you want

In this episode of The Neurodivergent Creative Podcast, host Caitlin Liz Fisher (they/them) shares a deeply personal update on their burnout recovery journey—what happens when you slow down, stop forcing productivity, and start letting yourself want things again.
From writing 18k words in a romance draft to redecorating their home for joy instead of necessity, this episode explores what it really means to build a life that supports your nervous system, your creativity, and your happiness.
If you’ve ever felt stuck between exhaustion and desire, this one’s for you!
What We Explore in This Episode

• ADHD burnout and what it feels like when you’ve been moving too fast to notice it
• Why slowing down can actually bring your creativity back
• The difference between doing what’s “functional” vs. what brings you joy
• Redecorating your space as a form of nervous system support and healing

🌈Support the Show
If this episode resonated, tell me. Seriously. Leave a comment. Send a DM. Tell me what this podcast has meant to you.
Affirmation helps me keep showing up.
You can also:

• Join The Creatives Rebellion on Patreon (tiers start at $3)
• Download the Audacity Bill of Rights at audacityarchives.com
• Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts

You don’t need to wait until something breaks to change it.
You don’t need to justify joy.
You don’t need to earn a life that feels good.
You’re allowed to build it—slowly, gently, and on your own terms.
Now, go make something weird! Stay hydrated. I love you.💜

What if your creativity didn’t have to come from burnout?
In this episode of The Neurodivergent Creative Podcast, Caitlin Liz Fisher reflects on safety, burnout, and the quiet, radical act of stepping away from work that no longer feels aligned. Through an oracle card pull and honest storytelling, Caitlin explores what it means to choose rest, reconnect with desire, and unlearn the belief that suffering makes you more valuable.
This is an episode about permission.
To pause. To not know.
And to choose yourself anyway.
Because creativity doesn’t come from pressure or urgency. It comes from safety. From having enough space to listen to yourself again.
What We Explore in This Episode

• Taking a business sabbatical and choosing not to decide from burnout
• The sneaky belief that you have to suffer to be valuable (and why that’s… cuckoo banana pants)
• Navigating being good at something vs. being called to it
• The difference between neurotypical vs. neurodivergent workplaces
• How honesty can either break trust or build it (depending on the environment)
• Expanding beyond black-and-white thinking into third options

🌈Support the Show
If this episode resonated, tell me. Seriously. Leave a comment. Send a DM. Tell me what this podcast has meant to you.
Affirmation helps me keep showing up.
You can also:

• Join The Creatives Rebellion on Patreon (tiers start at $3)
• Download the Audacity Bill of Rights at audacityarchives.com
• Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts

You don’t have to earn your rest.
You don’t have to justify your joy.
You don’t have to turn everything you love into labor.
You are allowed to be a whole, happy person.🍄