Am I Neurodivergent?

Summary: You may ask yourself, “Am I Neurodivergent?” if you find yourself thinking or behaving in ways that people you know have a clinical diagnosis for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or other diagnoses associated with neurodivergence.

Key Points:

• The terms neurodivergent and neurodivergence mean more than characteristics associated with a clinical diagnosis for a behavioral disorder.
• Neurodivergent is a nonmedical, nonclinical term that describes people with patterns of thinking, behaving, and learning differ from what’s considered typical, often the result of atypical brain development.
• The most efficient way to learn if you’re neurodivergent is to consult a professional mental health provider for a full clinical assessment.

How Can I Tell if I’m Neurodivergent?

The first thing we need to clarify is that neurodivergent is not a diagnosis, a condition, or a disorder. Neurodivergent is an adjective used to differentiate people who think and behave in ways a majority of people don’t, and perceive the world and process information – verbal, visual, tactile, and emotional – in ways that most people don’t.

The second thing we need to clarify is that if you’re very neurodivergent, seriously neurodivergent, or severely neurodivergent, there’s a good chance you know it already, and either have a past diagnosis or past experiences that confirm the fact.

Why?

Because when neurodivergence is significant, it can create differences that make it difficult to meet standards of behavior and function in family, social, academic, and vocational situations. Depending on your point of view, these differences may be called deficits. Therefore, if you’ve had social, academic, or vocational problems associated with your unique way of viewing and experiencing the world, your ways of viewing/experiencing/expressing have likely been labeled deficits rather than a differences, and you, your family, your teachers, or your employers have made adjustments – or not – to manage those differences.

However, if you think you’re neurodivergent but have never experienced what we describe above, then here are some things to think abou.

Am I Neurodivergent? A Quick Checklist

 People who are neurodivergent often…

1. Become easily distracted and have difficulty sustaining focus and attention in certain situations.
2. Become completely engrossed in an activity, with a sustained, intense focus, excluding and/or not noticing other stimuli.
3. Have problems with planning, managing time, or staying organized.
4. Develop creative, outside-the-box ways to plan, manage time, and stay organized.
5. Hypersensitive to external stimuli such as light, sound, texture, color, and odor.
6. Capable of identifying minute details or patterns associated with light, sound, textures, colors, and odors.
7. Have problems identifying and interpreting body language and/or physical/verbal social cues.
8. Develop speech and vocabulary later than is considered typical.
9. Engage in repetitive physical actions – rocking, swaying, fidgeting, flapping hands – when under stress, in order to self-sooth.
10. Find comfort in predictable, repetitive daily routines, and become uncomfortable or distressed when routine changes, or in new situations where there’s not an established routine.

If you read those ten items and realize that most of them apply to you, then you may be neurodivergent. If you think you’re neurodivergent – based on those characteristics – the best way to confirm your conclusion is to get a full evaluation administered by a licensed and qualified mental health professional.

You can also take self-assessment quizzes online, which are plentiful and easy to find. However, it’s important to understand that only a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist can diagnose mental heath conditions associated with neurodivergence.

How Would an Assessment and Diagnosis Help Me?

First, let’s quickly review the primary diagnoses most people – professionals and laypeople alike – think of when they hear the word neurodivergent. In mental and behavioral health, these are called neurodevelopmental disorders:

1. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Primary characteristics:

• • Differences in social communication and interaction in more than one context.
  • Focused and repetitive patterns of behavior, interest, and activity.
  • Resistance to change/novelty.

Severity varies from barely detectable to highly disruptive.

2. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Primary characteristics:

• • Persistent pattern of inattention or hyperactivity that interfere with function in more than one context.
  • Persistent pattern of hyperfocus on activities or subjects of interest.
  • Difficulty sitting still/difficulty sustaining attention.

Like ASD, severity varies from barely detectable to highly disruptive.

3. Specific Learning Disorders (SLD).

Primary characteristics:

• • Differences in learning styles and application academic skills, including:
    • Dyslexia: problems recognizing, spelling, and decoding written words
    • Dysgraphia: problems writing, spelling, and/or organizing thoughts in words on paper.
    • Dyscalculia: problems learning about, understanding, and manipulating numbers and problems learning and applying basic math facts.

Like ASD and ADHD, severity varies from barely detectable to highly disruptive.

To understand how getting an assessment and diagnosis might help you, we’ll share something that happens almost every time we diagnose an adult with ADHD or ASD:

The proverbial light bulb clicks on over their head, a look of wonder/astonishment plays across their face, and they say something like, “Oh my god. So many things about my life make sense now. I wish I’d known this … [5,10,15,20] … years ago. Wow.”

A person with mild ASD finally understands why they love their routines so much, and feel vaguely uneasy when they’re off their routine. A person with moderate ADHD finally understands their issues with procrastination. And a person with dyscalculia finally understands why they never – despite working so hard – made any good progress in any math class, ever.

Neurodivergence: Understanding Yourself

The component of self-understanding is powerful. If you’ve beaten yourself up for years for being disorganized, getting a diagnosis for ADHD doesn’t mean organization is suddenly unimportant, but it gives you license to cut yourself some slack, and helps you realize it may be time to get a day planner, set alarms on your phone, or go one step further, and seek professional support.

An official diagnosis – to circle back to the previous section – can open up avenues of support that were previously closed to you. For instance, if you receive a diagnosis for ADHD, you can get a prescription for medication, or get counseling, coaching or therapy from a licensed and skilled professional that’s covered by insurance.

To be clear, neurodivergence doesn’t necessarily need treatment, because it’s not a disorder. However, the symptoms of some disorders associated with neurodivergence can be extremely disruptive and impair function in important areas of life. In those cases, professional treatment and support – whether counseling, lifestyle adjustments, or practical skills coaching – can be life changing, and help you understand what people mean when they say this:

My diagnosis is not a problem – it’s my superpower.