Episode
Autism, ADHD, and Using Your Strengths Without Burning Out – Ep 118 with Dr Tom Nicholson
- Published
- Dec 23, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 2825
- Processing state
processed- Canonical source
- https://share.transistor.fm/s/c6419052
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Summary
Burnout is your body telling you: stop. I’m going to make you stop. In this episode, Dr Tom Nicholson breaks down how productivity, overperformance, and even “success” can quietly become coping mechanisms that lead to burnout. Drawing from lived experience, academia, and clinical work, he explores how neurodivergent people can use their strengths without masking themselves into exhaustion. Dr Tom Nicholson is an assistant professor of mental health nursing, public speaker, and trainer specializing in neurodivergence and inclusion. He combines lived experience with clinical and academic expertise to help individuals and organizations rethink productivity, burnout, and sustainable ways of working. Episode Highlights 00:02:12 – Diagnosed with ADHD at five and labeled “the problem child” Dr Tom describes being diagnosed in the mid-1990s and quickly framed as disruptive rather than supported. Despite doing well academically, he internalized the message that effort and compliance mattered more than wellbeing, laying the groundwork for overworking later in life. 00:03:37 – Discovering autism later in adulthood He explains diagnostic overshadowing and how ADHD became the explanation for every difficulty he had. Autism was missed entirely, even as he became a specialist himself, showing how easily burnout risks can be overlooked when people appear “high functioning.” 00:06:08 – Reframing school trauma and constant effort With a later autism lens, Dr Tom revisits his school experiences and recognizes how much energy went into coping, masking, and adapting. This reframing helps explain why productivity and overperformance often feel compulsory rather than optional. 00:17:30 – Productivity works in bursts, not all day Dr Tom explains that his productivity comes in intense, focused…