Neurodivergent Adult's Unnamed Newsletter Issue 6, March 18 2024

Welcome back to another week of The Neurodivergent Adult’s Unnamed Newsletter! This week we’re discussing autim and how it impacts your work, plus some interesting news about ADHD medication and death.

By the way, there is still time to let the US government know how the ADHD medication shortage has impacted you or someone you love. There’s a link to where you can leave a comment down at the end of the newsletter.

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Autistic Workers Work Too Hard

If you’re Autistic and you have a job chances are you’re working far harder than you should be AND you aren’t being compensated fairly for the amount of work you do.

There have been studies that show Autistic employees work about 140% harder than neurotypical employees. This is a fact that is often brought out as a positive when talking about why employers should be hiring autistic people. “We’ll be 140% more productive than your other employees” sounds great to bosses, right? But, for the Autistic person it is anything but great. It results in higher levels of stress and burnout which can lead to poor mental health, job loss, and even a shorter lifespan.

Why this happens is a confluence of several factors all coming together to create a scenario that is great for the employers and devastating for the employees.

Different Reward Systems - Neurotypicals are rewarded by their brains for social situations. This is why the idea of gossiping around the water cooler is so universal and often the closest friends they have in adulthood are from work. Autistic people on the other hand are rewarded by completing tasks that they enjoy doing, so their brains are constantly telling them that they shouldn’t be stopping by their co-worker’s desk to gossip, they should be working hard to get that reward.

School System Teaches the Autistic Brain to Work Harder - Now, this one I don’t have any evidence for, but I firmly believe that the way school is structured has a lifelong impact on the Autistic brain’s interpretation of work. From the ages of 6 to 18 your brains are being trained by school to be highly productive all day long with the only breaks being lunch and small 10-15 minute breaks in the morning and afternoon. The rest of the time you’re deeply focused on learning a new topic, which typically changes every hour. You come to associate that high level of work and stress as the norm and do your best to keep up with it or even exceed expectations. Then when you move into the working world you continue working that same way because that’s what is expected of you…right?

Neurotypicals are only productive 2-3 hours a day - Yes, you read that correctly…in a normal 9-5 office job, neurotypicals are only productively working for 2-3 hours each day. The rest of the time is taken up by gossiping with office friends, pretending to be productive, and looking things up online that have absolutely nothing to do with your job. Many, including bosses, don't even realize this is happening. This is simply how work goes for neurotypical people. Autistic people on the other hand are working at 100% for the entire work day, many even neglect taking their breaks, including continuing to work while on lunch.

That brings us finally to pay. Even if you as an Autistic person are getting paid the same amount as your coworkers, and chances are you aren’t…you’re getting paid the same amount to do more work than them. Your coworker is getting paid 50k a year to be productive 2-3 hours a day, you’re getting paid 50k a year to be productive 7-8 hours a day. Chances are though you aren’t getting paid the same amount as your coworker. Autistic people are massively underpaid because asking for a raise can be difficult and scary plus Autistic people are less likely to change jobs regularly which is the easiest way to get a massive pay increase in today’s world.

All of this is to say you should slow down a bit, take some of the stress off your shoulders, and relax. You’re doing a great job and it’s ok to take your foot off the gas pedal.

ADHD Personal Story - Getting the Sandwich Wrong

I thought it would be fun to share a personal story, one of those stories where you look back at it and wonder, “How did no one know I have ADHD?” If you have ADHD then there’s a pretty good chance you’ve got a similar story. So, sit back and enjoy the tale of the time I got a butter sandwich order wrong.

Our story takes place in the early 2000s. I got a temporary job over the summer at my now husband’s workplace so I could spend more time with him. His father, my father-in-law also worked there and one day while we were all in the office he hands me some cash and tells me to go to the shop down the street as he wants a buttered roll. He was very specific, he wanted a buttered roll, not a buttered wrap. At this point I was nearly a decade and a half away from getting my ADHD diagnosis, but I knew then that my memory was awful and I would forget what he wanted by the time I got to the shop so I wanted to write it down. I even said “hang on, I need to write that down.” Despite not really knowing me very well, my father-in-law insisted that I didn’t need to write it down. The shop is only 5 minutes down the road, I would remember it. He practically blocked me from finding anything to write it down on. This was of course in the days before widespread mobile phone use. So, I warned him one last time that I wouldn’t remember and that if I got it wrong then it wasn’t my fault. Still, he insisted I go without his order written down.

The entire five minute walk I was like that forgetful kid from the movies, repeating over and over in my head, “Roll not wrap, roll not wrap.”* I couldn’t enjoy the walk at all, in fact it was incredibly stressful for me because I just knew in my heart that I wouldn’t get the right thing. Then, the moment I stepped into the shop and walked up to the deli…I couldn’t remember which one it was. Did he want a buttered roll or a buttered wrap? I stood there talking with the deli attendant for at least 5 minutes, discussing which one it was more likely that he wanted. Eventually I placed the order and made the walk back.

When I got back to the office I handed my father-in-law a buttered wrap and said that as I had predicted, by the time I got to the shop I couldn’t remember which one I was supposed to get. I had expected him to be mildly disappointed, disappointing people older than me was pretty much standard operating procedure for my entire life. I didn’t expect him to accuse me of doing it intentionally, which is exactly what he did. He insisted that there was no way I could have possibly forgotten such a simple request in such a short time and that I HAD to have done it intentionally, just so I wouldn’t get asked to do it again. The truth was that aside from the stress of trying to remember the order I really enjoyed the opportunity to get up from the desk and go for a short walk. I hated that job, so any opportunity to not do it…I would gleefully leap at. This was a place I was all too familiar with emotionally. So, I held back the tears that threatened to flow as I was not only a failure (again), I would also lose out on the chance to do more tasks like that. True to his word, my father-in-law never asked me to go on a small errand for him ever again and I had to suffer through several weeks of a job that I absolutely hated.

*Note: To this day I’m not sure if he wanted a wrap or a roll, I picked one for the sake of the story.

Taking ADHD Medication Linked with Lower Risk of Death

People with ADHD are more likely to die prematurely thanks to a number of factors that include addiction, impulsivity, and taking part in risky behavior. Now, thanks to a study from Sweden we know that if you are properly medicating to treat your ADHD then you are less likely to die, especially from “unnatural” causes like injury, suicide, and drug overdose.

The study tracked 150,000 Swedes between the ages of 6 and 64 who had been diagnosed with ADHD, specifically looking at the number of deaths that occured within 2 years of getting their ADHD diagnosis. Amongst those who did not take ADHD medication there were 48 deaths for every 10,000 people. That number went down to 39 deaths for every 10,000 people in the group that was medicated. This is a 19% decrease in the risk of death if you are medicated and much of the decrease was seen in men.

The study also looked at “natural” causes of death and how health conditions might be impacted by taking ADHD medication. There has especially been concern about the long-term effects on the heart caused by ADHD medications from other studies. This newer study found that there was no significant affect on death rates, meaning that long term use of ADHD medications isn’t more likely to result in your death. But, as ever, more research is needed.

This study comes at a crucial time when ADHD medication is more difficult to get around the world because of the global shortage. If you live in the United States and you’re having a hard time getting your ADHD medication prescription filled then the FTC wants to hear from you. By sharing your experiences with the government you can help impact policy that has the potential to end the ADHD medication shortage. If you want to share your story you can do so here: https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FTC-2024-0018 

You can read the study from Sweden here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2816084

That’s all for this week, a little bit of a short one, I just ran out of time. I hope you all have a great week! Don’t forget to drink some water.