The Different-Functional Podcast

The times are tumultuous and uncertain and, let’s be honest, it’s not exactly bringing out the best in most people. So, let’s take a stroll down memory lane, get a blast from the past, and live for a brief, blissful moment in the delusion that we’re back in the 90s. The 90s may not have been perfect either (we certainly had more than our fair share of family trauma from our childhood) but when it...

Music is such a powerful tool for emotional processing and personal expression; and with how crazy the world seems to have been in recent years, music seems like a more valuable resource than ever. Whether you use it to help you calm down, vent your frustrations, have a good cry, or find hope on the darkest days music is a fundamental part of our self-care regimen. Join us as we examine some of th...

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to visit the mind of someone with ADHD? Well, now you can! But we don’t recommend actually doing it because taking a tour of the ADHD brain may involve getting a head injury. We would know because as sisters, we apparently feel the need to do everything together, so we went and got matching brain injuries only a few months apart. While the research on t...

How do you feel about Valentine’s Day? Personally, we don’t love it, but we also don’t hate it. What we do hate is that the current state of the world is kinda lousy and the long, slow trudge through winter is starting to feel like a real Debbie Downer. So with that in mind, we thought the Love holiday might be a perfect excuse to do something fun and fluffy. Join us as we play a little word assoc...

Are you a fashionista? Us too! Not really. We lied. We’re not even good at faking it, but we’re trying. Is fashion supposed to be so hard? What are the rules? How do you know you’ve committed a fashion faux pas? Is that person staring at you because they like your style or because they think you look vaguely unhinged? How are you supposed to tolerate wearing things that touch you in weird ways, ar...

We’re starting to settle into 2025 but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ve left the hardships of 2024 behind us (or the previous years for that matter). If you’re anything like us you may find that you’re still a little shell-shocked and unsure of how to move forward. We’re still processing the lessons from the past and the horizon ahead is a little hazy, but we’re here in this moment and the...

Here we are, yet again, at the start of another year. If you’re anything like us, 2024 must have put you through the wringer too. We’re ready to put last year behind us, but we’re also giving 2025 that wary, suspicious side-eye until it proves it can play nicer and be more reasonable than its predecessor. So instead of revisiting the usual new year celebratory rituals and plans, we’re sitting down...

'Tis the season for gift-giving, but for many neurodivergent individuals, the holidays can bring more stress than joy. From choosing the right gift to managing limited resources like time, money, and energy, selecting the perfect present can feel like navigating a minefield. The pressure to find something meaningful and the fear of getting it wrong can make holiday shopping overwhelming. In this e...

Thanksgiving is sneaking up on us again here in the USA, and there’s just so much to be thankful for this time of year! Or is there? That’s the question. Well, maybe not exactly. Are there things to be thankful for? Sure. If you look hard enough you can always find something, but you know what’s often even easier to find? Things you’re not thankful for. When life gets really challenging, we’re not...

This time of year is the perfect opportunity for crafting, creativity, and community! Even if you don’t think you’re “that kind of person” you might be surprised by how much fun it can be and what you can learn about yourself and others. With that in mind, we’ve decided to do something we’ve never done before on the podcast: a craft-along! And for those of you who are here for our usual mental hea...

It’s spooky season! How are you going to spend your Halloween? Over here, we’ll be having a nice big group hug with the boogeyman and all his friends. Why? Because that’s one of the best parts of spooky season. Join us as we take a look closer at the symbols and icons of the season in order to learn from them and face our greatest fears. You can even do it dressed up as a princess or a peanut butt...

What do you do when it all falls apart? Well, you rise from the ashes like a phoenix, of course. Yes, but how? What does that look like and how do you do it? Join us for this two-part episode on what it actually means to rise from the ashes and rebuild your life. In this episode, we’re exploring what it means to rebuild your life and your sense of self after everything has fallen apart. If you mis...

What do you do when it all falls apart? Well, you rise from the ashes like a phoenix, of course. Yes, but how? What does that look like and how do you do it? Join us for this two-part episode on what it actually means to rise from the ashes and rebuild your life. In this first episode, we’ll be discussing survival mode: what it is, how to know you’re in it, and how to start stepping out of it so t...

We would say that things have been rough lately but let’s be honest, for many of us it’s not just been “lately”.  If you’re a regular listener of our podcast then chances are good that you’ve been trying to manage your mental health or neurodivergence or that you’ve been trying to heal from a significant trauma; and those overarching themes are always there no matter what happens in the world...

Heeeey! So the bad news is that we don’t have a new episode because Ivy is moving. The good news is that we still have an episode for you, a compilation of some clips from our Patreon vault. The other good news is that we’re finally going to be able to record again in a few days once Ivy finishes unpacking her studio setup so we’ll have a brand spanking new episode for you next time. Thanks for yo...

We’ve got something a little special for you guys this time, since Ivy is still living that couch surfing life for now and won’t have a recording space for another couple of weeks. Autumn’s boyfriend Jake has filled in as a guest host for this episode about neurodivergence in committed relationships. Do you ever feel like you’re hard to love? Well, if you’re any flavor of neurospicy you probably k...

Most of us have wondered at one time or another what impact we have on the lives of other people and what legacy we’ll be leaving behind. All too often we fall into the trap of feeling insignificant, like nothing we say or do matters; and the worst of our intrusive thoughts might even have us believing that our impact is negative, that we do more harm than good, that we’re not enough, and that oth...

It seems like over the last several years a lot of us have been experimenting with elimination diets as a way to treat everything from hormone imbalances to autoimmune to diseases, and mental health issues to medical mysteries. While the old adage: “You are what you eat” has been around for a very long time it’s only in recent decades that science has actually been discovering just how extensively...

It seems like over the last several years a lot of us have been experimenting with elimination diets as a way to treat everything from hormone imbalances to autoimmune to diseases, and mental health issues to medical mysteries. While the old adage: “You are what you eat” has been around for a very long time it’s only in recent decades that science has actually been discovering just how extensively...

Maybe life is always in flux but it sure feels as though this year has brought with it even more changes than usual. If you feel like your life has been completely upended and you’ve found yourself, willingly or unwillingly, on a transformative journey as a result, you’re not alone. We know what it’s like when the hits keep coming, the universe keeps throwing you one curveball after another, and y...

To a certain degree we all go through life wearing a mask, or a series of masks that we change out based on the social situation we find ourselves in, but when you’re neurodivergent this masking process is taken to another level. Most of us learn at a very young age that our social survivability is dependent upon our ability to read the social scripts we’re handed and slip into character; we may e...

When we think of our mental health, we tend to immediately start making a list of everything that is wrong; and we fall into that habit so easily because, for many of us, something has been wrong for a long time and we’ve been actively trying to sort it out and work on ourselves. Being on a healing and self-discovery journey is one of the most powerful things we’ll ever do for ourselves and for ou...

The march of time never stops, the demands on our personal time never seem to wane, and there’s always more than enough stress to go around. The truth is, most of us tend to burn the candle at both ends, and that habit has a way of catching up to us in the form of burnout. Yes, sometimes we put ourselves in that position unnecessarily but there are also plenty of times when burning out is unavoida...

S-E-X is almost always a taboo topic of discussion, perhaps especially among neurotypicals and “civilized society”. For those of us who are neurodivergent and already regularly struggle with the subtleties of social scripts, the topic of intimacy can feel more taboo and, at times, even confusing. The lived experience of neurodivergents is often different in surprising, wonderful, and weird little...

Like many other things in life, neurodivergence is a bit of a double-edged sword. Some of our neurodivergent traits are so impressive that they almost seem like superpowers, while others impair our ability to function so much that they can feel like a curse. What’s even more interesting is how our own perception of these traits may differ from the perceptions others have of us, especially the perc...