What Am I Feeling?

Make sense of emotional intensity, anxiety, overwhelm, rumination, low mood, rejection sensitivity and when more support may help.

• Understanding Emotional Dysregulation

  A lived-experience guide to emotional dysregulation, intensity, overload and regulation in ADHD, autism and AuDHD.

• Why Feelings Can Arrive So Intensely

  Explore why emotions can arrive so intensely with ADHD, autism and AuDHD, and how sleep, masking, stress and sensory load can affect capacity.

• When I Can’t Identify What I’m Feeling

  A gentle look at difficulty identifying emotions, body signals and needs through a neurodivergent lived-experience lens.

• Anxiety or Overwhelm?

  Anxiety and overwhelm can feel remarkably similar. Explore how worry, sensory load, demands and nervous-system overload can overlap.

• Why Anxiety Can Feel Constant

  Explore why anxiety can feel constant when uncertainty, sensory load, masking, poor sleep and everyday demands keep adding up.

• Social Anxiety and Masking

  Explore how social anxiety and masking can interact for autistic, ADHD and AuDHD adults, including the capacity cost of monitoring yourself.

• Why Can’t I Stop Ruminating?

  Why does your brain keep replaying conversations and problems? Explore rumination, uncertainty, rejection sensitivity and overload.

• Rejection Sensitivity

  Explore rejection sensitivity, perceived rejection and emotional intensity without treating RSD as a standalone clinical diagnosis.

• Irritability When I’m Overloaded

  Irritability can be an early sign of depleted capacity. Explore sensory load, masking, sleep, demands and overload.

• Shame After an Emotional Reaction

  A compassionate look at shame, repair and rumination after an intense emotional reaction, with attention to overload and capacity.

• Is This Burnout or Depression?

  Burnout and depression can overlap. Explore differences and patterns without self-diagnosing, and recognise when more support may be needed.

• When Everything Feels Flat

  A lived-experience look at emotional flatness, depletion and low capacity, and when persistent changes may deserve more support.

• Why I’ve Lost Interest in Things I Normally Enjoy

  Explore why interests can become inaccessible during stress, burnout, depleted capacity or low mood, and when changes may need support.

• When I Need Rest vs When I’m Struggling

  Explore the difference between restorative withdrawal and ongoing decline in mood, interest or functioning without judging your need for rest.

• Knowing When I Need More Support

  Recognise changes in mood, energy, anxiety and functioning that may mean it is time to ask for practical, emotional or professional support.

• Why Do My Emotions Feel So Intense?

  Have you ever found yourself thinking: Perhaps small setbacks feel overwhelming. Perhaps excitement feels enormous. Perhaps criticism stays with you for days.

• What Is Emotional Dysregulation?

  Have you ever wondered: Perhaps you become overwhelmed by frustration. Find it difficult to calm down after an argument. Feel deeply hurt by criticism.

• Why Do I Cry So Easily?

  Have you ever wondered: Perhaps you cry when someone criticises you. When you’re frustrated. When you’re overwhelmed.

• Why Do I Feel Emotionally Flat Sometimes?

  Have you ever found yourself thinking: Perhaps things that normally make you happy don’t seem to affect you. You don’t feel excited. You don’t feel particularly sad.

• Why Does Rejection Hurt So Much?

  Have you ever found yourself thinking: Perhaps someone gave you gentle feedback. A message wasn’t replied to. A friend cancelled plans.

• Why Do Small Things Feel Huge?

  Have you ever found yourself wondering: Perhaps someone changed plans. You couldn’t find your keys. Your favourite mug broke.

• Why Do I Feel Guilty For Resting?

  Have you ever finally sat down to rest… Only to feel guilty? Perhaps your body was exhausted. Your mind was asking for a break.

• Why Do I Feel Like I’m Failing?

  Have you ever caught yourself thinking: Perhaps you’re struggling to keep up with work. The house feels impossible to stay on top of. You forget appointments.

• Learning Self-Compassion

  Have you ever noticed how differently you speak to yourself compared with someone you care about? Imagine a close friend told you they were exhausted. They forgot something important.

• Finding Emotional Balance

  Perhaps when you first opened this chapter, you hoped to discover how to stop feeling overwhelmed. How to stop feeling guilty. How to stop feeling rejected. How to stop feeling like you were failing.

• Why am I overwhelmed all the time?

  Some days, it is the smallest request that tips everything over. You have answered messages, made decisions, kept up with work and tried to be present for other people. Then someone asks what is for dinner, your phone rings again, or a plan changes, and you feel unable to take in one more thing. From the outside, the moment may look ordinary. From where you are sitting, there is already too much to hold.

AuDHD Companion provides self-reflection, organisation and general wellbeing tools. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment or emergency support.