Neurocomplexity and diagnosing
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[00:00:00] Hi friends, welcome back. I am so glad to have you here. A little update on my social media and phone scrolling and doom scrolling. I have again, still been very much enjoying it and designing that time around when I pick up my phone, when I watch TV, when I watch a show has been. Very changing in my life.
And there's a couple of things that I've really noticed with it. Number one, designing that time is giving me that mental reprieve that I need sometimes because I spend so much time. Peopling and talking to people and coaching , but then I also have my, , my [00:01:00] kids that I take care of and, everything that is involved with life.
And sometimes it's nice to just turn your mind off or turn your brain off. So what I am noticing is that. When I need that break, I will do social media, but I'll give myself a kind of a time limit. Or if I want a break, I will watch a show or something like that. But then in addition, taking that time to journal and get everything.
Out of my brain and onto paper has also been such an asset for me and I am finding that I feel more fulfilled, I think is the best word for it. Now today's subject, I'm going to talk to you about this kind of a hot topic of to get diagnosed or not get [00:02:00] diagnosed. And. I'm going to throw around, words like neurodiversity, neurodivergent, neurocomplexity, and I'll explain why as I go through this Episode, right?
So I, first of all, I want to say that there is no judgment whatsoever, whether or not someone should or could or needs to, get an assessment. If you are the type of person that you do not want an assessment, or maybe because a lot of insurances won't cover it, maybe that's not in your budget.
But you've done your own research and you've figured out what your neurocomplexity is or what your neurodiversity is, then, hey, that is great. I am all for it, right? Go for it. You feel like you are understanding yourself and you feel good in your own skin and you [00:03:00] know how to support yourself, I say go for it.
Great. Then there are other people that really want to better understand themselves and they want to really piece together things that were going on in their life that maybe affected them. Maybe it was traumatic for them in one way or another, whether it's a big T or a little T. And they're genuinely trying to get a better understanding and a full picture as to what they experienced in their life.
And they feel that it will help their confidence or it will help better understand themselves. And so that's why they pursue a diagnosis.
And then there are some people that is I don't. I don't really care. I just feel like what I see, what I hear, what I've read, the reels that I've seen, the groups that I've been in, I feel like I really [00:04:00] understand that and I relate to that. Therefore, I don't feel like I need a diagnosis. I just want to get more support to help myself, whatever your reasoning is for not getting diagnosed.
That's totally up to you. That's not my decision. It's yours. I'm just going to talk to you about maybe some of the reasons why getting diagnosed might be beneficial to some people. Now I've said neural complexity and this usually means that there is more than one diagnosis. For instance, I am a clear case, right?
I am gifted ADHD dyslexic. Those are the diagnoses that I have. However those have been diagnosed and have been for a long [00:05:00] time. However, I have personally considered and wondered if maybe I was also autistic. So I have taken a bunch of autism assessments. Now these ones have been online and it always kept coming back.
autism level one. However, as I did research, what I noticed is there's a huge crossover between autism ADHD and giftedness. So what does that actually mean? Does that mean that all of the crossover is what is coming up as autism one? Or does that mean that I, I am maybe mixed with autism as well. So there are some diagnosticians out there that will give you a neuro complexity test.
And what that means [00:06:00] is they will help you understand what is the most prominent or what are the things that are showing up for you that Are needing support and also are your strengths, right? So for me, dyslexia and gifted are probably really high, but then I also have a lot of challenges from ADHD. So what is my most dominant neuro complexity trait?
I don't know. The other question is really having a very deep understanding of some of the experiences in my life. And as they're a divergent individuals, we have a tendency to ruminate, right? So we ruminate about the things, and I have been on this journey personally. That has taken me through a lot of healing of [00:07:00] big T's and little t's, and there's still a lot of question marks in my mind of my childhood, my upbringing, even things within my marriage or things that have affected me as being a mom and really diving in and understanding my neuro complexity so that I can number one, heal from some of these things and find some relief, but also number to gain a better insight and understanding for me, when I understand something, it.
Helps me be able to work that problem out. It helps me be able to heal from the said thing. So that is me. And that's also why one of my favorite things to do is to research now. I feel like neurodiversity is Really changing and [00:08:00] evolving and it's almost as if you can't catch up with it because it really is being more researched and better understood. And there are some people that actually don't even like the word neurodiversity anymore because there has been some misuse of the word or labeling and.
Mistreating of people because of that word. However, there are a lot of other people that really like that word because they feel like it helps them find a tribe to belong to. And that is one of the main reasons why I created the neuro tribe as a. Facebook group as a membership and as a podcast and YouTube channel, because when we come together as neuro complex individuals, and [00:09:00] we feel like we have a safe place and a place to belong, it really is.
A beautiful thing and having that community where you can learn to thrive and grow together is quite fantastic now. So that's a little bit of my story. And then I'm also throwing a little bit of client experience in here. And I do have some clients that they've never been diagnosed. They just really do.
Understand and feel like they recognize a lot of the things that I am saying or that they read or see on social media. And for them, it just makes sense and helps them put some pieces together. And they're just looking for supports. Again, I also think that there is This really beautiful space where if you are looking for a neuropsych evaluation [00:10:00] to better understand yourself, I say go for that.
I've had clients where they knew that they were ADHD, but they didn't know that maybe they had some learning challenges or learning disabilities, or they didn't realize they were also gifted, or they didn't realize they were gifted and autistic as well. And so what that's done is that's put a lot of question marks in their mind.
And even sometimes it is brought in some challenges when they were in school or even into their career and their workplace or in their business. And so rather than having this information to better understand themselves, to be able to seek out the right supports that they needed for themselves, they moreover.
Use it as an excuse to blame themselves. And I don't say that lightly. There's a lot of shame and [00:11:00] blaming ourselves, and even outside people society, unconscious social bias, being upraised, not understanding or not knowing what your diagnosis is and being shamed and blamed. And so having that clear picture and clear understanding kind of helps you turn the light bulbs on and really see what's in the room.
The other thing that is nice when you get a diagnosis, and if you get a diagnosis from a really good diagnostician is they will show you what your strengths are and they will show you what your challenges are.
Now, everyone that is neurodivergent.
So it could be that problem solving is something that you excel in, it could be that puzzles is something that you excel in. It could be that interpersonal communication is something that you [00:12:00] excel in, but then you have challenges or things that are below that, Average that you need some supports in and what I have noticed with some of my clients is when we look at their battery test or when we look at their graphs of what they're good at and what they are challenged at.
Sometimes. It's not matching what they're doing and because it's not matching what they're doing in life. By career or by business they're going in burnout because they're trying their X, they're outputting so much energy and. In things that are not their greatest skill and they haven't tapped into their greatest skill in order to be able to financially take care of their lives.
[00:13:00] And there is this other, I think, while we're talking about burnout, there is this other complexity of we are neural complex or we are neurodivergent. And so being a neurodivergent individual in A society that is not made for us, we are ready, have to use more energy in order to sustain our living of life.
And so if we are also not setting up supports for the things that we are challenged in, then it can add and lead to burnout. More often quicker or longer term, right? So this is not to convince you to go and get diagnosed. This is not to tell you if you're not diagnosed that I'm judging you in any [00:14:00] way.
Not the case whatsoever. It is simply to say that. There are some benefits to understanding what your neural complexity are. Some of those benefits are maybe you know that or in school say you were diagnosed with ADHD, but you don't fully understand what ADHD means. And you don't fully understand what your flavor of ADHD is, right?
Because there's different kinds of ADHD.
Maybe it is that you want to get a full range of your diagnosis so you can see the things that you can excel at. And also you can ask for the right help, the right supports, the right advocacy. If you know what your diagnosis is now, if you don't want to know and you just want the support, that's totally fine. [00:15:00] Exploring that with a coach like myself is always. I think a benefit.
And then working through the things that you excel at, but maybe you have some mind drama around those things. And then also you have some support. Some systems put in place, but you could benefit from some more. Okay. I love you all. Take care. Bye bye.
