Tangled Thoughts is a space for thinking about change differently.

I write for people who have tried habits, routines, productivity systems, and self-improvement frameworks, and discovered that they only seem to work if your energy is stable, your body is predictable, and your nervous system cooperates on demand.

Mine doesn’t. And many of the people I work with and write for are in the same position.

This publication explores what behaviour change looks like when capacity comes first. It is shaped by neurodivergent experience, chronic illness, nervous system awareness, and the reality that motivation and discipline are not the primary barriers for many people. Instead, the barriers are regulation, sensory load, pain, fatigue, hormones, and fluctuating energy.

My background spans writing, academia, and coaching. I am a neurodivergent writer and ADHD coach, and I am currently completing a PhD in mental health, awaiting my viva. My research focuses on the lived experience of women diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood, and much of my work grows out of that intersection between research, lived experience, and practice.

Here, I write about habits, productivity, and behaviour change, but from a different starting point. Rather than asking how to be more consistent, I am interested in questions like: what is realistic given the state of your body and nervous system today? What needs to come before action? And how do we design systems that flex instead of collapsing under pressure?

Some posts are practical and exploratory. Others are reflective or conceptual. Many draw on lived experience, because bodies and nervous systems are not distractions from theory. They are part of the data.

You will not find rigid routines or moralised advice here. You will not be told to push through exhaustion or optimise yourself into burnout. What you will find are thoughtful reframes, gentle experiments, and language for experiences that are often dismissed or misunderstood.

If you are neurodivergent, chronically ill, late diagnosed, quietly burnt out, or simply tired of advice that assumes unlimited capacity, this space is for you.

You are welcome to read selectively, to take what fits, and to leave the rest.

Vikky x

Published work

I have been published in the following publications.

Times Higher Education - “Academia can be hard for people with ADHD – but we have so much to offer”

Mad in America - “How Are You?” The Strangest Question to ask in a Psychiatric Hospital

Wholistique - The Comparison Trap—Why We Measure Ourselves Against the Wrong People