It’s Neurodiversity Celebration Week! We wanted to join other organisations and individuals who are challenging stereotypes and misconceptions about neurological differences. With the aim to transform how neurodivergent people are perceived and supported by others and to recognise the manytalents and advantages of neurodiversity.
Neurodiversity describes alternative thinking styles such as Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, Autism and ADHD.
The week was founded by Siena Castellon who says:
“I founded Neurodiversity Celebration Week in 2018 because I wanted to change the way learning differences are perceived. As a teenager who is autistic and has ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia, my experience has been that people often focus on the challenges of neurological diversity. I wanted to change the narrative and create a balanced view which focuses equally on our talents and strengths.”
We wanted to share this blog post by Sukhjeen who has been diagnosed with ADHD & Autism as an adult. Sukhjeen shared this on her Linkedin a few months ago and it was a very powerful read and insight into a later life diagnosis.
*Deep breath*
So I am neurodiverse. After years of struggling, I found out 3 months ago I have ADHD and Autism. It was a shock but also not a shock. And since I have been open and honest about my physical conditions, I am going to share this journey from the start.
Since I was a girl, I struggled socially as well as in education. I was under the impression that this was normal as many others had similar traits (just not to the same amount or scale) so I also gaslit myself into believing it was “normal”(whatever that actually means).
More recently, since graduating I got into my first office job and really struggled getting used to the way of work. I wasn’t sure why I wasn’t able to digest instructions and struggle to understand abbreviations (why do we need these??), I was also always distracting myself without even realising. The worst part was I work from home so there was nobody to body double with.
Since I was struggling more as time went on, I decided it was time to find some answers and I did. I’m still learning what support I need but my main mission is to shout out about the ND traits to look for in children.
South Asians do not know enough about ND traits and often leave their children undiagnosed and them having to find out later in their adulthood. Trust me, this makes it much harder than if I had known as a child/teen.
We also need to open up more about what these experiences look like in girls compared to boys. Likewise, if you want to get help from your GP and that means seeking out a South Asian GP – DO IT!
Finally, this is not just ‘another label’, this diagnosis means I can get support from work, access medication and give myself peace of mind instead of continuing to gaslight myself. A diagnosis opens many more doors than just a ‘label’.
You can connect with Sukhjeen and her incredible organisation Chronically Brown here
