Neurodivergent Narratives Podcast

To reconnect with ourselves (the sensations in our bodies), so we can understand what we might need at that moment, means we need to pause.  But pausing feels very scary to our bodies. This episode not only looks at why pausing feels so bad to us but how we can start to develop a practice of pausing in the times where we feel "safe- enough" so that when we actually do need to pause in our challenging moments, we can access that skill a little more than before.

In the episode:
1. New (even if it's a good thing) is still different and uncomfortable
2. Pausing as dangerous
3. Pausing in conflict

Resources:
Tara Brach podcast

Connect with me:
IG: @nd.narratives
Twitter: @ndnarratives
Site: Neurodivergent Narratives

FYI: I use the f word in the intro! It wasn't edited out this episode.

Introspection is one of the things that we hear talked about a lot but it's not really talked about when it comes to what it means for being in this society. When we live in a society that works to separate the body from the mind, reconnecting with our body becomes a radical act. Because it's in our body that holds more of our answers about what we really need in order to be at our best. and often that means doing a lot differently than society expects from us.

This episode gives us reasons why working on understanding what our body needs can be so tricky when we're dealing with introspection issues and some of the things I've learned to help me become a little better with it and how I've worked with others.

Connect with me:
IG: @nd.narratives
Twitter: @ndnarratives
Site: Neurodivergent Narratives

Click for my free EBOOK on self-compassion: They Were Wrong About You!

I'm pleased with this episode. I've shared some introductory thoughts about the mind and body connection with neurodivergent people in mind. I talk a little about how society divides us not only from the land and each other but from ourselves. Privileging the mind over the knowledge that comes from our bodies makes me think that for us ND brained people, (who seem to be drawn to being connected to our bodies but have been forced not to be), it's even more important to start rebuilding that relationship between our mind and body. We need to get comfortable with the discomfort of making choices that align with what we really need and we can't do that without reconnecting with ourselves again.

Some highlights include:
1. Our neurodivergent brain's job
2. Society and the brain
3. Neurodivergent brains, nervous systems and trauma responsiveness
4. Narrative therapy ties in too
5. Starting to relearn about the messages behind the discomfort

Connect with me:
IG: @nd.narratives
Twitter: @ndnarratives
Site: Neurodivergent Narratives

Click for my free EBOOK on self-compassion: They Were Wrong About You!

One thing I tend to go on about is that when the story is told by one perspective, the problems and solutions are only seen from that perspective too. In talking about neurodivergence, we tend to be sharing the experiences from a lot about white boys, girls, men and women perspectives. No one else (because unless otherwise said, the default has always been white). Culturally competent care and support are much needed in giving those of us who are the most marginalised the kind of support we need that works well for the lives we actually lead. 

Three thoughts:
1. Attribute certain behaviours to a medical condition differ across ethnic groups
2. Ethnic differences in reporting, Lack of awareness in the culture
3. Beliefs around neurodivergence and mental health

Resources (from the last few episodes on this topic) 

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in first- and second-generation immigrant children and adolescents: A nationwide cohort study in Sweden https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399920308928

Autism Spectrum and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children of Immigrants: A Brief Review of Current Evidence and Implications for Clinical Practice
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.566368/full 

Mental health care utilisation and access among refugees and asylum seekers in Europe: A systematic review
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851019300399

Systematic Review and Meta-analysis: The Prevalence of Mental Illness in Child and Adolescent Refugees and Asylum Seekers
https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(19)32175-6/fulltext 

Immigrant Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Relationship between the Perspective of the Professionals and the Parents’ Point of View https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3647629/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.566368/full

Connect with me:
IG: @nd.narratives
Twitter: @ndnarratives
Site: Neurodivergent Narratives

Click for my free EBOOK on self-compassion: They Were Wrong About You!

Maybe this episode will make sense to some of you, or maybe it won't. But hear me out.

I started thinking a little more deeply about boredom and how terrible it feels for people.

Then I started thinking about the messages we got when we were bored growing up and how they felt. It led me to think that if something like boredom can be so connected to doing things and what it means if we're NOT doing things, then surely it must be connected to capitalism and if it is, then surely depending on who you are there's always an underlying message of what we've learned to make it mean about different people when they're bored...

and what systemic barriers gets hidden in society when we do that.

This episode introduces some initial thoughts about the intersection of boredom and different identities (some of which I definitely rant on about better than others I think)  and I hope leaves you thinking about how we can rethink the ways we've been taught to think and feel about boredom.

Connect with me:
IG: @nd.narratives
Twitter: @ndnarratives
Site: Neurodivergent Narratives

Click for my free EBOOK on self-compassion: They Were Wrong About You!

A theme that seems to come up a lot with the people I work with is around the anxiety and stress that comes up from feeling a lack of clarity for ND people.  I even wonder if it's something that feels a lot worse the further you are on the margins with your intersecting identities too because this is something I've struggled with as well.

This episode looks at why we might feel so damn messed up when things don't feel clear, rather than feel like we can go with what we want to do next or solve the issue our own way and some thoughts on what you can do to support yourself. This also ties in a little more with the boredom episode, I did previously (where I blame all the things on society in that one too).

Three thoughts on a lack of clarity:
1. Our autonomy has been taken
2. Seeing too much around us to decide what's most important
3. Double masking challenges

Connect with me:
IG: @nd.narratives
Twitter: @ndnarratives
Site: Neurodivergent Narratives

Click for my free EBOOK on self-compassion: They Were Wrong About You!

Boredom often connects to productivity for me and this didn't sit right with me for some reason, so I decided I needed to learn more about it. The initial title for this episode was 'is boredom really our fault though?' and  that question was what guided my research. It made me wonder if there was more to it. I think I was right.

This episode hits on a few ideas around how anticipation, autonomy, creativity and flow might connect to boredom and how boredom might be telling us a lot more than just 'there's nothing to do and I really hate that...' 

This is the first of a short series on some thoughts and ideas around boredom.

Three things on boredom in society:
1. Boredom as anticipation of something to happen
2. Boredom as a way to police free time
3. Boredom as potential for (unwanted) change

Resources:
What does Boredom do to us and for us
Why boredom is anything but boring
The fascinating history of boredom
Affect and critique: A politics of boredom

This week's episode looks predominately at refugee (although, I do think I mention immigrant populations occasionally too) populations and my thoughts about some of the research I've been doing around lack of mental health support. I don’t hear a lot talked about this community when speaking about ADHD or neurodivergence and that's a problem especially with the kind of things I learned. Indeed, there aren't many studies on it either and when there are, they tend to focus on refugees living within certain countries. Culturally competent care is so incredibly necessary because I think this episode shows how clinician biases can really keep people from seeing beyond what they want to see and not what else could be true at the same time too. This is one of a few episodes I've recorded on this topic around immigrant, refugee and asylum-seeking communities and neurodivergence.

Three thoughts on:
1. Significantly higher mental health needs
2. PTSD and depression are the most frequently diagnosed
3. Reasons for underutilized services

Connect with me:
IG: @nd.narratives
Twitter: @ndnarratives
Site: Neurodivergent Narratives

Click for my free EBOOK on self-compassion: They Were Wrong About You!

Resources:

Mental health care utilisation and access among refugees and asylum seekers in Europe: A systematic review 

Systematic Review and Meta-analysis: The Prevalence of Mental Illness in Child and Adolescent Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Autism Spectrum and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children of Immigrants: A Brief Review of Current Evidence and Implications for Clinical Practice

Association between immigrant background and ADHD: a nationwide population-based case-control study

This here is episode 50 and I am so thrilled to welcome my first guest! The most special-est, wonderful-est person I know talks to me about creativity, school and lots more. I know they'll leave you smiling with their wisdom and insights. It's short but it feels like my best episode yet. 

Thank you all for being here for the first 50!

Connect with me:
IG: @nd.narratives
Twitter: @ndnarratives
Site: Neurodivergent Narratives

Click for my free EBOOK on self-compassion: They Were Wrong About You!

This episode talks a little about the story of someone I work with and from an intersectional lens (being an immigrant to a "western country", second language speaker and a person of colour). The problems that he was going through in order to get a proper diagnosis and thoughts on three things have made it difficult for him to get the proper diagnosis and support that he needed. These are merely some initial thoughts as I go deeper into this in upcoming episodes specifically when looking at immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers and neurodivergence...

CORRECTION: I mention PDA profile autistics and making eye contact with ease, but actually want to clarify that it LOOKS as if it's easy and natural, but it's not always the case! It can be extremely spoon-draining to mask in ways where you're forcing yourself to make eye contact as a  PDA autistic too!

Three thoughts on: 
1. Lack of cultural competency
2. Language barriers
3. Clinician bias of language

Connect with me:
IG: @nd.narratives
Twitter: @ndnarratives
Site: Neurodivergent Narratives

Click for my free EBOOK on self-compassion: They Were Wrong About You!