Neurodivergent Pacing Systems
Image description: In the graphic there is a drawing of a boy with his head in his hands and his eyes are closed, you can see an image of a drained battery above him. Over this graphic there is a blue box with words written in white that say “New blog post.” The title is written in black text on a beige box which says “Neurodivergent Pacing Systems 101.”
Pacing systems are a key part to creating a life that’s autistic friendly, supportive and accessible. As a late diagnosed Autistic I’ve seen first hand how learning about pacing systems (and putting them into practice!) have been deeply supportive to my autistic wellness. For many of us late diagnosed autistics we went through the majority of our life not getting our autistic needs met. This means that many Autistics and AuDHDers might experience things like autistic burnout, chronic fatigue or find themselves in a boom-or-bust cycle. Learning about pacing systems like spoon theory, energy accounting and the traffic light pacing systems are ways we can monitor and manage our energy in a sustainable way. In this blog post I’ll be sharing an overview of different pacing systems and doable ways you can begin to track your energy.
The Boom-or-Bust Cycle.
Image description: Over a purple background there is an image of three orange arrows in a circle, next to each arrow reads the following sentences: "overextending ourselves and pushing past our limits", "fatigue and/or burnout", "rest and recovery." The title at the top of the image reads "The Boom or Bust Cycle."
When I first learned about the “Boom-or-Bust” cycle from Dr. Neff of Neurodivergent Insights I remember having a big “aha” moment. The boom-or-bust cycle is a common experience for people who have a chronic health condition, experience fatigue or are disabled. A great example of the boom-or-bust cycle is a person who is starting to recover from autistic burnout and on a day they feel better does a lot of activities that we can’t do when we have low energy. However by doing so it can often mean we over extend ourselves, ignore our bodies cues and push ourselves past our limits-which is then followed by a crash. A crash could refer to getting sensory overloaded or getting into neurodivergent burnout (or deeper into burnout.) When you find yourself cycling through a boom-or-bust cycle again and again then it’s important to pay attention. Being constantly in a boom-or-bust cycle can mean that each time it’s harder to recover and our neurodivergent burnout can get worse. A way we can get ourselves out of the boom-or-bust cycle is by learning about and putting into practice pacing systems. Which is exactly what we’re going to talk about in this blog post!
Note: Dr. Megan Neff shares that neurodivergent people will experience some degrees of boom-or-bust cycles due to our interest based nervous systems, hyper focus, all or nothing way of thinking and more. But when you notice that you’re constantly in a boom-or-bust cycle and it’s leading to fatigue and burnout-that’s when it’s important to focus on pacing your energy.
Spoon theory applied to neurodivergence.
Spoon theory was created by Christine Miserandino as a way to describe to a college friend what it was like living with lupus. After struggling to try and share the specifics of living with lupus, Christine grabbed a bunch of spoons and told her friend that most people start their day with an unlimited amount of spoons but for this experiment her friend had just 12. Her friend then described a typical day and for each activity Christine would take a spoon away from her friend. Christine used the spoon as a metaphor to illustrate how living with a chronic illness meant that she had to always monitor how much energy she had and what activities would deplete her energy. Spoon theory is a metaphor for energy and each spoon represents one energy unit. The basic idea of Spoon theory is that we start off each day with a specific amount of spoons and each activity we do costs spoons, so we need to be mindful of how we spend our spoons. It can really helpful to map out what drains our spoons, as well as activities that recharge our spoons.
However, spoon drawers look a bit different for neurodivergent folks because Autistics and ADHDers often have different spoons (or energy units) for different areas. For example: you might find that you have a lot of focus spoons but very little sensory and social spoons. It can be really supportive to view the Spoon Theory with a neurodivergent lens that takes into account that different areas of your life will have more or less spoons. The concept of a neurodivergent spoon theory can also be incredibly validating especially if you’ve received messages like “if you have time to play that game, you have time to clean.” The reality is that we have different energy reserves for different activities and that’s okay. It can be supportive to:
Identify how many spoons we typically have in the following areas: executive functioning spoons, focus spoons, social spoons, sensory spoons, physical spoons, communication spoons.
Get to know which activities take away our spoons and which activities give us spoons.
Explore if there are ways that we can pair up activities that require a lot of spoons with activities that replenish our spoons.
Image description: Over a grey background are two sets of columns, one in purple and one in green. The purple column list is “areas” and lists different neurodivergent spoon areas, while the green column list is “spoons” and is left blank so readers can fill in their own spoon amount. The title of the graphic reads “My Neurodivergent Spoon Drawer.”
Fork theory or “Stick a fork in me, I’m done!”
Image description: Over a purple background is a drawing of a woman looking thoughtful, there is a thinking bubble above her head which reads “What fork can I remove first?” There are two white star graphics.
Fork Theory was created by Jen Rose in 2018 and was inspired by the saying “stick a fork in me, I’m done!” Fork Theory is a metaphor for our capacity for stressors and to illustrate that everyone has their own “fork limit.” To understand Fork Theory it might be helpful to imagine that each stressor is a fork stuck in your body and there gets to be a point where you can handle one more fork. These can be big or small forks such as:
an uncomfortable clothing label.
A new diagnosis.
A trauma trigger.
A loud noise.
A stressful conversation.
A demand.
When you reach your “fork limit” or limit of stressors you might experience a meltdown, shutdown or other emergency response. Damage from too many forks or stressors takes time to recover from which is why it can be very helpful to remove the easiest fork. For example, if I’m experiencing an itchy clothing label, have a headache from a noise environment and have to go to the bathroom-I might decide to go the bathroom as that feels like the easiest stressor to remove at the time. The important thing to remember about Fork Theory is that by removing stressors we can cope better. Fork Theory was not meant to replace Spoon Theory but for both of these theories to work together.
The Traffic Light Pacing System.
Image description: Over a pink background there is a graphic of a traffic light and three yellow stars. The title is written in black text over a yellow background and reads “traffic light pacing system.”
The Traffic Light Pacing System is another way you can identify and manage your energy. In her workbook The Traffic Light Pacing System Dr. Megan Neff breaks down this pacing system and identifies the following:
Red light activities are things that take a lot of energy (whether physical, emotional or socially) and are often high sensory activities-which can be really taxing for us sensory avoidant neurodivergent folks.
Yellow light activities are neutral to moderate activities meaning that while they aren’t restorative they are less demanding than red activities and aren’t very draining.
Green light activities are activities that are easy to restorative. You might even find that green light activities give you energy.
We can use The Traffic Light Pacing System by asking ourselves the following questions:
How many red light activities can I handle in a day/week/month?
How many green light activities do I need to recover from red light activities?
How many red light activities do I typically have during my day/week/month?
Are there ways I can balance my red light activities with yellow and green light activities? If so, what do I notice when I balance out my day/week with red, yellow and green activities?
What’s the best pacing system? The one that works for you!
While we haven’t covered all of the different pacing systems, we have covered a a fair amount of them and you might be thinking “what do I do with this information?” I encourage you to explore the different energy pacing systems we’ve covered today and to see which ones work best for you. Once you’ve found 1-2 pacing systems that work well for you it might be really supportive to share them with your loved ones. It can be really helpful to be able to tell your partner “I’m really low on social spoons today, so I’m going to spend some time resting in my room” and for them to understand. Or to be able to share with a friend that you’re really low on executive functioning spoons and wonder if she could body double with you.
I love energy pacing systems because it helps me track my energy in clear ways and create a life that’s more sustainable. I hope reading about energy pacing systems has been supportive for you too!
Resources consulted & further reading:
The Traffic Light Pacing System by Dr. Megan Neff of Neurodivergent Insights.
Spoon Theory by Dr. Megan Neff of Neurodivergent Insights.
The original concept of applying spoon theory to neurodivergence was created by @musingsofanaspie.
The Learning and Development Cutlery Drawer by Kurt Ewald Lindley.
Fork Theory by Jen Rose.
Spoon Theory and Beyond: Analogizing Task Energy by Aurelia Under the Radar.
The Mental Illness Cutlery Drawer: Spoons, Forks & More by Mental Health @ Home.
Thank you for reading!
I hope this blog post was supportive. If you’d like to share a bit about your experience with pacing systems-please feel free to share in the comments.
The information contained in this blog post is for general educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical or mental health advice. The information provided is not a substitute for advice from a qualified professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation. We expressly recommend that you seek advice from a professional familiar with your specific situation.
Your autistic healing matters.
I hope this blog post was helpful in your own autistic healing journey. I truly believe that us late diagnosed autistics deserve autistic affirming healing and I hope you have the best practitioners, tools and support for your own healing.
If you’re seeking autistic support and healing, I’d love to support you in my 5 month program The Autistic Mentorship. It includes:
An intensive intake session & healing map to identify your goals and developmental objectives that we’ll work on in our program together.
Three (75 minute) sessions a month.
Lots of support & education: think recap emails + personalized practices sent to your inbox, neurodivergent workbooks and resources and two optional 30 minute check-in calls.
You can find out more about The Autistic Mentorship here.
Tiffany Landry is an autistic coach and trauma resolution practitioner. She works with clients in her program The Autistic Mentorship . Tiffany also writes a free newsletter on Substack called The Queer Autistic Newsletter.