Neurodivergent News - January 2025

Hello friends!

I started the year off with the best of intentions, a tale as old as time really. I started writing the first issue of the newly rebranded newsletter and then promptly forgot about it.

Thanks ADHD.

Since it was most of the way written already I decided that I would go ahead and send it anyway. So let’s get into the news.

Autism

Emirates Becomes the First Autism Certified Airline

This month Emirates became the first autism certified airline in the world. To achieve this 30,000 members of staff including ground staff and cabin crew have recieved specialized training. It being recognized by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES), a global leader in training and certification for Autism and cognitive disorders.

In addition to the training Emirates will offer sensory guides that will help those with sensory sensitivites navigate through airports as well as on board. They will also have fidget toys and stress aids on board all their planes with both of these rolling out to the fleet throughout 2025.

https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/emirates-set-to-become-the-worlds-first-autism-certified-airline/

A Podcast about “Telepathic” Autistic Children Was Briefly #1 in the US Charts

“The Telepathy Tapes” is a 10 episode podcast that managed to briefly knock Joe Rogan out of the number one spot in the podcast charts in the US. The entire premise behind the podcast is that non-verbal Autistic children have telepathic powers. A claim they support with experiments where children guess what number and word their parents are thinking of.

There have of course been a number of critics who have spoken out about the claims made in the podcast. There are a number of ways that these experiments could have been faked and even if the experiments were real, there are ways that the children could have taken clues from the parents. To date there is no scientific evidence that telepathy is real.

Despite the lack of scientific verocity the podcast has recieved a second season and the creator is hoping to make a documentary based on her findings.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2025/01/03/podcast-about-telepathic-autistic-children-briefly-knocks-joe-rogan-out-of-no-1-spot/

A French Magazine Run by Autistic Journalists is Now Available in Print

French magazine Le Papotin has made the leap from digital to print. The magazine has an editorial team of 40 people who are all autistic. The magazine comes out just once a year and has a limited run of just 10,000 copies which are being sold across France. If you aren’t in France or you can’t find a physical copy you can still buy a digital copy on their official website.

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/french-magazine-run-by-autistic-journalists-hits-newsstands

Autism Speaks Canada Shuts Down in January

In December we got some amazing news. Autism Speaks Canada, the Canadian branch of the “charity” Autism Speaks is shutting down. They focused primarily on finding a supposed “Autism gene” as well as concentrating their efforts on limiting government autism funding to a group of 5 major organizations, which would leave smaller, local autism organizations out in the cold. As of now Autism Speaks Canada is no more. Now if only the main group in the United States could follow suit.

https://a4aontario.com/2024/12/17/autism-speaks-canada-shuts-down-in-january-good/

Several New York Counties Adopt Blue Envelope for Autistic Drivers

Rather than recognizing that policing has a violence problem, the Sheriff’s department of several counties in New York state have introduced a blue envelope for autistic drivers to store their registration and insurance details in. This blue envelope is meant to signify to police in the county that the drivers aren’t behaving suspiciously or in a way that makes them look guilty, they’re just autistic. Basically, a “please don’t shoot me” card.

If you happen to live in New York state and you’re an autistic driver you can reach out to your county Sheriff’s office to get one of these enevelopes. It might just save your life one day.

https://cnycentral.com/news/local/blue-01-16-2025

Bill Gates Reveals He’s Probably Autistic…Sort of

As news of his new memior came out it was revealed that in one part of it Bill Gates, creator of Microsoft, states that if he were a child today he probably would have been disagnised with autism.

“If I were growing up today, I probably would be diagnosed on the autism spectrum. During my childhood, the fact that some people’s brains process information differently from others wasn’t widely understood.”

This isn’t to say that he has been diagnosed now. But, I suppose when you’re one of the richest people in the world you don’t really need to be. He can afford literally anything he wants.

While there is some belief that in very rare cases you can grow out of Autism as you get older, the science is still out on that. It’s far more likely that those who seemed more Autistic in childhood have simply learned to mask better, even masking from themselves.

So, yes, it’s likely that Bill Gates is Autistic.

https://fortune.com/2025/01/25/bill-gates-autism-spectrum-childhood-neurodivergence-memoir-source-code/

ADHD

Neurodiversity in Farmers Double the Rate of General Public

There’s a pretty good chance that something on your dinner plate was grown by someone who is neurodivergent. Farmers Weekly, a magazine from the UK all about farming ran a survey which found that 36% of respondants consider themselves to be neurodivergent and a further 25% who were unsure. The current diagnosis rate in the UK is at 15%.

ADHD had the highest percentage, 45% of those who are neurodivergent said they have ADHD. That was followed by Dyslexia at 42% and Autism at 32%.

As someone with ADHD who dreams of having a farm, I can’t say that I’m surprised at all. I’m sure the real numbers are actually much higher as well because diagnosis can be so difficult to get in the UK. In some parts the wait list is nearly 2 years.

https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/neurodiversity-in-farming-may-be-double-rate-of-general-public

The FDA Banned Red No. 3 Food Coloring Found in Many Things, Including Some ADHD Medication

The United States has finally banned Red No. 3, known as E127 in Europe. Red No. 3 is one of the most popular red food dyes used in the United States because of the brilliant bright red color of it. However, there is evidence that it can cause cancer.

One of its uses is in Vyvanse, a popular medication used to treat ADHD symptoms. The ban doesn’t go into effect immediately unfortunately. Food companies that use the dye have until 2027 to phase it out while the makers of Vyvanse have an additional year…for some reason.

https://www.businessinsider.com/fda-bans-red-no-3-food-dye-2025-1

UK Study Confirms Those With ADHD Live Shorter Lives

We’ve known for some time that people with ADHD live shorter lives, but, a new study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry has added more evidence to the fact. The study compared primary care data of 30,000 people diagnosed with ADHD with the same data of 300,000 without ADHD. It found that on average men with ADHD die 7 years earlier than those who don’t have ADHD. That number goes up to 9 years in women.

The lower life expectancy isn’t from the ADHD itself, but rather the lifestyle choices that are made with ADHD. People with ADHD are more likely to be smokers, have lower incomes, have diabetes, have heart disease, get into accidents, and commit suicide. All of which are preventable.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/life-expectancy-and-years-of-life-lost-for-adults-with-diagnosed-adhd-in-the-uk-matched-cohort-study/30B8B109DF2BB33CC51F72FD1C953739#

Well, that’s all for January! It was a bit of a slow month, as most Januarys are. The next newsletter, which will cover all of February will come out in just a few weeks, ADHD allowing. Are you enjoying this new format for the newsletter? Is there anything else you’d like to see in it? Let me know!

I’m slowly moving away from Facebook and heading for Bluesky. If you’re on Blueskiy you can find me here:

See you all there!