Browse 96 quotes about Neurodiversity.
“Women don't have milder autism because of their biology. People who are marginalized have their autism ignored because of their peripheral status in society.”
Source: Divergent Mind, NeuroTribes & Unmasking Autism 3 Books Collection Set
“I like that I have ten things on the go, all at once. I like that I'm always planning for the next thing. I like that I bring a high energy to my life, that I see it as a challenge. I like that my favourite thing to do on the flight home is to look at the airline route map to pick my next destination.”
Source: Notes to Self
“I have spent my life clinging to my own shores for safety. Flying like a bird above the storm waters of my own body, too scared to land. I guess that is why the sea floods in to visit me. I have been too frightened to venture out into her depths alone. The central core of me is dark and churning, I can only sense it vaguely. It scares me with its power. As a late-diagnosed autistic woman, I realise that this experience is partly neurological…my sensory abilities are all hyper-aroused on the surface, and my nervous system melts down when it becomes overwhelmed in everyday places. But my ability to know what is going on within is flawed. Instead of an accurate information readout, there is a big, dark, unknowable mass within. I am sailing blind without map or lighthouse within my own skin. It feels a very scary place to have a life sentence. This is why I write: to attempt to find words for what this big scariness is, to try and find images to give form and name to the wild churning expanse.”
Source: She of the Sea
“Neurodivergence doesn’t follow a straight line. It curves, overlaps, and branches into complex, beautiful configurations.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“What is madness if not everything that science has not yet managed to prove?”
Source: No, You're Crazy
“I wrote this handbook because I've repeatedly seen neurodivergent individuals believe they're broken, when in truth, they are simply different. This difference isn't a flaw to fix; it's a unique way of being human that deserves profound understanding, steadfast support, and heartfelt celebration.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“The struggles you face usually aren't because you're neurodivergent. They're often because the world hasn't figured out how to work with different kinds of minds.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“Divergence is nature’s way to expansion.”
Source: The Divine Refugee
“NeuroDiversity is the next frontier in Diversity & Inclusion. If your D&I program doesn't take all NeuroDivergent people into account, it's already obsolete.”
Source: Workplace NeuroDiversity Rising: NeuroDiversity = ALL Brains NeuroDivergent and NeuroTypical working together & supporting each other
“My pronoun is people,
I'm divergent, yet invincible.
I am straight, I am queer;
I am civilian, I am seer.
Spirit of life, I - am universal!
Call me disabled or differently able,
Call me collective or individual.
Fleshly forms I've got plenty,
All run by same love and liberty -
Culture supreme is inclusion.”
Source: Yaralardan Yangın Doğar: Explorers of Night are Emperors of Dawn
“Adopting this strengths-based view doesn't mean pretending challenges don't exist. It means reframing them. Instead of asking 'What's wrong with me?' you get to ask 'What are my unique strengths? What do I need to thrive? What kind of support would actually help?”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“Embracing this identity means something powerful: instead of trying to squeeze yourself into a mold that was never meant for you, you get to understand your actual strengths, honor your real needs, and live as your authentic self.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“NeuroFlex ACT isn’t about striving to fit a mold. It’s about unfolding into your authentic self, with tools that honor your wiring and your humanity.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“The world doesn’t need you to shrink into its boxes. It needs you to stand tall in your unique brilliance and build bridges wide enough for others to walk beside you. Every time you show up as you are, ask for what you need, or celebrate your differences, you strengthen those bridges. With each person who crosses, the world grows richer with the creativity, insight, and joy that only comes when every mind has room to thrive.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“As an individual, as a person with the power to affect other people with your words, actions, and expressions every single day, you can give people who see the world differently the gift of accepting who and how they are.”
Source: Notes for Neuro Navigators: The Allies' Quick-Start Guide to Championing Neurodivergent Brains
“There's a reason why we're different. You and me. Why we're made this way. And it's for us to decide. It's none of their business.”
Source: Show Us Who You Are
“I actually realise that I don't care if they're all finding me strange.
They don't have what we have. And I feel sorry for them.”
Source: Show Us Who You Are
“If I could get across to Dibs my confidence in him as a person who had good reasons for everything he did, and if I could convey the concept that there were no hidden answers for him to guess, no concealed standards of behavior or expression that were not openly stated, no pressure for him to read my mind and come up with a solution that I had already decided upon, no rush to do everything today—then, perhaps, Dibs would catch more and more of a feeling of security and of the rightness of his own actions so he could clarify, understand, and accept them. This would take time, real effort, great patience on the part of both of us. And it must at all times be basically and fundamentally honest.”
“-autism is neither a deficit, disease nor disorder, but simply a different, and equally valid, way of being.”
Source: A Practical Guide to Happiness in Adults on the Autism Spectrum: A Positive Psychology Approach
“Given what we now understand about the fundamental processes underlying AI, you can't get out of Flatland by simply building an infinite number of two-dimensional ladders infinitely fast. They will move faster and more competently within the boundaries of linear rationality than any human is capable of. But they will always be bound within the confines of that map.”
“– but what exactly do we mean by happiness? Is happiness a short-term state (‘I’m happy when I’m playing tennis’) or a longer-term condition (‘I’m a happy person’)? The very thing that makes one person extremely happy (going to a football match, reading a book, being alone...) might indeed induce a state of extreme unhappiness in another. But happiness, however defined, is something generally considered a positive state worth cultivating.”
Source: A Practical Guide to Happiness in Adults on the Autism Spectrum: A Positive Psychology Approach
“-success does not bring long-term happiness, but that being happy can increase the likelihood of success.”
Source: A Practical Guide to Happiness in Adults on the Autism Spectrum: A Positive Psychology Approach
“When Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling published the piece "TERF Wars" on her blog in the summer of 2020, she specifically mentioned her fear that many transgender men are actually Autistic girls who weren't conventionally feminine, and have been influenced by transactivists on the internet into identifying out of womanhood. In presenting herself as defending disabled "girls," she argued for restricting young trans Autistic people's ability to self-identity and access necessary services and health care.
Rowling's perspective (which she shares with many gender critical folks) is deeply dehumanising to both the trans and Autistic communities.”
Source: Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity
“Your brain isn't broken. It's beautifully, uniquely yours.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“You're not less than anyone else. You're a vital, irreplaceable part of what makes humanity diverse, creative, and whole.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“It’s not damaged. It’s stuck in survival mode.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Breaking the Loop - Your NeuroFlex ACT Workbook: Rewire Your Mind. Reclaim Your Life.
“Your brain is not broken. It’s trying to protect you. It just may need a reboot.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Breaking the Loop - Your NeuroFlex ACT Workbook: Rewire Your Mind. Reclaim Your Life.
“Your neurodivergent brain isn't something to overcome. It's something to understand, appreciate, and work with. Let's figure out how to do that, together. You Already Have Everything You Need.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“To understand the neurodivergent mind is not to fix it, but to learn its language, honor its rhythm, and discover the strength in difference. This is where that journey begins.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“You are not broken. You are not a problem to be fixed. You are a human being with a mind that has learned, often for good reasons, how to survive.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Breaking the Loop - Your NeuroFlex ACT Workbook: Rewire Your Mind. Reclaim Your Life.
“Your brain isn’t broken. It’s just doing what it was designed to do, on overdrive.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Breaking the Loop - Your NeuroFlex ACT Workbook: Rewire Your Mind. Reclaim Your Life.
“Racism has permeated psychology and psychiatry from its genesis. Early clinicians came from white, European backgrounds, and used their culture's social norms as the basis for what being healthy looked like. It was a very narrow and oppressive definition, which assumed that being genteel, well-dressed, well-read, and white were the marks of humanity, and that anyone who deviated from that standard was not a person, but an animal in need of being tamed.”
Source: Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity
“The normal pipeline for an adult autistic is being overwhelmed, tired, then reaching burnout, depression, and guilt. But change is possible. These are systemic problems that we encounter, and the solutions we bring are going to be individual. Autistic people are wildly diverse, and what strengths you have won’t look like someone else’s.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“Despite the fact that the world didn’t cater to its style, I saw advantages in my thinking.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“Maybe the most surprising thing is that the proficiency of so many autism experts ends at diagnosis. Once that diagnosis is made, especially for adults, the expert’s job is over, and they have no idea how to guide you in handling that information.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“If coming out as autistic as an adult is hard, it’s only because of the resistance of those around you. It doesn’t change the actual challenges you have in your job, your relationships, or your perception. Which is just such a perfect fact because the challenges you’ve always faced haven’t been due to the autism either — not really. They’ve been due to the way the world has been structured based on neurotypical thinking and socialization. In most cases, autism is a social disability, not a medical one.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“We did our best to fit in, be typical, or control the narrative, and kept this ruse up for years and then decades, usually developing some really unhealthy coping skills to deal with the resulting anxiety. Expectations were always high, and we worked harder and harder to meet them, exhausting ourselves and deteriorating our quality of life.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“They’ll explain why you can’t be autistic by producing the very evidence you would use to prove that you are — how smart you are, how social you are, your expert and intense eye contact, your terrific grades and amazing knowledge about niche subjects, your charm during social events. All things that were hard-fought parts of your masked identity.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“After all, simply saying “We’re all on the spectrum” is a cognitive roadblock. It’s absolutely efficient, in an energy consumptive way. We see this method used all the time when people use thought-terminating clichés to end a problem-solving process and settle their thinking: It is what it is. Don’t rock the boat. That’s not how we do things here. It’s above your pay grade. Let’s agree to disagree. YOLO.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“We should also address this term neurotypical, as it is too often used as a substitute for the word normal, even though this was not the original intention. Simply stated, it refers to someone whose neurological structure developed in a way that is typical of the field of study.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“For how much autism is discussed, far too many people don’t have a good working definition of what it is.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“Now in my forties, often I look around a room of adults and wonder how many others are faking it. If so, who are we playacting for? Who would be offended if we didn’t wear the right clothes? Which person sees themselves as an actual grown-up, would judge our handshake, comment sincerely on a wine, and expect a sense of achievement and pride to blossom within them for proving their adulthood? Who is motivated by power, believes that money is real, and insists the social structure is a meritocracy that sprouted from the ground when George Washington chopped down a cherry tree to ratify the New Deal at Gettysburg, accompanied by his Rough Riders? Which people are we trying to fit in for? In any given room, it could be everyone but me, or it could be no one.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“A game began so long ago that we forgot it was a game at all. We can only see the game and its rules. We can’t see the room where we are playing, nor can we stop playing. Everyone is born into it. We spend the first few years learning the rules, and we know that to win the game, we must become an amorphous, perfect person. If we just follow the right steps, read the right things, and behave in the right ways, we’re certain to become this person. We’ve built pipelines and institutions to encourage this, complete with pre- made goals, graded feedback, moral guidance, an armory of cosmetic solutions, and anything else you can imagine. We are all-in, dead-set on this belief that we can and will become the perfect person. Even though no one has done this before. Ever. It has never happened.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“for me and tens of thousands of others like me, a huge shock came when people started literally protesting because they wanted to “go back to normal.”
“I’ve learned to only express my opinion when I absolutely have to, and even then, it comes out so direct, frustrated, and self-righteous that I’ll have to apologize for it within a week or so.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“I want to make something clear: I’m autistic. I don’t have autism.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“autism is a description of who I am and who other autistics are and not at all an affliction that haunts us.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“Again, you’re most likely to be diagnosed if you’re a white male, as your opinion of yourself will be taken more seriously by doctors. I wish I were joking.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“One of the most maddening things you’re going to hear is “Well, we’re all on the spectrum.” Usually, this will be someone close to you, and you’ll have just disclosed to them that you are autistic. Their reply takes this disclosure and — seemingly — integrates it into their worldview while actually dump- ing it in the garbage.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“As we move forward into different thinking styles, it’ll become more and more apparent why being understood and listened to is especially enticing to autistic people who are coming to an awareness of themselves.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult