that audhd teacher

If you’ve found your way here, there’s a good chance you’re interested in AuDHD.

Maybe you’re autistic and have ADHD. Maybe you’ve recently been diagnosed. Maybe you’re wondering if some of the things you’ve experienced throughout your life might have an explanation. Maybe you’re a teacher trying to understand yourself a little better.

Or maybe you just stumbled across this blog and thought, What on earth is an AuDHD teacher?

Whatever brought you here, welcome.

I’m Emily, an early childhood teacher from Aotearoa New Zealand, and I’m autistic and ADHD. And I didn’t always know that.

I spent a long time wondering why things seemed harder for me

For a lot of my life, I didn’t think of myself as autistic or ADHD. I just thought I was… me. I was a teacher. I was capable. I could be organised. I could work incredibly hard. I could talk to people, teach children, run meetings, complete assignments and get through things that needed to be done.

So when I struggled, I often assumed it was because I wasn’t trying hard enough.

If I was exhausted, I was probably just tired.

If I couldn’t start something, I was procrastinating.

If I became overwhelmed, I was being too sensitive.

If I needed an enormous amount of time alone after being around people, I was just introverted.

If something that seemed completely manageable to everyone else felt enormous to me, I assumed there was something wrong with me. I had become very good at figuring out how to function. What I didn’t understand was how much energy that functioning was costing me.

Then came the diagnoses

I was diagnosed ADHD and Autism at 28 years old. Getting those answers was both incredibly validating and surprisingly complicated.

There was relief. There was a sense of, Oh. That explains a LOT. There was also grief.

Because once you have a framework for understanding yourself, you inevitably start looking backwards.

You start thinking about childhood. School. Friendships. University. Work. Relationships.

The things you struggled with. The things you were praised for. The things people told you were personality quirks. The things you were told to try harder at. And suddenly some of those memories look very different.

For me, discovering that I was autistic and ADHD wasn’t about suddenly becoming a different person. It was about finally having a different explanation for the person I’d always been.

And then I started looking at teaching differently

I’m an early childhood teacher, and teaching is one of those professions that can be incredibly rewarding while also demanding an enormous amount from you.

There are constant transitions. Noise. Movement. Social interaction. Planning. Documentation. Decision making. Emotional regulation (your own and everyone else’s). Unexpected changes. Sensory input. Multitasking. Remembering approximately seventeen things at the same time. And then somehow you’re expected to go home and have enough energy left to be a functioning human being.

For many teachers, these things are simply tiring.

For an AuDHD teacher, they can sometimes interact in much more complicated ways. And this is one of the reasons I started That AuDHD Teacher. Because I don’t think we talk enough about what it actually means to be neurodivergent and work in education.

This isn’t a blog about having all the answers

I want to be clear about something from the beginning. I’m not a psychologist. I’m not a diagnostician. I’m not here to tell you that every experience you have is because of autism or ADHD. And I’m definitely not here to diagnose anyone through a blog post.

What I am is a teacher who has spent a lot of time learning about herself, learning about neurodivergence and trying to understand experiences that suddenly made much more sense after diagnosis.

So this blog is a mixture of things. Some posts will be personal. Some will be educational. Some will explore AuDHD concepts that I wish I’d understood earlier. Some will be specifically about teaching. And some will probably be me saying, Has anyone else experienced this?!

Because honestly, one of the most powerful parts of discovering the AuDHD community has been realising that I am not the only person who experiences the world this way.

Why “That AuDHD Teacher”?

Because for a long time, I didn’t have a word for the teacher I was. I knew I was passionate about teaching. I knew I cared deeply about children. I knew I could be incredibly creative and enthusiastic. I also knew that some parts of teaching seemed to drain me in ways I couldn’t always explain.

The more I learned about AuDHD, the more I started seeing connections. Not everything. Not every difficult day. Not every personality trait. But enough that I couldn’t ignore it.

And I started thinking about how many other teachers might be sitting somewhere thinking the exact same thing: Why does this seem so much harder for me than it seems to be for everyone else? That question is one of the reasons I’m here.

What you’ll find here

If you stick around, we’ll talk about things like:

• autism and ADHD
• what AuDHD actually means
• masking
• executive functioning
• emotional regulation
• rejection sensitivity
• burnout
• sensory overwhelm
• late diagnosis
• the complicated feelings that can come with finally understanding yourself
• and what all of this can look like when you’re also a teacher

I’ll share things I’ve learned, things I’ve experienced and things I’m still figuring out.

And hopefully, somewhere along the way, something here will make you pause and think: Oh. It’s not just me. Because if there’s one thing I wish I’d had earlier, it’s that feeling of recognition.

Not someone telling me who I was. Not someone diagnosing me from a checklist.

Just someone saying: “Hey. This experience exists. And you’re not the only one.”

So, that’s me. I’m Emily. I’m an early childhood teacher. I’m autistic. I have ADHD. And apparently, I’m That AuDHD Teacher.

Welcome. I’m really glad you’re here.