Wait, What Was I Saying?

04/09/2026

Happy Autism Awareness Month!

I spent 28 years thinking I was the problem.

Crazy. Lazy. Too much. Not enough. Somehow both, in the same breath, without even trying.

This past January I finally got my autism diagnosis. After fourteen months of fighting for it against providers who looked at me – articulate, composed, educated – and said without running a single assessment: you’re not autistic.

Because I knew how to speak.

What they didn’t ask was whether I had always known how to speak. Or what it had cost me to learn.

Here is what I need you to know: I am not pro-pathology. I don’t think being neurodivergent is a disorder. Neurotypicality is largely a performance that got codified into institutional norms and mistaken for a baseline. The diagnosis didn’t pathologize me. It named the terrain. It told me: you were always a zebra. The problem was never your stripes.

And last month I got diagnosed with the Trifecta – hEDS, POTS, and MCAS. Three conditions that aren’t actually separate. They’re one regulation network, running harder than average across every system, every day. My connective tissue, my blood vessels, my immune system, my nervous system – all of it traces back to one body that was built more sensitive and more flexible than the world was designed to accommodate.

I was not broken. I was physiologically complex in a system that had never been designed to read me.

The chronic conditions didn’t arrive by accident. They arrived after years of masking. After forcing a neurodivergent nervous system through a 24-hour productivity model it was never built for. After running a 28-day operating system in a world that only recognizes 24 hours.

Your dysregulation is not a character flaw. It is your body keeping score of a world that was never built for your wiring.

And if you have spent your life feeling like a failed version of something you were never meant to be – you were never the problem. You were just never handed the right mirror.

04/09/2026

Hi, I'm Mayisha.

Three years ago, I didn't think I had a reason to be alive. I'm saying that plainly because the shame of not saying it is more dangerous than the discomfort of saying it.

In January 2026, at 28 years old, I received my autism diagnosis. After fourteen months of fighting for it against providers who looked at me – articulate, composed, educated – and said without a single assessment: "You're not autistic."

Because I knew how to speak. They didn't ask what it had cost me to learn.

I want to say something clearly before anything else: I am not pro-pathology. I don't believe being neurodivergent is a disorder. Neurotypicality is largely a performance – a set of social scripts that got mistaken for a baseline. There are more neurodivergent people on this planet than the diagnostic systems have ever been equipped to count. We vary in support needs, but none of that makes us broken. The diagnosis didn't pathologize me. It named what I had been living. It gave me language. It told me: you were always a zebra. The problem was never your stripes. That is why I advocate for diagnosis – not to medicalize our neurology, but to end the shame of being misread your entire life.

I am late-diagnosed AuDHD, C-PTSD, and living with hEDS, POTS, and MCAS. My life doesn't operate around a single diagnosis – it requires meticulous daily tending just to reach baseline. The chronic conditions arrived after years of masking and overextending, forcing a neurodivergent nervous system through a productivity model it was never built for. The research now documents what I lived.

There was no ready-made path for someone with this constellation of complexity. The road to relief was an improv obstacle course – navigated without a map, without language, and without a guide who had actually walked the terrain.

So I became one.

I wrote the whole story down. The body that finally gave out the moment it felt safe. The decade I spent building the map I needed. What I built so no one else has to navigate this alone.
It's called "Here Is the Map I Had to Draw in the Dark" and it's on Substack today.

[Link in comments 🦓]

02/25/2026

𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 "𝗧𝗼𝘅𝗶𝗰 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆": 𝗔 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘂𝗗𝗛𝗗 & 𝗵𝗘𝗗𝗦🥄

Let’s be honest, most productivity advice isn't built for sensitive nervous systems. As someone living at the intersection of hEDS, POTS, and AuDHD, I know that "just doing it" is often a recipe for a medical crash.

I recently hard-launched my new coaching practice, only to be met with a Fire Horse-style flare-up that left me with zero spoons for basic maintenance.

I’m sharing my personal recovery plan and the tools I use to navigate the double whammy of neurodivergence and chronic illness, including my 𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 and 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆.

It took me 4 years to build my current routine muscle, but I’m proof that "slow" is still moving forward.

Ready to stop fighting your wiring and start working with it?
Read my full article here: https://lnkd.in/g3GZ2ZdKhttps://open.substack.com/pub/mayishamiha/p/a-regulation-coachs-manifesto-on?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

02/22/2026

!!!

If you have POTS and also deal with…

• Joint pain
• “Clumsy” ankles
• Joints that feel loose or unstable
• Hernias in your family
• Spider veins at a young age
• Sluggish digestion
• Heavy periods
• Pelvic floor issues

Pause.

It might not be random.

A lot of people with POTS are more hypermobile than they realize.
And for some, that hypermobility is part of Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos syndrome.

I didn’t know.

I always knew I hurt.

I just didn’t realize my joints moved more than they were supposed to.
Or that being “a little bendy” actually meant something.

Once I started connecting the dots in my extended family
hernias
autoimmune conditions
GI issues
prolapse
sleep problems

It started to make sense.

Sometimes Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome isn’t the whole story.

Have you ever looked at the Beighton scale?

02/19/2026

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where I share my voice, platform-wise. While the Marketing Strategist in me kept thinking I should stick to where my ideal client profile is (tldr: it's LinkedIn and Substack, LOL), my heart kept pulling me back here on Facebook–because impact doesn't always follow a linear data point.

For many South Asian communities, Facebook remains the primary digital town square where the aunts, uncles, and cousins are. By bringing the conversation here, I’m aiming to start a ripple effect of healing in a space where neurodiversity is often misunderstood or stigmatized.

Growing up in Bangladesh, I realized how many of us lack the language or resources to talk about neurodiversity and chronic ailments. I’m tired of seeing our people struggle in silence. I’m officially launching this page on Facebook to change that.

I’ll be sharing everything I know about physiological sovereignty–learning how to work with your neurodiverse brain instead of fighting against it. If you’ve ever felt different or stuck, please come join the conversation. Let’s reclaim our health together. 🫶🏽

02/19/2026

The internet is romanticizing 2016 right now, but for me, it was the year the Masking Tax finally bankrupted my spirit. It was the year I used a pair of kitchen scissors to kill the version of myself that lived for other people’s approval 💇🏽‍♀️

Ten years later, I’m sharing a glimpse into my decade-long journey from being helpless to becoming the person younger me needed.

Read the full story on my Substack. Link in bio.

02/19/2026

A village where you don’t have to fit in to belong.

Most circles ask for your story. We only ask for your presence.

On March 12th, we are gathering for the first Sanctuary Cycle. This is a low-frequency, in-person crafting circle designed for introverts and neurodivergent women who need a place to downshift.

We call it “The Matriarchal Village” – a space for parallel play where we offload internal noise through the rhythmic, tactile interface of making.

The Details:
🗓 When: March 12th
📍 Where: [678 La Fayette Park Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90057]
🎟 Pricing: We use a Village Tier model ($25 Seed / $45 Sustain / $65 Village) to keep this sanctuary sustainable and accessible for all.

Limited to 40 seats to protect the quality of the container, RSVP at your earliest convenience, please!

Partiful link in bio.

02/19/2026

If you feel like your life is a constant “performance of compliance,” this is for you.

We’ve been told that “productivity” is a flat line. But research shows our resting energy expenditure fluctuates by up to 10% across our cycle. When you force a diverse brain to ignore those biological shifts, you don’t just get tired, you hit systemic burnout.

I’m launching my Substack to provide the disgustingly educated resources I needed when I was young. Buckle up, this will not be your standard wellness fluff. Just clinical-radical frameworks for the hormone and nervous system literacy we were never given.

Welcome to the Sanctuary. Let’s stop being invisible.

[Link in Bio]