Map of Monotropic Experiences
Twenty places a monotropic mind goes. Some of them are where the good work happens; some of them are weather that other people make. This is Helen Edgar's map of her own Autistic and ADHD experience, and it turned out that a great many of us live here too.
- 1. Attention Tunnels
- 2. Penguin Pebbling Cove of Friendship
- 3. Tendril Theory
- 4. Mountains of Ruminating Thoughts
- 5. Cyclones of Unmet Needs
- 6. Rabbit Holes of Research
- 7. Infodump Canyon
- 8. Rhizomatic Communities
- 9. River of Monotropic Flow States
- 10. Campsite of Cavendish Spaces
- 11. Meerkat Mounds
- 12. River Banks of Monotropic Time
- 13. Shark Infested Waters of Neuronormativity and Behaviourism & Double Empathy Problems
- 14. Beach of Body Doubling
- 15. Burnout Whirlpools
- 16. Panic Hills of Low Object Permanence
- 17. Forest of Joy, Awe & Wonder
- 18. Lake of Limerence
- 19. Tides of the Sensory Sea
- 20. Sudden Storms of Unexpected Events
Each numbered marker opens that area. Prefer words to pointing? The list is the same twenty places, grouped by what kind of place they are.
Flow
Where monotropic attention does what it does well. These are not indulgences; they are how a monotropic bodymind refuels.
Connection
Monotropic socialising, and the environments that make it possible.
Stuck
States of inertia — unable to start, or unable to stop. Produced by conditions, not by character.
- 4 Mountains of Ruminating Thoughts named by Dusty Chipura
- 11 Meerkat Mounds named by Tanya Adkin & David Gray-Hammond
- 15 Burnout Whirlpools named by Dora Raymaker
- 16 Panic Hills of Low Object Permanence named by Wenn Lawson
- 18 Lake of Limerence named by Dorothy Tennov
- 19 Tides of the Sensory Sea named by Janae Elisabeth
- 20 Sudden Storms of Unexpected Events named by Kieran Rose
Pressure
Not places you are, but forces acting on everything else here. These come from outside and they are made by people.
The water it all sits in
It would be easy to read this map as a picture of a person. It is not. Burnout Whirlpools and the Shark Infested Waters are not weather that happens to you — they are produced, by schools and workplaces and clinics built on the assumption that there is one correct way to have a mind. The second map is about who makes the weather.
Take it further
- Free open-source training — about forty-five minutes, for schools, workplaces, health settings and community groups.
- Mark your own map, and share it with the community story project.
- The Monotropism Questionnaire — Garau et al.'s validated measure, hosted by its own authors. We link it rather than copying it.