Neurodivergent Narratives Podcast

From the pages of my journal… what it feels like in this body when I think of letting go. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ndnarratives.substack.com/subscribe

While writing one of my previous Substack essays , I was reminded of something I read ages ago by Pema Chodron in When Things Fall Apar t . In the book, Chodron describes hope and fear as being on two sides of the same coin: where there’s one, there’s the other, and both are the root of our pain . At that moment, I paused because I truly felt like she was on something. Yes, on something. Not, on t...

A slight edit on this video (because I couldn’t be arsed to re-record the whole thing), is when I complained about people saying they were “demand avoidant”, but aren’t. What I meant was when they say they are pathological demand avoidant , but they aren’t. Demand avoidance is real, but pathological demand avoidance is something entirely different. SC xo Hey friends, Chapter 4, which I called He n...

To reconnect with ourselves (the sensations in our bodies), so we can understand what we might need at that moment, means we need to pause.  But pausing feels very scary to our bodies. This episode not only looks at why pausing feels so bad to us but how we can start to develop a practice of pausing in the times where we feel "safe- enough" so that when we actually do need to pause in ou...

When I was batching these episodes, it occurred to me that maybe some of you were like me and a little lost when it comes to trying to understand what "discomfort " might actually feel like in your body when thinking of emotions.  So this episode is a short one and it talks about how I might describe what I'm trying to feel when I think of "discomfort in the body." It also...

FYI: I use the f word in the intro! It wasn't edited out this episode. Introspection is one of the things that we hear talked about a lot but it's not really talked about when it comes to what it means for being in this society. When we live in a society that works to separate the body from the mind, reconnecting with our body becomes a radical act. Because it's in our body that hol...

I'm pleased with this episode. I've shared some introductory thoughts about the mind and body connection with neurodivergent people in mind. I talk a little about how society divides us not only from the land and each other but from ourselves. Privileging the mind over the knowledge that comes from our bodies makes me think that for us ND brained people, (who seem to be drawn to being co...

One thing I tend to go on about is that when the story is told by one perspective, the problems and solutions are only seen from that perspective too. In talking about neurodivergence, we tend to be sharing the experiences from a lot about white boys, girls, men and women perspectives. No one else (because unless otherwise said, the default has always been white). Culturally competent care and sup...

Maybe this episode will make sense to some of you, or maybe it won't. But hear me out. I started thinking a little more deeply about boredom and how terrible it feels for people. Then I started thinking about the messages we got when we were bored growing up and how they felt. It led me to think that if something like boredom can be so connected to doing things and what it means if we're...

A theme that seems to come up a lot with the people I work with is around the anxiety and stress that comes up from feeling a lack of clarity for ND people.  I even wonder if it's something that feels a lot worse the further you are on the margins with your intersecting identities too because this is something I've struggled with as well. This episode looks at why we might feel so damn m...

Boredom often connects to productivity for me and this didn't sit right with me for some reason, so I decided I needed to learn more about it. The initial title for this episode was 'is boredom really our fault though?' and  that question was what guided my research. It made me wonder if there was more to it. I think I was right. This episode hits on a few ideas around how anticipat...

This week's episode looks predominately at refugee (although, I do think I mention immigrant populations occasionally too) populations and my thoughts about some of the research I've been doing around lack of mental health support. I don’t hear a lot talked about this community when speaking about ADHD or neurodivergence and that's a problem especially with the kind of things I lear...

This here is episode 50 and I am so thrilled to welcome my first guest! The most special-est, wonderful-est person I know talks to me about creativity, school and lots more. I know they'll leave you smiling with their wisdom and insights. It's short but it feels like my best episode yet.  Thank you all for being here for the first 50! Connect with me: IG: @nd.narratives Twitter: @ndnarra...

This episode talks a little about the story of someone I work with and from an intersectional lens (being an immigrant to a "western country", second language speaker and a person of colour). The problems that he was going through in order to get a proper diagnosis and thoughts on three things have made it difficult for him to get the proper diagnosis and support that he needed. These ar...

In this episode, I'm musing on inflexible thinking. I don’t think that we’re naturally inflexible as much as it’s just naturally looking at what matters to us at the moment. It looks inflexible, but the thing is that you’ve not convinced us (or I've not convinced myself) that what you think is important is really that important. I'm not saying that there isn't an EF skills comp...

This episode looks at Black Excellence and exceptionalism and how this might be experienced with neurodivergence. NOTE: I do stick to centering race in this episode, but I believe that depending on the different identities you hold there will be a lot of familiar feelings here. There's a lot of complexity in these topics. Three thoughts on navigating exceptionalism while trying to excel: 1. A...

The start of season two and the format is a bit different. A bit shorter, a bit more stories, not just the strategies but also a lot more centering intersectional neurodiversity. This neurodivergent space is full of erasure. It’s in the language and the way that it centers white people and not just white boys in its assessments and who the influencers, big named leaders etc are in the space. When...

I’m not just going to leave you thinking that it’s a lost cause and that there’s nothing we can do when we’re dealing with rejection. I don't think it's like that I’ve made improvements, I’ve made shifts in my thinking and I’ve made my way forward. I think there is something that is so powerful when we remember that we’ve got a choice. It's not easy to manage rejection, but I think...

This episode came up from one of my patron's question about rejection and the ability to decipher what rejection stems from ADHD (or other neurodivergent conditions) and what doesn't.  The thought being, that if there were a way to figure this out, then maybe there might be a way to manage rejection better because of its source. This episode is my thoughts on the complexity I feel around...

Here's part two in the series on thoughts about "RSD" (rejection sensitivity dysphoria). This one is where I dive into some thoughts on rejection from an intersectional lens and wonder what kind of narrative we learn about who is rejected and how we're all forced to deal with rejection based on the identities that we hold. What kind of messages are we given about rejection? Wha...

RSD : Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria is a cluster of emotionally painful symptoms that arise in reaction to perceived judgement or rejection from others. It’s no surprise that we’re rejection sensitive. We’re sensitive about a lot of emotions, not just rejection. Emotions feel big in these bodies. Breakups make us fall to pieces but falling in love is something so euphoric too. But RSD, I’m still s...

This episode is one where I give some initial thoughts on shame and blame. I've been drawn to Audre Lorde's quote that "there are no single-issue problems because we don't live single-issue lives" and I really appreciate this when I think about intersectionality and neurodiversity because we are such complex beings but often grow up not seen or able to show that complexity...

This episode is a little different than I've done before. It's the audio taken from an IG Live that I recorded (and it's on my IG feed) where I finally shared my feeling and response on another podcast where it was said that there were no Black ADHD coaches, and the apologies that came after this.  This is my response. There's an intro that explains the situation in more detail...

In part three of my mini-series on Blame and Responsibility, I talk more about responsibility and what's made it difficult for us to take responsibility. It also looks at the importance of responsibility in taking action and how we can start looking at it a little differently to make some changes in our lives. Things I've Realised: 1. How we've learned to react 2. Responsibility not...

There are so many examples of where we see blame culture in society and the way that it impacts how we're able to see ourselves and the things that we sometimes feel we're able to do for ourselves. Many of us have hurdles to climb, so if it feels like it can be never ending sometimes, there are lots of reasons for it.  Review on the previous episode but go back to episode 35 to hear more...