Autism and ADHD
Neurodiversity
Neurodivergence, encompassing ADHD, Autism, and various other brain developmental differences, does not inherently necessitate mental health treatment. However, it's important to recognize that neurodivergence and mental health issues often co-occur and can impact one another.
My journey to becoming a therapist was spurred by my own experiences seeking mental health support for my children. I encountered a lack of understanding among providers and struggled to find those who could adequately address their needs due to their autism. While some providers specialized in autism, their focus was on social or language skills, leaving anxiety and depressive symptoms unaddressed. This experience fueled my desire to support individuals at the intersection of diagnoses, who often fall through the cracks due to this complexity.
I have lived experience with ADHD, having been diagnosed in college. After learning to manage my own executive functioning (EF) challenges and supporting my children with theirs, I've attended extensive training, consultations, and ongoing learning from individuals with ADHD.
While EF coaching is not the primary focus of my practice, I can draw upon this training to assist clients facing EF difficulties. Similarly, I don't specialize in treating autism specifically, but approximately half of my clients are on the autism spectrum, and I work with them to address anxiety, OCD, or other related challenges while working with them to understand how their autism might impact or interact with their symptoms.
Finally, I want to emphasize that neurodivergence should be celebrated and embraced. Neurodiversity is essential for societies, just as other forms of diversity are. We need individuals who think differently and challenge norms to foster growth and understanding within our communities.
People with autism usually have some general commonalities, such as:
- Social difficulties - this can mean lots of things and varies widely among individuals, but can include having difficulty understanding the motivations or the logic used by other people, having trouble fitting in or engaging in the back and forth of social interactions
- Communication challenges - this too can also vary widely, and can mean an inability to speak at all, ability to communicate only visually (such as with signs, pictures, or writing), or communicating in ways others wouldn’t expect
- Special interests - limited or incredibly focused interest and attention on certain topics. The interests may change over time, or even quite frequently, but there is often an interest in “going deep” on a specific interest that neurotypical people often do less intensely and more fleetingly.
- Early development - Some people with autism have it identified in early childhood, some not until after they encounter more challenges in school. Even more still are not able to identify the challenges they’ve been dealing with all their lives until later in adulthood.
- Masking - Many individuals with autism have received messages they are wrong. In order to avoid criticism or even explicit punishment, many autistics will engage in “masking”, trying to act like their neurotypical peers, which can be mentally exhausting as they are constantly reviewing and comparing their behaviors to others, looking for reactions from others, questioning and criticizing themselves in order to try to fit in.
- Uniqueness - A common saying in the autism community is “If you’ve met one person with autism, that means you’ve met one person with autism”. There are a lot of stereotypes about what autism is, and is not, but the fact is that each individual has their own strengths and challenges, their own values and goals.
If you identify as neurodivergent, I invite you to reach out and learn more about how we might work together.