Guidance or well-supported knowledge
Used for clinical definitions, diagnostic boundaries and professional support routes.
Still general. Guidance describes services and populations, not you.
Evidence & boundaries
Clear about what is known—and what is still being worked out.
The Inner Map combines established guidance, emerging research, practical interpretation and lived experience. Those are useful in different ways, and they should never be presented as interchangeable.
Every source below is here because it supports a specific claim or tool on this site. None are here to make the project look more authoritative than it is.
The evidence key
Five kinds of claim.
Where a label appears next to something on this site, it means this.
Emerging
Research that is useful but incomplete
Described with study type and limits, and never turned into certainty about one individual.
Small samples, self-selected participants and cross-sectional designs are common in this area.
Lived experience
What people report about their lives
Valuable for language and recognition, without claiming every person shares the experience.
Recognising a description is not evidence that it applies to you, or that it explains a specific day.
Interpretation
A careful way of making sense
Presented as one possible explanation that can be compared with other readings.
Plausible is not the same as true. Any interpretation here should be testable and revisable.
A practical prompt or experiment
Designed to help you gather your own evidence about your own life.
Not a validated assessment, screening test, measure or treatment. Written by one person, not a research team.
What this project is
Educational, reflective, practical and evidence-aware.
It can help you notice patterns, find language, prepare questions and test small changes.
What it is not
- Therapy, diagnosis, medical advice or crisis support
- A screening test, or proof that you are autistic, ADHD or AuDHD
- A universal model of neurodivergence, or of any one person’s life
- Evidence that neurodivergence explains every difficulty you have
- Evidence that every body signal or first interpretation is accurate
- A promise that unmasking is always possible, desirable or safe
- A substitute for support that a GP, clinician or specialist service can give
How specific terms are used
The words that carry the most risk.
These terms are widely used online with more certainty than the evidence supports. This is how each is handled here.
Autistic burnout
Emerging
Described in qualitative research as long-term exhaustion, loss of function and reduced tolerance to stimulus, linked to chronic stress and to a gap between expectations and available support. It is a concept that came from autistic people and has been studied seriously, but it is not a diagnosis in DSM-5-TR or ICD-11 and there is no validated test for it. Persistent exhaustion and low mood have many possible causes, some of them physical. If it is lasting, a GP is a reasonable next step.
Masking and camouflaging
Emerging
Research describes camouflaging as having motivations, techniques and consequences, and several studies find that higher self-reported camouflaging is associated with poorer mental health. Association is not cause: the review authors state directly that causality cannot be inferred from the current research base. Masking is also not exclusive to autistic people, and it is often a reasonable response to a genuinely unsafe or unaccommodating environment. This site does not promise that unmasking is possible, safe or desirable for you.
Sensory experience
Interpretation
Differences in response to sensory input are widely reported and are part of clinical descriptions of autism. What this site cannot tell you is how any particular room, noise or fabric affects you, or whether sensory load caused a specific difficult moment. That is what the mapping tool asks you to gather for yourself, and “I cannot tell yet” is a legitimate answer.
Executive function
Interpretation
‘Executive function’ is a research umbrella term for processes such as planning, initiation, switching and inhibition. It is a useful shorthand and a poor explanation: saying “my executive function is bad” renames a difficulty rather than describing the conditions that surrounded it. This site uses ordinary words—starting, switching, finishing—wherever it can.
‘Nervous system’ language
Interpretation
Phrases like “dysregulated nervous system” are common online and often outrun the evidence, especially when used to explain a whole personality or to sell something. Where this site talks about settling, recovering or being overloaded, it means the experience as you would describe it—not a claim about a measured physiological state.
Rejection sensitivity, sometimes called RSD
Emerging
Rejection sensitivity is discussed in research as a disposition and as part of emotional regulation. ‘Rejection sensitive dysphoria’ is not a diagnosis in DSM-5-TR or ICD-11, has no agreed clinical definition and no validated measure. This site therefore does not use it as a condition, and does not suggest that a strong reaction to rejection indicates ADHD. Strong responses to rejection occur across many experiences and situations.
Late identification
Lived experience
Recent qualitative work suggests adults identified later may describe more chronic exhaustion and more distress, and that not having language for their own functioning contributed to confusion and self-blame. That is a description of experience from a small study—not a prediction about how your life will go, and not a reason to assume an identity that has not been assessed.
When reflection is not enough
Use real-world support when the situation needs it.
If you need urgent help for your mental health in England, get help from 111 online or call 111 and select the mental health option. If someone’s life is at risk—for example, they have seriously injured themselves or taken an overdose—call 999 or go to A&E now.
For confidential listening support, Samaritans can be reached free on 116 123, any time. A Welsh-language line is available on 0808 164 0123.
Arrangements differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If you are outside England, your local NHS service or GP will have the right route.
Source register
Each source, and what it does not cover.
This list will grow only when a source directly supports a claim or a tool. Links were checked in August 2026.
Clinical guidance
NICE guideline NG87: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management
What it supports here: Used for one thing only: that ADHD recognition, assessment and diagnosis in the UK sit with trained clinicians working to national guidance. It is why this site does not screen, score or suggest a diagnosis.
What it does not support: It is guidance for services and clinicians, not a self-assessment tool, and it does not describe day-to-day strategies for adults.
Clinical guidance
NICE clinical guideline CG142: Autism spectrum disorder in adults: diagnosis and management
What it supports here: Supports the same boundary for autism: assessment and diagnosis in adults are clinical processes. It also supports the statement that adjustments to environment and communication are a recognised part of support.
What it does not support: A 2021 update adjusted the AQ-10 threshold; the guideline predates much of the recent research on masking and burnout, and does not address either.
Support guidance
NHS: Where to get urgent help for mental health
What it supports here: The wording of the crisis signposting used on this site: “Get help from 111 online or call 111 and select the mental health option”, and call 999 or go to A&E if someone’s life is at risk.
What it does not support: Applies to England. Arrangements differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and local services vary.
Support service
Samaritans: contact us
What it supports here: That Samaritans can be reached free on 116 123 at any time, and that a Welsh-language line is available on 0808 164 0123.
What it does not support: A confidential listening service, not an emergency or clinical service. Samaritans note their letter-writing service in the UK is closing during 2026.
Primary research
Raymaker et al. (2020): ‘Having all of your internal resources exhausted beyond measure’: defining autistic burnout
What it supports here: The description of autistic burnout used here: long-term exhaustion, loss of function and reduced tolerance to stimulus, associated with chronic stress and a mismatch between expectations and available support.
What it does not support: Small, self-selected sample with limited demographic diversity. Burnout described this way is a community-originated concept, not a diagnosis in DSM-5-TR or ICD-11, and there is no validated clinical test for it.
Primary research
Higgins et al. (2021): Defining autistic burnout through experts by lived experience
What it supports here: That researchers and autistic adults describe burnout as distinct from depression and from ordinary occupational burnout—which is why this site does not treat ‘burnout’ and ‘depression’ as interchangeable words.
What it does not support: Consensus among a small expert-by-experience panel is not the same as diagnostic validation. The authors themselves say further work is needed to separate burnout from other conditions. If low mood is persistent, that is a reason to speak to a GP.
Primary research
Ali, Mandy & Happé (2026): How does ‘autistic burnout’ feel?
What it supports here: That people identified later in life may describe more chronic exhaustion and more distress, and that not having language for their own functioning contributed to confusion and self-blame. This is part of why the site is written for late-identified adults.
What it does not support: Twenty participants, with under-representation of minority ethnic and gender groups, and excluding autistic adults with significant intellectual or language support needs. It describes experience; it does not establish cause.
Primary research
Hull et al. (2017): ‘Putting on my best normal’: social camouflaging in adults with autism spectrum conditions
What it supports here: The language used on this site for masking: that camouflaging is described as having motivations (fitting in, safety, connection), techniques, and consequences that include exhaustion and a need for recovery.
What it does not support: Self-selected online sample, skewed towards people who write fluently in English and who already relate to camouflaging. It does not measure how common masking is, and it does not show that everyone who masks is autistic.
Emerging research
Cook, Hull, Crane & Mandy (2021): Camouflaging in autism: a systematic review
What it supports here: That higher self-reported camouflaging is associated with worse mental health outcomes in several studies.
What it does not support: The authors state plainly that a causal relationship cannot be inferred from cross-sectional research, and that measures of camouflaging capture different things. This is why the site never says masking causes burnout, and never promises that unmasking will improve anyone’s health.
Emerging research
Rowney-Smith, Sutton, Quadt & Eccles (2026): The lived experience of rejection sensitivity in ADHD
What it supports here: That rejection sensitivity is discussed as a personality disposition and an aspect of emotional regulation—not as a diagnostic category. This is why the term ‘rejection sensitive dysphoria’ is not used as a condition anywhere on this site.
What it does not support: Five participants, all undergraduates. It cannot describe the wider population, and the authors note emotional dysregulation is itself excluded from ADHD diagnostic criteria.
Lived experience
National Autistic Society: Autistic fatigue and burnout — a guide for autistic adults
What it supports here: That ‘autistic fatigue’ and ‘autistic burnout’ are terms that came from autistic people rather than from clinical classification, and that they are widely used in the UK community.
What it does not support: Guidance written for a general audience by a charity. It is a good source for language and recognition; it is not research evidence, and it should not be read as clinical advice.
Change log
What changed, and when.
- Version 2 — 9 August 2026 Added evidence labels beside tools and terms; added a ‘what it does not support’ note to every source; added sources on camouflaging and mental health, later identification and rejection sensitivity; removed any implication that self-observation produces clinical insight; added a step for holding more than one explanation; added stopping points throughout.
- Version 1 — earlier 2026 First published source list: NICE NG87 and CG142, NHS urgent help, Raymaker et al. (2020) and Hull et al. (2017).