When I was growing up, the idea of being diagnosed with a mental health condition or a disability had a certain negative stigma associated with it.
So did the idea of going to therapy or receiving any type of specialized intervention (both which I’ve received, as a child and an adult).
Unfortunately, many people still see getting a diagnosis or some type of therapy as a bad thing. As something that means you’re broken and somehow need to be fixed.
I didn’t want to be “not normal”. That would have meant there was something wrong with me.
That’s why growing up I strived to fit in and “normalize” myself.
To be honest, my choice to become a pediatric speech pathologist and eventually get a doctorate in special education didn’t initially have to do with my own personal struggles. I was too deep in to denial to think of that.
Instead, I kind of fell in to it because a lot of the women in my family were counselors or teachers of some sort. I did it because I thought it’s what I was supposed to do.
Now looking back, I wonder if there was some deeper reason I was drawn to this work that I wasn’t even aware of at the time. Maybe it was fate.
As a therapist, part of what I do is support people who don’t identify as “neurotypical” (meaning that they have been diagnosed with some condition that is thought to cause some type of neurological difference).
But the more I learn about how to support kids (including my own child), the less I can ignore my own personal experiences. And the less I identify with the neurotypicals.
There were certain sensory needs I had…and when I found ways to meet them through what I now realize was stimming, I’d find myself wondering, “Is this weird???”
When I found myself triggered, agitated, or overwhelmed by certain situations…I’d think, “Come on Karen…suck it up. This is what all the normal people are doing.”
That’s why in episode 014 of the Are They 18 Yet?™ Podcast, I talk about my own sensory and neurological profile and why I don’t identify as neurotypical.
Specifically, I share:
✅How my sensory needs presented when I was a child and how I’ve found ways to meet my sensory needs as an adult with different hobbies.
✅What kind of stimming I still engage in, and how those have behaviors evolved from childhood to the present time.
✅My productive and not-so-productive self-soothing behaviors, including the ones I’m still working through.
✅Sensory triggers I had as a child and how I gradually increased my sensory tolerance (including why I went through a phase where spandex was the only thing I would wear).
✅Triggering situations that made me feel dysregulated and distracted, and how I perceived them as a child.
✅How I internalized my own attending difficulties (and how they impacted my physical health).
I could go on with a million bullet points here…but to sum it all up…this is my story. I hope hearing it helps you if you’re working through some of these things yourself or with your child.
You can listen to the entire episode here:
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