mental-health
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✨ 6 Years Ago Today: Lockdown, Chaos… and a Basil Brush Song Just for Me ✨
Six years ago today, the UK went into lockdown. And I don’t think any of us really understood what that meant at the time. Everything felt strange.Quiet.A bit unreal. Shops were empty.The roads were still.And suddenly, we were all just… at home. Trying to make sense of something none of us had experienced before. Everyone… Read more
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✨ ADN Hits 200: Because Apparently I Can’t Stop Talking About The 00s ✨
A fun-and-cheeky milestone from your resident nostalgia queen 💅💖 Remember when I said, “I’ll just start a cute little nostalgia blog — y’know, for fun”?Fast-forward 200 posts later and here we are — still overanalysing S Club lyrics, still emotionally invested in CBBC competitions from 2004, and still drinking Pepsi Max like it’s a creative… Read more
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💌 Parasocial Crushes: My First Love Wasn’t Real (and That’s Okay)
Asten Does Nostalgia • 27 August 2025 When I look back at my teenage years, one of the things that makes me cringe the most is the intensity of my parasocial crushes. You know the type — the popstar on your bedroom wall, the TV character who felt like they “got” you, the safe obsession… Read more
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🎃 ADN’s Fear Files: The Dread of Saying My Own Name
There are many things I feared as a child: balloons, certain adverts, and people in giant costumes. But one fear that never quite left me? Saying my own name. Sounds ridiculous, right? But hear me out. For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt a weird, cringey discomfort around having to introduce myself out… Read more
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Goosebumps, Guitars, and Girlhood: My Body Remembers the Disney Channel Era
You know that moment when you’re just vibing, minding your business, and then an old Disney Channel bop hits different — and suddenly you’ve got goosebumps on your arms and tears threatening to form because WHY does this slap so hard? Yeah. That. I got goosebumps the other day from a song that used to… Read more
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Apparently My Whole Personality Was Autism?
I was told I was autistic at age nine (diagnosed at four, but I wouldn’t have understood then). And yet… AND YET… there are still things I’m only now looking back on and thinking, “Wait… that was autism?” Because I did a lot of quirky things as a kid. Here’s my list of things that… Read more
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So What Is This Anyway?
Hi, I’m Asten!If you don’t know me, I’m currently 32 (although I level up on 3rd September 🎂), I live in the UK, and I’m autistic and disabled (part-time wheelchair user, full-time chaos gremlin). As a girl who grew up in the 00s (or the Noughties, as people insist on calling them), I’m a little… Read more
Asten Does Nostalgia 