Frequent challenges for ND individuals include (not an exhaustive list):

• Rejection sensitive dysphoria: where even the hint of rejection or failure leads to emotional overwhelm and we develop coping strategies such as avoidance of situations with potential rejection, angry defensiveness, or often an inability to take feedback or learn from others.

• Social justice dysphoria: where there is no choice but to care about injustices in the world and which can make engaging with unjust systems overwhelming and sometimes impossible.

• Sensory processing dysregulation: our 8 sensory systems form the way we experience the world, and in ND brains each sensory system is wired to lead to avoidance due to over-sensitivity, seeking more input due to under-sensitivity, or a combination of both. When these systems are out of whack they also cause a specific kind of anxiety that cannot be addressed through cognitive or emotion based approaches. Understanding our sensory systems allows us to normalize reacting differently than neuronormative individuals to the same input and also allows us to build body-based sensory soothing strategies. Stimming is an important need!

• Emotional or cognitive rigidity: Often related to sensory and dopamine needs, ND individuals often develop areas of rigidity as a way to stay safe and get needs met which can cause significant challenges in personal, work, and other relationships.

• Demand avoidance: Due to neurology differences and having to function in a world built for different kinds of brains, ND folks usually experience intense activation that feels like anxiety or panic when faced with certain demands (usually ones that are harder to do because of neurotype).

• Executive functioning challenges: time blindness, difficulty managing motivation and focus (either too much or not enough), difficulty regulating emotions, impulsivity, shorter working memory, difficulty with organization or too much organization, difficulty initiating or maintaining tasks, planning and prioritizing

• Communication and relationship differences: difficulty engaging in “small talk” or topics that aren’t interesting to the individual which can sometimes come off as self-centered, increased directness which can impact sometimes as too direct or hurtful, intensity in attachment often preferring fewer deep relationships to many shallow ones.

• Difficulty with transitions: Waking up, going to sleep, and transitioning to and from work/school are are transitions that tend to be hard because during transitions there are more unknowns and thus anxiety and challenges increase.