Today I’m BACK with my first long-format-video-essay in over a year.
Due to how NeuroDivergent People’s struggles are often used to describe and define us (especially in medical contexts), our weaknesses too frequently overshadow our strengths.
Patreon members, Facebook Supporters, and YouTube channel members had access to this video on Wed, January 3, 2023. The video’s public release will be Friday, January 5, 2023.
Transcript
Lyric: “Hi, everyone. Welcome back. For those of you who are new, my name is Lyric Rivera. My pronouns are they/them.
I am a late diagnosed Autistic ADHDer. I didn’t find out I was Autistic until I was 29, when I was diagnosed in a time of burnout and mental health crisis… and the ADHD was diagnosed a few years later, which was a lot less of a shock, for a lot of reasons.
I haven’t done a video in a really long time because I have been working on self-publishing my first book, Workplace Neurodiversity Rising, uh, which is a best selling business ethics book, that was given accolades in Forbes when it came out last fall.
For the past year, I’ve been working on an audiobook for Workplace Neurodiversity Rising, which I really, really, really hope will be out very soon, once it’s approved by my distributors.
So that’s where I’ve been for the past, I don’t even know- forever. Now that that is wrapping up, I’m back.
Today we’re going to dive into 10 strengths of NeuroDivergent People that may surprise you. If you would like to know more, please do stay tuned.
I’m so glad you’re still here.
First, the thing I want to say is that NeuroDivergent People are people.
What are you chewing on over there? That is so loud. Hey.
NeuroDivergent People. We’re people. Which means we have both strengths and weaknesses. All humans do. However, because of how NeuroDivergent People’s struggles are often, literally, used to define and describe us, especially in medical contexts, our weaknesses are way too often overshadowing our strengths and how awesome we really are.
If I were allowed to have input in this diagnostic manuals that we use and the diagnostic criteria that we use to outline and identify NeuroDivergent brain types or NeuroTypes especially the ones I carry because those are the ones I personally have input on, my definitions for what I experience would be much different than the current medical criteria that really only talks about our weaknesses and our deficits and our struggles.
I would say my, my way of describing things would be different because I would insist on defining and talking about NeuroDivergent People in a more balanced way, strengths and, and weaknesses.
For example, Autism, let’s, let’s take Autism in the DSM 5, we’re described as having highly restricted, fixated interests, that are abnormal in intensity or focus, having perseverative interests.
You know, they say that like it’s a bad thing, right?
The other thing they say is that they say it’s abnormal. Abnormal. Abnormal compared to right?
This type of focus, while out of reach for many non-Autistic People, is fairly normal for Autistic People.
We often have intense interests in very specific areas, which can lead us to either be specialists or maybe even experts in our field, due to our dedication to a very particular, often highly, highly specialized.
Niche little topic that maybe all we talk or think about for me, that is Autism, NeuroDiversity, Queer inclusions, and the intersectionalities of systematic oppression for the intersections upon which I personally live. That’s my special interest. If you’re with me, even when I’m not online, I talk about that stuff a lot. It’s kind of my thing. I’m obsessed with it. I can’t let it go if I want to.
I’ve written about monotropism in the past, so go ahead and look that up, if that’s a new word for you.
Monotropism is a person’s tendency to focus their attention on a ssmall number of interests, at any one given time, which means we also have a tendency to miss things that are outside of our attention tunnel.
This is a cognitive strategy that a lot of Autistic People will relate to most likely.
When I heard this word, like when looked up, I was like, “Ooh, this makes, everything makes so much more sense.”
For me, Monotropism isn’t a good or bad thing. It’s just simply part of who I am, as an Autistic Person, but we’ve got this medical book, and these medical descriptions, that would have you believe that this focus is always, always, a bad thing.
I’m not going to say there’s never a downside to it. There’s definitely downsides.
My own, personal experience, of having narrow focus, and also difficulty steering where that focus goes, is that it causes problems in my life, and my relationships. Especially, if I am focusing on something that I don’t want to focus on, or if I focus on something that I can’t change, or I can’t figure out, it’s just gonna drive me up the wall, because I cannot, cannot, cannot, cannot let things go. So I can’t let things go. Once an idea or a question pops into my mind it’s challenging or, maybe impossible, for me to steer my mind away from that thing that’s just like popped in to my head.
That inability to let things go, while it can be one of my most significant strengths, it’s also, in a lot of ways, my biggest weakness. -We’ll talk about more on that in a minute.
It’s shaking the camera. Shaking it. Sorry.
I’m not trying to give you all motion sickness. My table is like really wobbly.
Let’s talk about what happens when you can’t let things go.
When I can’t let things go, I obsess over problems and questions, until I find answers or I solve them… even if it takes years.
It’s funny to me, that people cheer me on in my work, in this blog over the years, saying, “I don’t know how you do it, I don’t know how you keep on this year after year, how you keep putting out more and more content, how you haven’t stopped by now,” because we’re seven years in.
Eugh. But here’s my answer to when people are like, “I don’t know how you keep doing it.”
I can’t literally stop. I can’t turn it off. I don’t know how to stop. It’s not that I can’t find the motivation. I can’t pull myself out of this obsession that I have and the obsession drives me.
These things that are coming out are the obsessive thoughts that are constantly in my head and so this blog is my way of getting all of that out of here so it stops taking up all the space in my head.
My brain doesn’t stop. That’s why I can’t stop. I don’t know how not to do it. It’s, it’s just me, right? My, my brain is latched onto this problem.
The problem is the perception, and the treatment of NeuroDivergent people as lesser by neuro- normative, neuro, neuro- normative society, right?
That’s the problem. I’m obsessed with this problem, that we’re treated as a lesser class of human, and I can’t stop until this problem is solved and it probably won’t be solved in my lifetime, unfortunately, which means I don’t know if I will get to stop, even though I’m tired.
Like honestly, I would like to stop.
I was thinking about that a lot this past year when, I was taking time off from doing videos, how much I really would like to be able to stop this one day, and just go roller skate or, do something else, that isn’t so heavily mentally taxing but, even when I had another job full time, I was still doing this because this was the obsessive thought in my head.
So I have no confidence I’ll be able to let this go. You know, until we can resolve the problem. So here I am, doing the things, because I really don’t have any way not to do the things.
Let’s see. I’m reading my script because otherwise it won’t be cognizant. Um, oh yeah.
Even though sometimes I talk about how I want to stop, and I can’t stop, and I have an inability to stop, I’m grateful that I have this internal thing, driving me, because I’ve been compelled, by this force, to do great work, that wouldn’t exist if not for my beautiful, obsessive, can’t let things go, Autistic brain.
In addition to being Autistic, I’m also ADHD, as I’ve mentioned.
That, that’s another one of my NeuroTypes is heavily, heavily stigmatized by society, and the world around me.
Thinking about ADHD, it’s probably not going to be a surprise to people that ADHD affects attention. It’s in the name, right?
We’ve got this manual, that says ADHDers “may often avoid, dislike, or be reluctant to do tasks that require mental effort over a long period of time, such as schoolwork or homework.” That’s what it says. That’s what they say about us ADHDers.
Talking about these one sided definitions once again, it doesn’t even make note to the fact that ADHDers often can spend hours, upon hours, upon hours, hyper focused on tasks that we are well suited for. A lot of the tasks we’re avoiding in school we’re not really well suited for.
We can focus on things if it catches our interest.
It’s not that ADHDers can’t focus, it’s just the focus is very specific, and is a little bit hard to just focus on things.
If it’s not interesting to us, the brain is like off and on like a light switch, no thanks.
We see similar descriptions, of other NeuroTypes, throughout these diagnostic manuals, where we’re only describing deficits, without talking about appreciating any of the strengths.
It’s an imbalanced approach, that we are looking at humans through an entirely pathological lens. We’re painting them with a one sided brush, without appreciating people’s humanity when we do this.
I, personally, think NeuroDivergent people are beautiful, fabulous people, and we have complex and diverse brains, and we are more than just our weaknesses, as people reading these textbooks will imagine when they read these things.
Because most of the time we are focusing on NeuroDivergent people’s weaknesses, today I want to focus on some of the strengths.
Here are 10 strengths of NeuroDivergent People you may not know about.
The first one is hyperfocus, which is one people probably know about, if you’ve been following this blog, vlog- whatever, for the past few years, you know about hyperfocus, but there are a lot of new people who have been joining, especially since I did my last video… so let me explain:
Autistic People, and ADHD ers, are known for our ability to hyperfocus for long periods of time, if we’re matched to the right tasks that catch our interest, and if we’re well suited to those skills.
That, that’s something that’s a really great skill. That’s my biggest skill, so I’m a bit biased and I put that at the top.
Another skill that can be really awesome for NeuroDivergent People, or can be a skill, which is often only looked at as a deficit, is risk taking.
ADHDers are often more willing to take risks, however, ADHDers who are also Autistic and or who have anxiety… I’m pointing at myself here- we may be a little bit less inclined to take risks.
Sometimes being willing to take a risk is a really good thing. If you are working in a group of people, it is really good to have a mix of people who are both risk averse and people who are very risk tolerant, because those groups of people will work to either make the people who are risk tolerant think a little bit more about the risks, or if people are risk averse, the risk tolerant people will help pull them out to do a little bit more risk. “It’s okay. It’s a little risk.”
These things are good to have in humanity. It’s part of that beautiful human spectrum and why these diverse groups are so important for everybody.
Number three. Masters of Language and Literature. Hyperlexic people and those with hypergraphia. are often masters of writing words and written text. That’s me. I much rather write than put out a video, but I’m back anyway. So here I am.
Number four, attention to detail. People with OCD can be very attentive and have excellent attention to detail. Autistic People may also possess this skill.
Multidimensional thinking. Many dyslexic people experience multidimensional perception or 3D thinking, which is a really cool skill that I really wish I had, but I don’t.
Self driven.
NeuroDivergent people who are demand avoidant, especially, or have a high need for autonomy, may be fiercely self motivated and may even feel suffocated by micromanagers.
Out of the box thinking and creativity. NeuroDivergent People bring unique skills and fresh perspectives to groups, teams, and projects.
Outta the box thinking is just thinking for those of us who live outside of the box.
Living in a world not made for you requires you to be creative. Therefore, many NeuroDivergent people are creative out of necessity.
Number eight. Persistence.
This world is designed by and for a NeuroTypical, NeuroNormative average, which ignores the needs of the NeuroMinority in favor of the NeuroMajority. while pathologizing, and dehumanizing, the rest of us.
When the world is not constructed considering your needs, you often are going to have to push to meet those needs.
Many NeuroDivergent People have to work so much harder to get needs met that those in the NeuroMajority just simply take for granted, because society meets those needs for those who society was designed by and for; and we have to do more work for the same or lesser results, a lot of the times, because these systems are stacked against us.
Persistence is another one of those things that for a lot of us can be something that we learn, just because we have to survive.
Number nine, big feelings.
Some NeuroDivergent people feel their emotions very, very intensely. There are a multitude of NeuroTypes that have increased emotional inner worlds. When we love, we do so with all of our hearts. When we feel joy, the joy radiates from us, and our anger and other large emotions do the same.
This is one of those things, it’s neither good nor bad, it just is, but I think Autistic love, cause it’s a very deep love. It’s a very beautiful love. It’s something a lot of people don’t talk about that, I have a very big, big feelings, and that can be both a blessing and a curse. For the more pleasant emotions, it’s really wonderful to have those big feelings.
Number 10, empathy, especially empathy for the underdog, and those who are less fortunate.
Because NeuroDivergent people are frequently treated as if we are lesser than others, and looked down upon, many of us are going to be more compassionate for those society is tending to be more cruel, or less kind, to.
Additionally, there are multiple NeuroTypes that can cause you to have increased, and even overwhelming, levels of empathy.
Similar to how various NeuroTypes can cause one to have big feelings and big emotions. It’s an empathy spectrum. One might feel additional, or even more, or overwhelming empathy for others, or certain groups, because they are NeuroDivergent.
If you’re still here, thank you so much for sticking around to the end. I hope you’ll come back next time.
If you want more content like, like this, but in written form, I have a Substack subscription for only 5 a month, 50 a year. I do written posts on Substack, which is where I’ve been the past year and a half, where I’ve not been making Autism videos.
I am going to start doing videos, probably once a month.
I used to do videos once a week. That might be a little overambitious.
We’re going to start with once a month and we’ll see where we go from there.
In the new year, I hope to have more guests. I will continue to be posting on Substack and Patreon.
Thank you to those subscribers, for making content like this one possible. I couldn’t do it without you.
I will hopefully see you for the next video.
Be sure to subscribe. Follow, turn on notifications, so that you don’t miss a video, because they’re not going to be on a specific weekly schedule, as they were in the past, so you want to make sure you get those notifications so you don’t miss them.
Let me know if you have a question, or a topic, you want to learn about in the future and drop that in the comments; because I do want to do videos on things you want to learn about.
I’ll see you next time.
Bye”
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As thanks for their support, the Patreon members, Facebook Supporters, and YouTube channel members had access to this video on Wed, January 3, 2023. (The video’s public release was set for Friday, January 5, 2023.)
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It would mean a lot to me,
– Lyric Lark Rivera | NeuroDivergent Rebel