Weirdly Successful
Dedicated to helping you understand, navigate and enjoy your weird & wonderful neurodivergent life.
Neuroplasticity is the brain's capacity to change its own wiring. Neurons form new synaptic connections, strengthen existing ones, and through synaptic pruning remove the ones that don't get used. This process is most active during childhood and adolescence, but it continues throughout adulthood and old age.
The brain is the organ behind every neurodivergent trait you experience — from how you pay attention to how you process emotion to how you sleep. Neurodivergent brains use the same basic structures and chemical messengers as any brain, but the tuning is different: different dopamine activity in reward circuits, different balance between excitatory and inhibitory signalling, different default mode network behaviour.
The mTOR pathway is a signalling system inside every cell that regulates the balance between building new structures and recycling old ones. In autistic brains, this pathway runs hotter than typical, suppressing the cell's internal cleanup processes. Up to 58% of autism-associated genes relate to this pathway, making it a point of convergence where many different genetic routes produce similar outcomes — from differences in synaptic pruning and sensory processing to neuroinflammation and the balance between excitatory and inhibitory brain signalling.
Attention is only one possible component of ADHD. We now also understand attention to be variable in ADHD, with a difficulty for the brain to self-regulate attention.
Object constancy is the notion that you remain connected and aware of items or people even when they are not visible or physically around. Difficulties in object constancy lead to the "out of sight, out of mind" experience, which is very common with ADHD folk. Not to be confused with object permanence, which is a developmental stage in babies, and relates to them believing things genuinely stop existing when not in sight.
Context switching refers to the cognitive process of shifting attention between different tasks or mental states. It involves disengaging from one task and engaging in another, requiring the brain to change its focus, rules, and objectives.
This process can be mentally taxing due to the cognitive load involved in stopping one task and starting another, shifting gears to focus on the new task, and getting accustomed to the new situation with all its stimuli. Frequent context switching and jumping from task to task can lead to a decrease in productivity and efficiency.
Working memory is one of the executive functions. It is our mental scratchpad, where we temporarily hold and play with info to help with tasks like problem-solving and learning. It's key for everyday stuff but has limited space, so juggling too much can be tough, especially for people with ADHD, who have an even more limited space.
Inattentive traits are a trait cluster that represents one of the ADHD subtypes, also known as the distracted type. Inattentive traits include daydreaming, forgetfulness (not remembering the question while answering, forgetting things at home, following instructions with multiple sub-tasks), and difficulty focusing on a task that’s not engaging enough.
Executive functions are essential, they help us make plans, stay organized, pay attention, and keep our emotions in check. It plays a big role in making decisions and adapting to new situations.
Executive dysfunction can happen when these processes have a difference or impairment that affects everyday life.
Time blindness is when it's tough to grasp the passing of time. It usually means you under- or overestimate the time a project will take. It makes it tricky to manage schedules, deadlines, and planning. It can lead to procrastination, forgetfulness, and feeling overwhelmed or rushed.
One of the most common pieces of advice for people with ADHD is ‘just use a planner’. I’ve been using planners and notebooks since the age of 10, and as a neurodivergent person, let me tell you one thing: this advice, on its own, is bullsh*t.
