Starting my Blog

Welcome to My Blog!

A personal blog entry written by myself (Ryan James Gittins) to introduce myself to you :)

I was born AFAB in the year 2000 as Bethany-Paige Gittins to a Middle Class family in Buckinghamshire, England. At the age of 18 I then changed my name to Ryan James Gittins to appropriately match how I identify as a Non-Binary individual (non-labeled). My pronouns are She/Her/Hers, They/Them/Theirs, or He/Him/His, but I do feel a more comfortable preference to They/Them pronouns most of the time. I am also non-labeled within my sexual orientation as I prefer to base my attraction on the person regardless of their gender or sex.

I was privaleged enough to be raised by both of my parents in the same household alongside my elder sister. I grew up as a highly energetic, overly ambitious child with a strong sense of justice and an inability to tolerate the world as it was around me. I found myself overwhelmed by loud noises, textures, but most importantly social interaction. My Autism and ADHD diagnoses did not come until my adulthood, which left me without answers to why I was so different to everyone else for such a long time.

Due to this, my mental health declined rapidly and I found unhealthy ways of coping via the use of instant dopamine hits. Before my Autism diagnosis had been considered I was told that my personality was disordered and that I would need antipsychotics to function. I did not in fact need to be sedated for not understanding how to communicate my feelings, I needed to be encouraged to accept that I have feelings to begin with.

A picture of me (August, 2024)

I chose to create my blog SheThinkDifferent as a way of exploring my own journey in understanding myself, with the hope that others out there who feel alone right now might find solace knowing I'm out here too in the same position. Not only do I want you to feel less alone as you follow my journey though, I also intend to educate as many people as I can on everything to do with women's health and the neurodivergent spectrum. So if you would like to know more about how She Thinks Different, then stick around ;)