University of Brighton fine Art (Painting) submission

The disabling nature of ND is bad for your health

I was listening to AuDHD content creator, Ellie Middleton’s, book Unmasked on Audible last week and she shared some great insights on better understanding our mental health as neurodiverse people. I also did more of my own reading and have summarised some musings below:

• Like with a physical disability or injury, not being able to function in the world is bad for your mental health. If it makes sense that someone who’s broken their leg gets depressed from being locked out of everyday life, then how much more it must it be for people who are locked out of society because of their lifelong neural condition?

• Covid lockdowns highlighted to us that our brains were previously being forced into shapes that hurt us. Be it no longer suffering tiresome commutes to too-bright and noisy offices, or a shift to more asynchronous working, allowing for more reflective thought, our wellbeing found itself improving. We realised that the work experience is built in the image of the neurotypical brain and it’s bad for neurodiverse health.

• Neuroscience shows shared pathways for physical, social and emotional pain – when we’re excluded our brains feel it as physical pain. Further, seeing a mere stranger be ostracised causes observers feeling physical pain more. This suggests that neurodiverse people, having experienced decades of exclusion, have had their physical wellbeing impacted as well. Perhaps it makes sense that irritable bowel syndrome is a common cause of chronic pain in neurodiverse people.

• Finally, many of us struggle with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) as a result of years’ long trauma of operating in a world not designed for us. Be it decades of struggling through the masking-burnout cycle or suffering abuse from parents, peers or partners, the everyday social punishment for being different will have caused untold damage to our minds and souls that will be very difficult to fix.

It’s not all bad news, thankfully. In our post-Covid age, mental health stigma has drastically fallen and our knowledge of the interconnectedness of our minds and bodies has increased. This is leading to more informed support, from neurodiverse-affirming therapy to holistic treatment of inflammation (an identified cause of both anxiety and IBS), such as anti-inflammatory diets and clinical probiotics.

Further, the normalisation of mental health narratives also gives neurodiverse people the language to self-advocate for their needs in life and work. It also helps us see our mental health as not a personal failing, but a completely reasonable response to a world not designed for us.