The following is from my first ever podcast episode! The sound is terrible (as I recorded it on my son’s gaming microphone and on impulse). I have wanted to do a podcast for so long and today seemed like the day! There is no music, no frills and I even forget to introduce myself! But have a listen… and be kind.
If you don’t want to listen, you can read the transcript below.
If you follow my page or any number of other pages, you will know at least a little bit about Neurodiversity. Today, I thought I would share my journey into the Neurodiversity movement and how much my mindset and idea of what it means to have ADHD has changed.
I first really heard about ADHD when I was studying at Uni to become a speech pathologist (MANY years ago!) We spent literally 30 mins in my entire degree talking about it, in a subject called “Abnormal Psychology” (Yep! Not very neurodiversity affirming!)
I remember sitting there in this class looking at the DSM criteria (the guidelines to how medical professionals diagnose ADHD) thinking “OH MY GOODNESS! This is me!” But, I was really embarrassed, because after all, what then-18 year old wants to admit to their newly made university peers that they have “abnormal psychology.”
As the year went on, I struggled with my mental health. I had moved 2 hours away from home and my then boyfriend (who is now my husband!). I was living in a family’s garage living on 2 min noodles and tins of stew.
I had made friends at Uni but always felt like I had to be on show for them to like me. They seemed to have their life together and I felt like I was falling apart. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety by a psychologist and put onto anti-depressants.
At that time, the psychologist said that I “had ADHD”, but since I was almost an adult, it would “no longer be a problem.” The anti-depressants helped, and I graduated, got married to an amazing man, had three truly miraculous children (following many years of infertility and loss) and I am the Australian Allied Health Awards Speech Pathologist of the Year, who supports lots of other speech pathologists to develop their own skills, so one day they can be Speech Pathologist of the Year too!
My life sounds pretty good when I highlight the main points, but since graduating uni 20(+) years ago, things have not been smooth sailing. I have had several major bouts of depression, significant periods of anxiety where I couldn’t even leave the house and spent a lot of my motherhood depressed, anxious and not coping with life. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) and severe endometriosis, so had a radical hysterectomy, hoping that all of my mental health symptoms would just go away. They mostly did, with the help of hormone replacement and anti-depressants!
I was no longer depressed and only mildly anxious, but still felt different to all the other people around me, like I was living in a fog where I was accidently overlooked when God was handing out the “how to live as a human” book.
When my son (now 14) was a toddler, I noticed that he was quite different to other kids his age. While other kids were sitting playing with toys or calmly following their mums around, my son was climbing, running off, jumping, moving, singing and I felt as though her never ever listened to me. He never slept, and I felt completely ill-equipped to parent him. This is how my journey of ADHD and neurodiversity really began. I wanted to be the best possible mum to my son and I knew that I couldn’t parent him the same way as the people around me were parenting their children. But at this stage, I still thought that there was something “wrong” with my son and we needed to “fix” him.
So, when I started to really research and investigate ADHD, I dove into the medical literature. I read (and still do!) almost every new research article on ADHD that is published in the medical journals. Most of these articles, even now, still focus on what’s “wrong” in the brain of a child with ADHD.
So my knowledge and understanding of ADHD was coming from a deficit model. I think this is because of the way that I was raised and educated. If we were sick, we took medicine. If our minds were sick (or different) we took medicine. I studied speech pathology at University, which taught me to think of any “difference” in a child or adult as a disorder that needed to be fixed and I, boy! I knew how to fix them!
This is what we call the Medical Model of disability. The medical model basically says that people with ADHD have brain “dysfunction”, particularly in the areas of executive functioning (e.g. planning, problem solving, working memory, emotional regulation and many more!) which explains all of their symptoms. Now this isn’t untrue – if we compare the ADHD brain to a non-ADHD (or Neurotypical) brain. By comparison, research tells us that people with ADHD have smaller brains, particularly in the pre-frontal cortex, and lower levels of certain neurotransmitters, along with “less efficient” brain activity and “marked deficits” in their executive functioning and self-regulation skills.
So, the medical model of disability says that people with ADHD have an abnormal brain that needs to be fixed, so they can function in society. When we look at it from this perspective, it really does seem obvious. People with ADHD, DO have challenges at school, work and even in their social lives. The research is clear that people with ADHD have poorer outcomes in all social, educational and health related areas than their non-ADHD peers. But the problem is, that we are comparing them to a neurotypical brain.
I bought into this belief for years! My 3 kids with ADHD needed help to fit into society, and when they didn’t (or actually couldn’t) I felt that I had failed them, that they were going to grow up and not reach their potential and have a horrible life.
That was a heavy burden for me, and my children. The medical model is saying, yes, your brain is different, but we want everyone to be “normal” so we have to throw every intervention and therapy at them to make them fit the “normal mould.” But what we are discovering is that this way of looking at ADHD is completely and utterly wrong.
There is absolutely no judgment here from me! I am on a journey of Neurodiversity Affirming Practice and ADHD acceptance. I don’t think anyone can truly say that have “made it.” So, wherever you are on your journey towards Neurodiversity, remember to show yourself grace. One small step towards neurodiversity affirming practice is a step in the right direction.
What is neurodiversity?
If you have never heard of Neurodiversity before, or have heard of it, but don’t really understand it, let me give you a VERY BRIEF introduction.
The idea of Neurodiversity was first introduced by Judy Singer. She is an Australian Sociologist who first used the term Neurodiversity in her honours thesis in 1998. She said that Neurology should be recognised and respected as a social category.
The neurodiversity model describes the natural diversity of the human brain. It’s the idea that all people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways and there is no one “correct” way of thinking, learning, perceiving the world or behaving in the world and therefore the deficits that the medical model talks about are purely differences.
Neurodiversity is a social model of disability. It believes that our society is created by and for their predominate neurotype (which we call Neurotypical) because most people’s brains work well in that system. Most of the population (about 80%) do fit into this category and can get through school, enter the workforce and have families without too many barriers.
The other 20% of the society are then called Neurodivergent. You are neurodivergent when your brain diverges from the statistical majority or “norm” for that society. ADHD (as well as Autism, Developmental Language Disorder, Dyspraxia, Specific Learning Disorder – such as dyslexia or dyscalculia, OCD and even depression, anxiety and Schizophrenia, along with many other brains) fall under this 20% group of neurodiverse people.
So, if we believe (and I hope you do!) that ADHD is a different neurotype, not a disorder, you are on your way to embracing the Neurodiversity Model.
But to be honest, I wrestled with this idea of neurodiversity for a while, because having an ADHD brain myself, I DO struggle to fit into the society I was born into. I have sensory sensitivities, I struggle to work when I am told to (my brain likes to work at 4am for some weird reason), I struggle to keep my house tidy and I use so much of my cognitive resources up at work, that when I come home I feel like I want to sleep for 6 years. My brain MUST be defective.
But the more I investigated this idea of Neurodiversity, the more it resonated with me. It is not my brain that is defective or wrong, it is that I am living in a society that was built and designed for a neurotypical brain and my brain is neurodivergent.
So, by embracing Neurodiversity, does that mean I am doing myself out of a job. After all a HUGE number of people who require a speech pathologist are neurodivergent. No! ADHD brains DO need support to function within our society and the medical world has so much they can contribute to neurodivergent people.
The fact that the society demands us to sit still to learn at school, or be able to work on an essay that we are not interested in, or to work set hours or in fields that our brain doesn’t thrive in to make money and provide for our families. The fact that I must use planning and prioritisation in almost everything I do, remember so much information at once, or to have to keep a tidy house so that when someone knocks on the door, I look like I have my life together and I’m not judged – places challenges on the neurodivergent brain that neurotypical people may never understand.
However, where the medical model of disability has taken a wrong turn, is that it still believes that neurodivergent people need to be fixed to fit into society.
Whereas, the Neurodivergent model believes that society must change and adapt to accept all people, despite of their neurotype. Society needs to change to fit in our neurodivergent people. So, instead of making an ADHDer sit still to listen in class, let us stand and pace up the back or doodle as we listen. Instead of demanding us to give eye contact when we are talking, allow us to look around the room instead. Instead of demanding that we work set hours and complete all tasks within a 9-5 day, let us work when our brains light up, which might be 4am – I promise that the work we will turn out then will be better when our brains are engaged. Next time you go to someone’s house that is an absolute pigsty, ask them if you can help them tidy up!
Every brain in our society is going to thrive, neurotypical and neurodivergent, if we can embrace the differences in our brains and work with them and not against them. We have to stop comparing neurodivergent brains to neurotypical brains.
I have definitely not reached the end of my neurodiversity affirming journey.
I still have lots of medical model thinking that I am changing. But, I can’t tell you how wonderfully freeing it is, to know that my brain and my kids brains aren’t broken. They are just different to the statistical norm – what a boring world it would be if we are all the same.
Let’s shift our focus from How can we change the ADHDer, to how can we change the environvment and remove the barriers in society around the ADHDer so we can see their incredible curiosity, energy, autonomy and creativity.
That’s all from me today!
Have a wonderful day and let’s get ADHD Done Differently.
