Science Says: Your Neurodiversity is Your Superpower

Did you know 15-20% of the population are estimated to be neurodiverse? We’re in the middle of a big cultural shift, propelled by new science on the brain, that is reshaping our understanding of – and our workplace adaptations for – neurodiversity. 

We’re moving from the old idea that Neurodiversity is a challenge to be managed, to a new, more empathetic understanding: Neurodiversity is a superpower to be tapped. 

While neurodiversity is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (which therefore guarantees accommodations), the word ‘disability’ implies only challenge, not benefit. Certainly, neurodiverse people are often unable, or able with great difficulty, to perform many of the tasks that neurotypical people find incredibly simple. E.g: basic societal and workplace agreements, such as getting to work on time or meeting your to-do lists, become incredibly stressful, if not altogether impossible, if the executive functioning part of your brain struggles to come online (the defining characteristic of ADHD).

‘Disability’ is only one part of the puzzle, often accompanying a cognitive ’superability’ in other arenas. We know the stereotype: the autistic guy in the office who can’t make eye contact, stays siloed in his headphones and doesn’t break for lunch, but can crunch complex numbers faster than you can blink an eye and works literal magic with computers. This stereotype is just that – a stereotype. Real neurodiversity sometimes presents like this, but also like many other kinds of people. Neurodiversity runs the gamut: so acute as to prevent societal integration altogether (80% of neurodiverse people are unemployed), or so subtle it is masked as neurotypical and flies under the radar of diagnosis altogether. Neurodiverse people often experience higher rates of anxiety or depression, and sometimes that diagnosis masks an underlying neurodiversity. 

In recent years, the landscape in both knowledge and perception has undergone significant transformation. For example, since the 1990s, the term “Twice Exceptional” has emerged among clinicians and educators for neurodivergent children who exhibit both a disability and a superability – showcasing exceptionalism in both directions. 

While, more broadly, the idea of an inherent superpower in neurodiversity is beginning to take hold, it’s coming in to sweep away a deep legacy of stigma and harmful societal conceptualizing that will take a long time to unravel. Until 1968 – only 55 years ago - ADHD was (kid-you-not) referred to as ‘minimal brain dysfunction’. Even today, we often refer to neurodiversity as ‘neurodivergence’, something that deviates from the norm, instead of embracing the reality that just like gender or sexuality, we’re probably all somewhere different on the neurospectrum. 

Thanks to neuroscience and advocacy, this stigma is starting to release its hold. This image by Nancy Doyle, co-director for the Centre for Neurodiversity at work in the UK, encapsulates the new understanding that neurodiversity is a superpower:

Neurodiversity by Nancy Doyle of Genius Within.