In this episode, Nicnac gives explaining and defining Neurodivergance another try, having felt that they may have glossed over a few things in recent episodes. They return to their favorite historic Psychologist Abraham Maslow to point out an important oversight in his research that some current scholars are beginning to understand. Namely, the internal experience of autism and other forms of neurodiversity.
They highlight the recent work done by Dr. Dora Raymaker and The Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education at Portland State University around the topic of Autistic Burnout and the age range when it becomes most severe. Generally speaking, around the time of transition into adulthood between about 15 and 25. In Nicnac’s case, this period extended well into their early 30’s. Nicnac notes that they relied heavily on and connected strongly to the work of John Lennon and The Beatles during this period of their life. Nicnac notes some notable parallels between John’s life experience and their own with both Nicnac and John seeming to express less external public distress by their early to mid-30s. Nicnac suspects that in both cases it’s more a matter of masking and avoiding known triggers than anything else.
Nicnac makes mention of a recent survey invitation they got to contribute to the creation of a guidebook for autistic teens as one example of improved research and collaborative methodology that is inclusive of the first-hand internal experience. Nicnac hopes that if researchers continue to include and involve people with the lived internal experience that mental health at large might slowly turn an important corner.
Nicnac again notes the importance of the neurodivergent online community. A community that often seems to be lightyears ahead of researchers especially when it came to finding an overlap between neurodiversity and gender diversity. Nicnac mentions where they are in their translation and that they are hoping they’ve found the right support in this area.
Finely, Nicnac mentions plans they have to branch out with the podcast despite their social limitations. This will hopefully include an interview with Antony Rotunno in the next episode. A podcaster, teacher, truth seeker and recording artist who knows John Lennon about as well as anyone who wasn’t John Lennon can. They also mention the story of Robert Pirsig. A person they hope to research and cover in some depth down the line. Finely, they mention their desire to interview other neurodivergent people and activists who are similarly hell-bent on making the world better even if we can’t stand humanity overall.
Credits
The opening music is Raindrop Rhapsody by Josh Eikenberry. The closing music is Catch Me If You Can by Attica Attica. Find them at atticaattica.bandcamp.com.
The Nicnac Podcast & FSRideAlong Series is © 2006-2021 by Nicnac Marsh and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
