AUDIO Exploring Neurocomplexity Understanding the Mind-Body Connection and Overcoming Burnout
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[00:00:00] Welcome to The Neurotribe, the podcast where authenticity meets empowerment. Your host, Teresa, is a certified business executive and light coach, navigating the intricate tapestry of neurodiversity. She's someone blessed with ADHD and dyslexia, and gifted a widow and a mother to four incredible neurodiverse children.
So each episode of The Neurotribe is an intimate exploration of light, Love, business, and parenting. Through the lens of neurodiversity, subscribe to the Neuro Tribe on your favorite podcast platform or on YouTube, and never miss a story. And if you really like this show, be sure to like, subscribe, rate, and of course, share the podcast with anyone who needs to hear it.
Join us on this unfiltered journey where no topic is too challenging, [00:01:00] no triumph too small. Let's unravel the layers of our community's experiences, embracing the struggles, celebrating the gifts, and finding empowerment and authenticity in every episode. And let's start right now. Hey friends, welcome back.
I am so glad to have all of you here. We are in fall, the very beginning stages of fall. And where I live, we're definitely having very cool nights and still some sunny days. So it's kind of nice. The only thing I don't like is the spiders. I'm not a big fan of spiders, especially really big ones. You gross.
I don't like them. I know that they're important. I just don't like them. And it's funny because I have a couple of kids that are into bugs and spiders, so they're always trying to educate me on the bugs and spiders to make me like them more. And I'm telling you, it doesn't matter how [00:02:00] much information I have.
I don't like spiders. So there you go. Now, to get into the fun part of the day, I want to talk to you about a really important word called neurocomplexity. Why in the world are we talking about neurocomplexity, Teresa? Most people, whether it's neurodivergent or neurotypical, but in general, people, doctors, Multiple people in lots of different fields, they don't think of neurodiversity as a neural complex condition, right?
They only think of it as a brain difference. or a cognitive difference, right? And so the word neurocomplexity really is, I'm hoping will become [00:03:00] mainstream because it really gives people and also professionals an idea of what is going on or what are potentials of things that might be going on in the body.
Now, neurodivergent individuals have cognitive differences in their brain, and these cognitive differences also give an experience within the body. It's not just all in the head, in the brain. There's a lot of messages that are being sent into the body, and in addition, our lived experience also gives us.
All different kinds of experiences, such as trauma, big teas, little teas, and anxiety. Some of us may be dealing with some depression, that sort of thing. [00:04:00] It also has to do with what we feel in our body. For instance, our experience of feelings may be, usually is, a very different experience of feelings. And there also can be some health conditions that are related to our neurocomplexity.
I will give you a perfect example. Dopamine is considered really low in people that have ADHD, autism, and dyspraxia. Low dopamine levels can cause seizures, can cause Um, sleeping disorders can cause a lot of fatigue and lack of motivation. It can also cause Parkinson's disease and in some cases, [00:05:00] schizophrenia.
These are all connected to low dopamine levels. Again, this is a chemical that's in your brain, but it's causing some physical manifestations, right? Okay. It's not neurotypical and neurodivergent people can be hypermobile, which can cause something called POTS or Ehlers Danlos or some other connective tissue disorder.
It is not neurodivergent. You have this, it's just higher likely to, right? And so I think sometimes what I am noticing in my Experience as a coach that I am working with people and I'm not a doctor. I don't treat, diagnose, and cure, but I am coaching and what, as I'm coaching, I'm noticing a lot of different [00:06:00] health ailments that are coming up and I'm noticing my clients are very much advocating for themselves and experiencing things in their bodies.
And time and time again, coming back with getting a diagnosis after they've been told that it was in their head for a long time. Or they were treating symptoms rather than the root cause of what was going on. But when doing research on what they have, I actually have found a lot of links to being a neurocomplex person and whatever the health condition is that they have.
So what I really want people to understand is letting their medical medical professionals understand and [00:07:00] know that they are neurocomplex because that might give them something to then turn around and research. And that might save you time and some heartache in helping you get from the place of not feeling well to getting the right support that, that you need, right, as a person.
The other part of neurocomplexity is more often than not, we are not just autistic or just gifted or just ADHD. There are usually a multitude of different diagnoses that we have. I mean, I am gifted ADHD and dyslexic myself. All four of my kids have multiple different types of cognitive differences. So there is kind of a complex life that you can live being a neural complex person.[00:08:00]
And it doesn't mean that. We kind of identify as this neuro complex person and we have to hold that banner or whatever it is that you're, you're thinking, but it does, if you are running across, Oh, what does this mean? Or how come I seem to have this and other people that I have noticed around me are not, or.
Um, I have noticed general, general, um, generations of my family have had, say, aortic aneurysms or I have noticed generations in my family have this sort of pain or this sort of ailment or I have noticed my grandmother, my grandmother's grandmother, there was always bladder, you know, problems in our family, whatever it is.
That you are noticing generation to [00:09:00] generation, and there might not have been an explanation or a diagnosis or a understanding before. I think what is happening now is really medicine is starting to catch up to what it means to be a neurocomplex person. for listening. I also think that it is important to let your providers know that you are a neurocomplex person, because if they are up to date on their education, which we, to goodness, that they are, If they are up to date on their neurocomplex education, then they actually will have more of a direction as to where to look.
And the other aspect that I say on this is that if you genuinely are feeling. [00:10:00] Differences in your body now versus a year ago or five years ago, and there's a night and day difference, there's probably a reason. The other thing that I have been bear witness to is that as people come out of burnout and they are recovering or recovered from burnout, they can tend to notice a heightened difference in their neurocomplexity.
And sometimes they also notice new signs or symptoms or challenges in their neurocomplexity that they didn't have previously. I don't have enough information to let you know if that's permanent or if that takes time for coming out of the burnout to reduce those things. But the reason [00:11:00] I call this to attention is if you are experiencing burnout or you have recovered from burnout or recovering from burnout and you've noticed a heightened difference in your cognitive differences and heightened challenges in your neurocomplexity.
You're not alone and we can definitely put systems into place to help support you in the areas that you are needing support and also because your neurocomplexity was one way before the burnout and is a different way now. It doesn't mean that anything is wrong with you or you are doing something wrong.
It just means that now we need to adjust and adapt to the way your neural complexity is currently showing its challenges. And then also, of course, you know, me also [00:12:00] building up on your strengths. I love you all. Thank you so much. Take care. Bye bye.
