Neurodivergent Adult's Unnamed Newsletter Issue 7, March 25 2024

ADHD Creativity is Stiffled and Ireland has New Neurodiversity Numbers

Author

Neurodivergent Adult
March 25, 2024

Hello and welcome back! This week’s newsletter needs to come with a bit of a warning, the topics might be a little bit heavy if you’re struggling at the moment. There are mentions of police violence, death, and struggles of being neurodiverse today. If you aren’t in the right place for that mentally then I don’t recommend you read any further. Maybe check out my Facebook page instead! I haven’t been updating it recently thanks to burnout but I’ve got more than a year’s worth of memes there.

[[ This newsletter is provided totally free to your inbox every week. But if you’d like to support it and its creator you can do so for as little as $1 a month over on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/NeurodivergentAdult My ginger cat thanks you for the treats you’ll be paying for. Cat tax available on Patreon.]]

People with ADHD are Creative and in Today’s World, That’s a Problem

Browse Youtube for an hour and chances are you’ll watch a few videos by creators with ADHD. It doesn’t matter which genre you prefer to watch even. Gamers like Platypuss, homesteaders like Roots & Refuge Farm, and even Mr.Beast himself have all come out and said that they have ADHD. Turn to movies and you have stars like Barry Keoghan, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Watson all talking about their ADHD. It isn’t a coincidence that all of these highly creative people have ADHD, in fact, it might be the reason they’re doing what they’re doing.

But, for most of us in normal society our creative brains are doing more harm than good and the problems start early. If you have ADHD, think back to your days in school. You were expected to focus on lessons on a beautiful sunny day or told to stop drawing and do your math assignment. If it happens too much you’re given negative labels that you carry with you the rest of your school days; distracted, disruptive, uninterested. Your parents might even take you to the doctor to find out what is wrong with you. You’re given an ADHD diagnosis and told to take these pills for the rest of your life. Conform.

Skip ahead to adulthood and the working world. Creativity is rarely rewarded or sought, no matter what your job is. You’re expected to do your job and do it well for 8 hours a day. No distractions, no creative thinking. Just do things the way you’re supposed to do them. Conform.

We’re seeing now what happens when people with ADHD aren’t able to get their medication to tamper down their creative minds. People are losing their jobs and finding themselves unable to conform anymore. They’re having to live with their true creative minds all of the time and when that’s not something you’ve had to do it is HARD.

People often say that ADHD is a superpower, and it’s a line that makes me roll my eyes, sure, but…it’s also kind of true. If people with ADHD were able to embrace their creativity, embrace all of the things that make our brains so amazing…well…I won’t say we could be the next Mr. Beast with a net worth of $700 million…but who knows what we could be capable of.

Too Many Autistic People are Dying by Police

On March 9th, sheriff deputies in Apple Valley, California shot and killed 15-year-old Ryan Gainer, an autistic boy who was calming down after a violent outburst when the deputies pointed a gun at him and then shot him when he failed to obey commands to stop approaching.

This heartbreaking scenario is playing out across the United States multiple times a week and far too often the autistic individual pays the ultimate price. According to government data, autistic people are seven times more likely to encounter police than neurotypical people. These encounters can often go poorly because of misunderstandings, erratic behavior during a meltdown, and police failure to recognize neurodiversity and developmental disabilities.

In the case of Ryan Gainer, the deputy’s arrival escalated the situation and Ryan’s lack of compliance was taken as a threat. This wasn’t the first time this year that the sheriff’s department had been called to Ryan’s house to assist with outbursts, and the family believed that they had developed a rapport with the deputies. They certainly didn’t expect the deputies to pull up and immediately pull their guns out, according to the family’s attorney.

Following Ryan’s death there has been an internet uproar calling for better police training for developmental disabilities, neurodivergence, and mental health crises. While this is important, the data so far doesn’t look very promising. Right now, only 8 states require law enforcement to get training for handling autistic people and the efficacy of that training is called into question by some police officers. California is one of the states that requires the training.

Many believe it is time for another option to call during a mental health crisis, one that doesn’t rely on the use of guns. There have been some trials of different options across the country but so far there has been no widely accepted alternative to calling the police. Much of this is because of a lack of funding and the political issues around “defunding the police.”

No matter what your stance is, I think we can all agree that something has got to change.

If you find yourself facing a loved one who is going through a mental health crisis (yes, an autistic meltdown IS a mental health crisis) only call police as a last resort. Give your loved one the opportunity to calm down on their own and only call the police if someone’s life is in danger, because the moment you call the police the person whose life is in danger is the one who can’t comply.

Neurodiversity Numbers in Ireland

Over the weekend I read an interesting survey about being neurodiverse in Ireland. A quarter of all adults who took part reported that they either are neurodivergent or have a family member who is. Though only half of those who identify as neurodiverse have a formal diagnosis. For many the lack of diagnosis is because they are stuck on a waiting list to get the process started. For reference, Ireland has the 23rd best healthcare system in the world. The UK is 34th, Canada is 32nd, and the USA is 69th.

Of those who took part in the survey, 9% identified as neurodivergent. Both autism and ADHD made up 34% (each) of those with neurodiversities, while dyslexia was at 18% and dyspraxia was 8%.

Only half of those who identified as neurodiverse have disclosed it to their workplace. 45% of people feel that their workplace is NOT inclusive, so there is a hesitancy to report their neurodiversity. Only one in five say that they are aware of their employer’s policies to support neurodivergent people. It would be interesting to know how many workplaces actually have a neurodiversity policy, but sadly the survey didn’t cover that.

The survey was performed on behalf of the Bank of Ireland by market research company RedC. 1,000 people were surveyed across Ireland (which has a population of just over 5 million) in a sample selection that is representative of the country on the whole.

While this survey isn’t scientific in nature, I think it does provide valuable insight into the current state of neurodiversity and gives us something that we can compare our own experiences, and our own countries with.