The thunderstorms in the mind of the neurodiversity

Thought clouds were once something that was thought to be only in animations or in cartoons. Thanks to increased awareness and presence of mind, many people with ADD, ADHD, autism, and other neurodivergent behaviors have spoken about them more. People like Temple Grandin, PhD, have now opened their world to what it is like to be inside the mental thunderstorm that is the brain of someone on the spectrum. If you've seen a storm roll in, you know the manifestations can vary depending on the environment. The unpredictability, impact, and extent of the damage are unknown until after they occur. Here’s a glimpse of what I mean.

Seeing the storm and its meaning

From personal experience, thoughts within the mind of someone who has these talents and challenges can often feel like looking something up within the card catalog of an old library. For those of us old enough to remember, the Dewey decimal system, the number of cards, and sorting to find a book, idea, or topic could regularly be painstaking and take a long while. Occasionally, I have trouble remembering simple things because I'm still searching through the card sorting system in my mind, but haven't found the right card in the vault of drawers yet. This delay can sometimes happen unexpectedly, and sometimes can happen with simple things like your address. Therefore, people with…