Neurodiversity is important to me

On December 09, 2025 at approx 10:42 PM I posted the following on Facebook:

I share this from time to time on the socials – as a reminder to self, and maybe others will benefit, too!

As we move into a highly demand centric and oriented time of the year for many reasons – many dogmatic and/or performative (by false intrinsic pressures associated to the efforts of Situational Design) –

This graphic/inspirational image applies to ALL – even if we masquerade around as adults, the child inside is still the child inside.

Be Kind, Don’t be a douchebag!

I shared the original post above – (It’s not too late to tell your child) a few days ago based on the pressures of holiday-centered traditions that often lose sense of the origin stories of their foundations – which are often amplified for Neurodivergent (ND) folks! This will sometimes spins into undue pressures, demands and leads to dysregulation, frustrations, and more for the kiddos and their caregivers.

I wanted to add on to the original thoughts a bit, a few phrases that help with Neurodivergence:

“Can’t not won’t!”
“Different, not less!”
“Fight of flight are just the beginning of the fight or flight adrenaline responses.”

There is a myriad of neurotypes out there, many with miscalibrated stereotypes that require persistent calibration (e.g. – the movie Rain Main brought awareness, but the movie and its characters are not the absolute example of people with Autism). It baffled me when I did some chasing, in a rabbit hole, that the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) was founded of principles of Eugenics. What? no! This article or dissertation had a lot of referenceable citations – https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5263&context=etd.
Of Note – I also have the PDF downloaded from the original source in case this link goes stale.

Why is this important to me?

First, I am dyslexic! Yes, that means I am Neurodivergent. I tend to be quite open about the subject, and I happened across a video some time ago that describes my conditions for me – like an overuse of ellipses in writing, to half thoughts, and/or zany but meaningful and purposeful cross topic connections and more….

I often see topics connect across topics (transference) and business matters quickly and I love/hate that burden. I do have a limited threshold while reading before things get difficult, so I appreciate having a bit more time to synthesize written information, but enjoy the privileges of remote work as an EdTech consultant.

I invite you to give this a watch if interested. It may help you understand me a bit better. Maybe not.

Second, my family has a myriad of ADHD, Autism and more in our kiddos. Liz and I hit the genetic lottery here! Although parenting and behavior management can or may help, shape and modify observable behaviors in this kiddos/adults with ND neurotypes — the neurological and biological dispositions these humans with a neurodivergent neurotype was determine long before any imperfect/perfect parenting style ever interacted with the human (modeling, gentle, authoritative, low-demand, abusive – parenting styles or trauma-induced environmental conditions).

Kiddos and adults alike seek and crave similar basic needs :

Safety/Security
validation and acknowledgement
Stability
Consistency
Emotional Support
Love
Education
Positive role models
Structure

MOre thoughts and REsources

Recently, I created (https://happyinthehills.com/zentriathlete/pda/), a page for a quick reminder or explanation or introduction to and emergent profile of Autism that is important to us. it is known as Pathological Demand Avoidance. I created this to supplement the emerging resources that are found outside the USA and those within the USA. It includes dome highlights like: