Want To Understand The Complexities Of Neurodiversity? Start Here

While the movement to increase awareness of neurodiversity has been around since the 1990s, you might be hearing the term "neurodiverse" in conversations, news stories or even on your social media feeds more frequently in recent years. Neurodiversity diagnoses in adults has been on the rise, and more people today are self-diagnosing as neurodivergent, some because they can't get a diagnosis from a health care provider.

One of those people struggling to get the assessment and treatment they feel they need is LAist's Weekend Edition host Julia Paskin.

"Many of us (myself included) have spent years living with a core belief that we are inherently 'broken,'” she said. "So, to discover that no, we are not broken but different, and not alone, can be a tremendous relief. It’s also angering to think about how long you may have struggled personally and professionally because you lacked support."

This series from LAist's daily news show AirTalk explains the complexities of neurodiversity, our history of understanding it as a society, why awareness surrounding it has increased recently and how people who are neurodivergent interact with the world and communicate with others.

We invite you to listen to those conversations:

The spectrum, provider shortages and self-diagnosis

Neurodiversity is a term that has become ubiquitous in the past couple of years. It was first coined in 1997 by sociologist Judy Singer to explain a span of cognitive and neurological differences in the human brain. The term encompasses everything from Tourette's syndrome and dyslexia to autism and ADHD.

While there is lots of research on these disorders, the focus tends to be on children, not adults. Many adults with neurodivergence struggle to get a diagnosis for a number of reasons. This week on AirTalk we’re covering neurodivergence for various angles.

Guests: Vanessa Bal, associate professor of applied psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Lawrence Fung, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University and Karissa Burnett, licensed psychologist at Divergent Pathways.

Defining characteristics & long-lasting stigma

For most of the 20th century, neurodiverse conditions like autism were considered to be quite rare, having less to do with their prevalence but more so with their researcher characteristics. Despite books like The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders having definitions for disabilities like ADHD or autism, the 1990s saw notable increases for both once clinical diagnoses began to understand the complexities of neurodiversity.

In this conversation, we get into this century-long development of definitions and how recent decades have led to a much more nuanced look into what neurodiversity is.

Guests: Steve Silberman, science writer and author of the book "NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity," and Dr. Shulamite Green, licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA.

Advice for businesses and employees

Neurodiversity is a rising umbrella term used to describe people with variation in their mental function. It can be used to describe people with things like autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, epilepsy, obsessive compulsive disorder and many other conditions. In this conversation, we focus on neurodiversity in the workplace, the various challenges neurotypical people can experience, and advice for both individuals and employers for how to improve the situation.

Guests: Devon Price, social psychologist, professor at Loyola University Chicago, and the author of the book Unmasking Autism (Harmony, 2022), and Alex Gilbert, coach, CEO and founder of Cape-Able, a consulting and coaching organization that supports individuals with learning disabilities and works with companies.

Dealing with mental health challenges

The world isn’t built for neurodivergent people. At the very least, it’s exhausting to navigate a neurotypical world, potentially leading to burnout from having to constantly mask one’s true self. But neurodivergent people can also face significant mental health challenges, like depression and anxiety. How common are mental health problems in the neurodivergent community?

How do these conditions present themselves? And how does finally receiving a diagnosis affect a patient’s mental health?

Guests: Melody Marin, clinical psychologist specializing in neurodivergence and Ryan Sultán, pediatric psychiatrist at Columbia University’s Mental Health Informatics Lab.

Navigating relationships

This week, we’ve covered the topic of neurodiversity from a variety of angles, including the challenges of getting diagnosed, the need for workplace accommodations and mental health challenges that often accompany neurodivergence. Today, we’re talking about neurodiversity in relationships. One in five people in the U.S. identify as neurodivergent; so it’s very likely you’re in a relationship of some kind with someone who is neurodiverse. What does that mean for the relationship and how conflict is approached and addressed?

Guest: Jodi Carlton, neurodivergence relationship expert and host of the podcast "Your Neurodiverse Relationship.”