iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Received possible life-changing news today and I’m barely holding it together—equal parts sprinting and collapsing 🤣😭🤮 Send help (and a crash mat). #overwhelmed #toomuchdopamine #impostersyndrome

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

For those of us with chronic illness, "slowing down" often feels more like a calculation than a choice. But what if we gave ourselves permission to choose? #spoonie #chronicillness #joy open.substack.com/pub/thequiet...

open.substack.com

Spoons for the Soul

Adding the spring to my step.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

I am living on a fault line. The ground beneath me is always shifting, plates pressing against each other in slow, constant motion. Pressure accumulating in ways no one else can feel. #chronicillness #invisibleillness #bodypolitics open.substack.com/pub/thequiet...

open.substack.com

Shaping Dormancy

Chronic is a word people think they understand.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

If you asked me the hardest part about living with neurodivergence and chronic illness, I’d say it’s the friction of having a mind that sees the world as limitless while inhabiting a body defined by limitations. #spoonielife #neurospicy #invisibleillness

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

As children, we assume adulthood is a stable structure. We think the story of who we are and how we will live has already been sewn. #identitythreads #midlife #adulthood open.substack.com/pub/thequiet...

open.substack.com

The Threads that Stitch Us

Choosing the Gold Thread: On AuDHD, Illness, and the Art of Integration.

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Reposted by Leighlou Harper 🌺

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

When you’re living with chronic illness, your body calls the shots. It doesn’t matter how hard you try. It doesn’t matter how badly you “want” to do something. There’s time when your body will say “No”. You’re no longer in control and it can be devastating.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Rewatching One Tree Hill and having a full identity crisis because I’m no longer into the boys… I’m out here like “Keith, sir??” 🥵 Was he always this attractive or did I just unlock a new age bracket? #onetreehill #craigsheffer #millenialproblems

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Without an internal compass that matches the neurotypical terrain, we learn to trust the loudest signal. We mistake the vibration of a panic attack for the resonance of a soulmate. #neurodivergent #limerence #relationships open.substack.com/pub/thequiet...

open.substack.com

The AuDHD Heart: Wiring and Wreckage

On the tragedy and the mercy of learning to tend a hearth after a lifetime of chasing sparks.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Me: I’ll write about my ex for "the craft". ✍️ Also me, two thousand words in: Does he still have our tattoo? Or has my soul already been replaced while I sit here romanticising a ghost? Nostalgia and limerence need to get in the bin. #neurodivergent #nostalgia #limerence

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

“Too complex” is simply an assessment of scope. It is also a price point. It suggests that depth and healing are luxuries reserved for those who can absorb £200 or more a month in private fees without destabilising their lives. #mentalhealth #therapy #ukpolitics open.substack.com/pub/thequiet...

open.substack.com

The Price of Complexity

When Depth is a Luxury and Healing is a Financial Tier: Navigating the Gaps of the UK Mental Health System.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North. By the Powers of Mother and Earth, Hear me. Grant me the stillness to hear my truth and the strength to carve it into form. Anchor my words to the page and my name to the shelf. By soil and root, I invoke thee. #thecraft #writing #manifestation

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

When I finally received my diagnosis at the age of thirty-five, I didn’t feel relieved. I was blindsided. Like failing to notice the freight train bearing down on me, and by the time I thought to move, my soul had already left my body. #latediagnosis #audhd #writing open.substack.com/pub/thequiet...

open.substack.com

Temporal Dysphoria: A Millennial Post-Mortem

When nostalgia feels less like a memory and more like a crime scene.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Mon: make a plan, need a lie-down Tue: brain says all the things, body says no Wed: cancel everything (again) Thu: do one task, feel powerful, pay for it Fri: “rest” Sat: brief competence Sun: existential dread, repeat forever 🫠 #mondaymotivation #chronicillness #spoonielife

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Spent the weekend trading sleep for syntax on a short story writing course. There’s something electric about stripping a narrative down to its bones and finding the heartbeat underneath. Feeling inspired and ready to pump lead. #shortstories #writingcommunity #newchapters

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Spent today breathing new life into an old poem and writing a flash fiction companion for my chapbook in progress. I could get used to this writerly life. #poetry #flashfiction #chapbook

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

You know how British people insist on bringing all the shopping in from the car in one trip, no matter how many bags there are? That was me. Fingers white, shoulders screaming, with no one around to ask for help. #burnout #neurodivergence #chronicillness open.substack.com/pub/thequiet...

open.substack.com

I'm Giving Up

The cost of performing resilience.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

In bed before 10pm on a Friday night? Living wild. Oh wait—I technically never left. Chronic illness chic. At least I’ve got audiobooks for company. #chronicillnesslife #fridaynightin #audiobookfriends

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Reposted by Leighlou Harper 🌺

Carrie Marshall - MySeveralWorlds.com @myseveralworlds.com · 12/01/2026

It's different for all of us. Hidden costs of living with #ChronicIllness Activity vs Min Recovery Time Going for a walk - 1 Day Clean bedroom - 6 Hours Cook- 2-3 Hours Laundry - 4 Hours Medical Admin - 8 Hours Visitors - 1-2 Days Running errands - 2 Days Seeing friends - 4 Days Credit Unknown

It's a different recovery time for all of us, but this gives you the gist. There are things on this list I simply cannot do and have not been able to do in over a decade.

I'm also going to add a marker that most people never experience:

International travel in a wheelchair - months.

Hidden costs of living with a
chronic illness

Activity vs Minimum Recovery Time

Going out for a walk - 1 Day
Cleaning your bedroom - 6 Hours
Cooking a meal - 2-3 Hours
Doing laundry - 4 Hours
Medical Admin - 8 Hours
Having visitors - 1-2 Days
Running errands - 2 Days
Going out with friends - 4 Days

Credit Unknown

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Reposted by Leighlou Harper 🌺

Carrie Marshall - MySeveralWorlds.com @myseveralworlds.com · 10/01/2026

"Shoutout to everyone who has exactly two modes: 1) Doing all the things 2) Doing absolutely nothing while recovering from doing all the things." Image Credit: @PolydotLand Source: kixxarse1986 #MySeveralWorlds #ChronicTruths #TheChronicLife

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

There is a particular kind of melancholy that doesn't announce itself loudly. It doesn't break things or demand attention. It settles in quietly and stays, like a damp fog in a house with no heating. #audhd #latediagnosis #survival thequietfrequency.substack.com/p/the-archit...

thequietfrequency.substack.com

The Architecture of Absence

Author’s Note CW/TW: This essay explores the reality of a late-diagnosed AuDHD life, specifically the intersection of burnout, depression and suicidal ideation.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Not only have I written two complete chapters of my first novel, totalling 4000 words, but I’ve just submitted them for a competition. I'm quietly panicking but impossibly proud of myself. #writing #writers #myfirstnovel

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Living with a chronic illness is like playing a buggy open-world game: the main storyline is just doctor’s appointments, side quests come from NPCs that all say “Have you tried—”, and every treasure chest is a mimic that gives you a permanent debuff. 🎮💀 #chronicillness #gaming #spoonienerd

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Reposted by Leighlou Harper 🌺

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Disabled people are not expendable. The elderly are not expendable. Children are not expendable. Worth should never be tied to economic productivity. If we protected the most vulnerable in society, everyone would be better off.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Living with PDD is a constant weight. Nothing feels fully dark or fully light—just muted, heavy, and tiring. I keep moving, not out of hope, but because there’s no real alternative. This is just life inside it. #persistentdepressivedisorder #depression #mentalhealth

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Who are these people that can read over two hundred books in a year? That's roughly three to four books a week... where do they get the time, the energy, the concentration? #reading #avidreader #books

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I want to write toward the places we’re taught to avoid. To be honest. To be curious. To explore myself on the page and leave a little room for others to do the same. #writingcommunity #writinghonestly #creativeexploration

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

The days between Christmas and New Year are for existing entirely on cheese, biscuits and charcuterie meats. #twixtmas #merrineum #cheese

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Reposted by Leighlou Harper 🌺

A Chronic Voice @achronicvoice.com · 28/12/2025

" #History isn’t just something to honor—it’s something to apply. Three lessons stand out when we look at the work of #ChronicallyIll #activists ..Small acts add up..Lived experience is evidence..#Advocacy can look different for everyone.": buff.ly/hLhWoUn #awareness by @thethrivingspoonie.com

buff.ly

The Powerful Legacy of Chronically Ill Activists—and Why Disability Rights Are Still Under Threat

Discover the powerful legacy of chronically ill activists in U.S. disability rights history—and why their fight still matters today.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

In true neurodivergent/chronically ill Christmas fashion: too many spoons spent socialising, food my gut hates, ONE drink that didn’t mix with meds, and way too little sleep. Boxing Day = bed day. Exhausted, sick, brain full of smog. Why do I suck at pacing? #spoonie #chronicallyill #christmas

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

For late diagnosed neurodivergents, nostalgia is not comforting. Instead it arrives like a memory catching up with the years we lived without an explanation for our pain. It's not bittersweet, it's just bitter. #neurodivergent #latediagnosis #nostalgia

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

When an illness is invisible, people don’t see it, so they don’t get it. When it drags on for years, it becomes “normal” to others, and they don't notice the real, lasting impact it has on your life. #chronicillness #invisibleillness #chronicmeansconstant

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Not all disabilities come from chronic illness but most chronic illnesses cause disability. Being disabled does not mean unabled and being functional is not the same as able bodied. #chronicillness #disability #ableism

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Grief, I’ve learned, doesn’t only belong to death. It belongs to transformation too. The involuntary kind, the kind that remakes you without your permission. #disenfranchisedgrief #chronicillness open.substack.com/pub/thequiet...

open.substack.com

She is Me

There are days when I wake into a stillness I don’t recognise.

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Living with chronic illness can feel like this: I am scared that this version of me is permanent and I don't know how to love someone who is always in pain. #chronicillness #disability #grief

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Leighlou Harper 🌺 @leighlouharper.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Coming back to writing after years away feels like finding my way home. I’m writing honestly about life, disability, and the truths we don’t often say out loud—one piece at a time. #writer #lifeessays #disability

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