<![CDATA[Orchid Advocacy - Val\'s Blog 2]]>Fri, 17 May 2024 06:18:59 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Metabolic Psychiatry & a Significant Paradigm shift]]>Sat, 27 Apr 2024 23:02:32 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/vals-blog-2/metabolic-psychiatry-a-significant-paradigm-shift
Val's Take
  • Metabolic Psychiatry is precipitating a paradigm shift.
  • I think in the next 5 years, maybe less --- the Mental Health System will be incorporating some aspects of Metabolic Psychiatry.
  • Particularly interesting is that metabolomic biomarkers have already been found for bipolar disorder and depression.
  • What happens if we find metabolomic biomarkers for anti-social personality disorder?
  • I always understood that a Public Health Approach to Criminal Justice was largely dependent on better understandings.
  • The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) took on the American Psychiatric Association and the DSM 5 --- but it was politically fraught.  Further, there was no replacement for the DSM 5.
  • The Metabolic Mind folks, relying on research of  large universities, are not afraid to take on the status quo.
  • Further, I think if Clinicians actually have access to the research --- I don't know that it will be that hard a sell.
I have followed the science on Neuro-Developmental Disorders and Psychiatric Disorders because I believed there did need to be major change in Mental Health practice.

That change isn't fully here --- but I think the foundation has been laid.  All the questions haven't been answered but it feels like a huge step up from where we've been and profound understandings have been acquired.
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<![CDATA[WE NEED a "NaRRATIVE" that hangs together when it comes to the Neuro-developmental - Psychiatric ContinuumThat could vastly improve Public Policy & Justice]]>Sat, 06 Apr 2024 00:26:17 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/vals-blog-2/april-05th-2024
Kurt Vonnegut --- "Cat's Cradle"
Val's Take/Conjecture
  • There is A LOT to weave together when it comes to understanding the Neuro-Developmental-Psychiatric Continuum and it's relationship to other disorders.
  • The DOMINANT PARADIGM of the last 60 years --- "JUST TAKE THE DAMN MEDICATION" --- probably averted some tragedies and created others.
  • When we see a bunch of people lying on the street --- one idea is that "THEY'RE JUST LAZY."
  • Another possibility is some of them have serious METABOLIC DISORDERS that involve the brain and it's ability to produce ATP to run not only the brain but the rest of the body, including the ENDOCRINE SYSTEM.
  • People subject to MATERNAL IMMUNE ACTIVATION during their own time in the womb tend to have "HYPER-CONNECTED BRAINS."
  • I would submit that "HYPER-CONNECTED BRAINS" require more ATP to operate.
One of the things that some studies are pondering are the GENERATIONAL ASPECTS to MATERNAL IMMUNE ACTIVATION.

We live in such an INDIVIDUALISTIC CULTURE that CONNECTIONS to the BROADER WORLD are often DENIED --- sometimes out of PRACTICALITY we don't have the BANDWIDTH to consider it.
  • BUT what this often looks like is a BIG MORAL JUDGMENT coming down on the INDIVIDUAL.

It's probably no accident that the DEADLIEST Psychiatric Disorders are EATING DISORDERS.
One of the challenges, probably not the only challenge, is to make KETOGENIC DIETS --- HEART HEALTHY.

We did go through a period of LOW FAT, HIGH SUGAR that was pretty DISASTROUS in the weight-loss market.

I think more and more people recognize the problem of sugar but CAFFIENATED DRINKS and ENERGY DRINKS --- that market is HUGE ---- and I would submit it is because many people don't have the ENERGY to get through the day and they are looking for a QUICK FIX.
  • The effect of caffeine is related to its structural similarity to adenosine. Adenosine is a nucleotide and is important for coding genes, but it is also used for energy in the form of ATP and as a neuromodulator and signaling molecule. When the brain is active, it consumes lots of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) as an energy source.

Reference: Caffeine: How it works and myths surrounding it - Chemistry ...
Sleep Foundation:  Caffeine and Sleep

Key Takeaways
  • Caffeine promotes wakefulness by blocking adenosine, a sleep-inducing chemical.
  • Sensitivity to caffeine varies among individuals and depends on how often it is consumed.
  • Avoid caffeine at least 8 hours before bedtime to ensure better sleep quality.
  • Reduce your daily caffeine intake if you notice insomnia, anxiety, or headaches impacting your ability to sleep.
Unfortunately, even DIET SODAS are bad for our TEETH and if it's BAD for our TEETH --- it's generally bad for our PHYSICAL & MENTAL HEALTH.

I have started to include MORE FAT in my diet and the effects were pretty DRAMATIC --- I seemed to not only need less LITHIUM, but also LESS DIET COKE.

I think if people have HEALTHY WAYS to MANAGE their BIOLOGY --- They'll DO IT.

BUT TRUTH is the Medical Professional has been all over the map the past few decades regarding diet advice and some of it was TRULY CATASTROPHICALLY UNHEALTHY.
AND for those people who DON'T LOOK LIKE they have SPECIAL NEEDS --- BUT DO ---

YOU MY FRIEND ARE AT VERY HIGH RISK.

Wilma Mankiller --- 1st Female Chief of the Cherokee Nation
Transgenerational Effects of Maternal Immune Activation on Specific Antibody Responses in Layer Chickens.

Verwoolde MB, Arts J, Jansen CA, Parmentier HK, Lammers A. Front Vet Sci. 2022 Feb 17;9:832130. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.832130. eCollection 2022. PMID: 35252424 Free PMC article.

Activation of the maternal immune system may affect innate and adaptive immune responses in the next generation and may therefore have implications for vaccine efficacy and dietary immune modulation by feed additives. ...Furthermore, our
Maternal immune activation transgenerationally modulates maternal care and offspring depression-like behavior.

Ronovsky M, Berger S, Zambon A, Reisinger SN, Horvath O, Pollak A, Lindtner C, Berger A, Pollak DD. Brain Behav Immun. 2017 Jul;63:127-136. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2016.10.016. Epub 2016 Oct 17. PMID: 27765645 Free article.

Gestational infection is increasingly being recognized for its involvement as causative mechanism in severe developmental brain abnormalities and its contribution to the pathogenesis of psychopathologies later in life. First observations in the widely accepted maternal
Transgenerational Sex-dependent Disruption of Dopamine Function Induced by Maternal Immune Activation.

Santoni M, Frau R, Pistis M. Front Pharmacol. 2022 Feb 8;13:821498. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.821498. eCollection 2022. PMID: 35211019 Free PMC article.

Mounting evidence supports the hypothesis that detrimental effects of maternal immune activation might be transmitted across generations. ...These results confirm that maternal immune activation negatively influences, in a sex-depe …
At the end of the day, WE DON'T HAVE THIS FIGURED OUT we're figuring it out.

That matters when it comes to JUSTICE and BURDEN of PROOF
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<![CDATA[A mental Health Profession that doesn't want to treat people with "developmental Disabilities" and criminal Justice]]>Mon, 11 Dec 2023 13:36:38 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/vals-blog-2/december-11th-2023
Conjecture

I am gonna continue my bitching about the Mental Health Profession in this but I'm gonna include Legal --- Criminal Justice as well and maybe some other aspects of "STREET LAW."

I don't think "DISABILITY LAW" is where it needs to be when it comes to "COGNITIVE DISABILITY" --
  • but I think it is generally closer to "REALITY" than a lot of what we're doing.
  • And in the last 10 years, Disability Law has slowly recognized that many of the highest need people they are trying to advocate for are actually in the Criminal Justice System.

The Mental Health Profession --- OMG!
  • Once you realize that most people in the mental health profession don't want to work with people with "developmental disabilities"
    • You realize what a nightmare scenario this can be.
 
  • Further, these "developmental issues" are coming in the context of "SENSORY PROCESSING" and literally CELLULAR "REACTIVITY"
    • not necessarily in a lower IQ.
 
  • BUT if we're EQUATING EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING with IQ that is likely to do MORE HARM THAN GOOD.
 
  • In fact --- IQ or some type of Special Ability or Special Interest --- may be HIGHER THAN THE NORM.
 
  • I think this is also a CLUE as to why we have really struggled to define INTELLIGENCE  ---
    • I think it can come wrapped in some idiosyncratic SENSORY PROCESSING.
 
This Has Some IMPLICATIONS for our CURRENT INTELLECTUAL LIMITS
  • a lot of who we study in school are neuro-diverse people who had some big strengths and some surprizing challenges.
  • trying NOT to ROMANTICIZE that is important
  • HIERARCHY doesn't really work that well to manage the strengths and challenges of almost 8 BILLION PEOPLE.

I'm NOT A TRUE BELIEVER in Mental Health's "PRO-SOCIAL COMPETENCY" Religion
  • --- even though I consider myself extremely "PRO-SOCIAL."

CRIMINAL LAW but also FAMILY LAW  ---
  • has been experimenting with some DIFFERENT MODELS
    • Problem-Solving Courts
    • Collaborative Law
  • We're needing to add to these models a PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH that is EVOLVING ---
    • and may not be what we have traditionally thought in this area.
Val's Note:  I'm NOT SKEPTICAL over the Long Term that we will ultimately be able to surpass some if not all of these limits.

And PROGRESS IS BEING MADE.

BUT we're not there yet in many cases, but we're often PRETENDING we are.

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<![CDATA[The Biological Basis of Behavior:  The Slow Process of Coming to Terms]]>Wed, 02 Nov 2022 12:10:38 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/vals-blog-2/the-biological-basis-of-behavior-the-slow-process-of-coming-to-terms
Conjecture

I think a BIG THEME in Human History right now is COMING TO TERMS WITH SOME RELATIVELY DIFFICULT LIMITS in COMPLEX NATURAL PROCESSES that we ---
  • WEREN'T AWARE OF --- or
  • DIDN'T REALLY UNDERSTAND
    • and that "UNDERSTANDING" is in the best of times generally RELATIVE
  • AND "UNDERSTANDING" requires coming to terms with:
    • SOME BIG COSTS
    • RE-ALLOCATING RESOURCES
 
  • On the ENVIRONMENT SIDE we're coming to terms with CLIMATE CHANGE.
 
  • On the BIOLOGICAL SIDE we are slowing coming to terms with the GUT-IMMUNE-BRAIN TRIAD.
    • Human Behavior was already complicated.
    • It's a lot more complicated than we thought.
 
  • The "BIG LIE" or "IGNORANCE" in MODERN SOCIETY has been that nothing is connected ----
    • and that we're on TOP OF THIS---
      • WE'RE NOT.
 
  • In the Legal System --- this is about one isolated BAD ACT and BAD INTENT ----
    • to see more integrated and complicated patterns, including HISTORICAL issues ---
      • That include Genocide, Slavery, Jim Crow as well as a move away from Traditional Farming Practices, Plastics in our bodies, etc.---


We don't have the "SYSTEMS" to deal with that --- NOT ON THE SCALE NEEDED.
It is very hard to go 10 feet in this Society without running into some PROFOUND TRAUMA --- even if you "INDIVIDUALLY" didn't suffer CHILDHOOD TRAUMA or have ADULT PTSD.

Further, SECONDARY TRAUMA is an issue for many people PERSONALLY and PROFESSIONALLY and BIOLOGICALLY.
Trauma, Toxins, Maternal Immune Activation, Auto-Immune Diseases, Cancer, Long-Haul COVID --- all of these can have PSYCHIATRIC RAMIFICATIONS.
Physical BOUNDARIES / Emotional BOUNDARIES can be important --- But they often are a "TEMPORARY FIX" ---If we don't deal with the UNDERLYING ISSUES -- things tend to get worse.
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Image Credit: European Society for Translational Medicine
We need to invest more in TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH and MEDICINE regarding the BRAIN-IMMUNE-GUT (Endocrine, Metabolism) CONNECTION to Behavior---
  • Further, TRANSLATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE APPLICATIONS are NEEDED NOW.
The Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University
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<![CDATA[New understandings regarding relationships between Neuro-developmental Disorders, Psychiatric Disorders & Neuro-Inflammatory biomarkers should be transformative]]>Tue, 01 Nov 2022 13:15:49 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/vals-blog-2/new-understandings-regarding-relationships-between-neurodevelopmental-disorderspsychiatric-disorders-neuro-inflammatory-biomarkers-should-be-transformative
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  • The understanding that Neurodiversity/Neuro-Developmental Differences or Disorders are underlying many psychiatric complaints SHOULD BE TRANSFORMATIVE.
  • It is very much about getting out of the PERSONALITY DISORDER grab bag of problematic behaviors ---
    • Which is problematic for women, and
    • It is especially problematic for men in Criminal Justice.
  • While at the same time hopefully getting out of LATE DIAGNOSIS of people who have become adept at MASKING and whose STRENGTHS have been recognized at least on some level.
    • Even if some of us somehow escaped a personality disorder diagnosis.
    • All was not well --- and clinicians were often ill prepared to recognize or address DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES/DISORDERS.
      • THIS  IS ONE OF THE BIG REASONS WHY WE ARE NOT GETTING ON TOP OF OUR MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS.

ICERN Web Library of Neuropsychiatry

ICERN:  International Centre for Research & Education in Neuropsychiatry

Focusing on novel neuroinflammatory biomarkers and targets in understanding and managing suicide

BIOMARKERS as they slowly become available I think will reveal a quite COMPLICATED SOCIETY ---
  • Whose SUBJECTIVE JUDGMENTS are SUSPECT.
  • Further, the UNCONSCIOUS BIAS behind them and the "REASONABLENESS" of the Majority represent their own kind of PERNICIOUS TYRANNY.
    • I'm not against "REASONABLENESS" -- but failing to appreciate DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES is NOT REASONABLE.
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<![CDATA[The Denver Gazette & a Broader Critique of Underlying Related Debates & Policy]]>Mon, 31 Oct 2022 11:48:35 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/vals-blog-2/the-denver-gazette-a-broader-critique-of-underlying-related-debates-policy
To me the admonition "Don't Judge" is not just a feel good spiritual directive.

It's PRACTICAL.

MORAL JUDGMENTS are what people have used to PROTECT THEMSELVES:
  • Physically, and
  • Also against WASTEFUL USE of RESOURCES

We do need to protect ourselves and the community:
  • physically, and
  • from wasteful use of resources.

It's pretty hard to ignore that we're not getting the RESULTS or OUTCOMES we want in Mental Health.
  • We've developed some EXPERTISE at managing CRISES
  • The LONG TERM PICTURE is more complicated
  • And there are MORE CRISES.

With respect to HOMELESSNESS, it does involve a lot of people with SUBSTANCE USE PROBLEMS but UNDERLYING that tends to be:
  • Brain Injury --- that people with Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders are more likely to experience
  • Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders
  • Psychiatric Disorders that are related to Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders, and
  • Trauma --- that unfortunately people with Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders are more likely to experience and to experience more keenly.

To me, it's MENTAL HEALTH (not the abortion debate) and COGNITIVE DISABILITY MORE BROADLY where PRO LIFE is most obviously challenged and is failing.

On the other hand, some of the states that have strict abortion laws and that outlawing abortion maybe more of a PRACTICAL REALITY ----
  • are starting to WAKE UP that they need to support people in much better ways than they have.

[I do consider myself PRO-LIFE but I'm not for banning abortion and the decision to have an abortion I think is often arising "ORGANICALLY" from:
  • rape,
  • incest
  • a society that is struggling with sexuality on many fronts.
  • a society that is sometimes struggling to provide a living wage to it's "ESSENTIAL WORKERS"]

To me "Don't Judge" is practical.  "Judging" solves the immediate problem --- but as Ma Joad said in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"---
  • "We're the people --- and we keep on comin' ".

I remember hearing death penalty attorneys I greatly looked up to saying:
  • "Okay, the Death Penalty doesn't deter crime --- it'll deter this person."

BUT those people keep comin'.
To address DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES is SCARY for a WORLD that went through WORLD WAR II and beyond that has gone through many GENOCIDES.
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Pope Francis
Last Scene of The Grapes of Wrath (1940) based on the 1939 pulitizer prize winning book by John Steinbeck
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Image Credit: safetymattersinc.org
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Psychiatric Disorders are more and more seen as related to Neuro-Developmental Disorders.

Both Psychiatric Disorders and Neuro-Developmental Disorders are often related to SHARED GENES and MATERNAL IMMUNE ACTIVATION.

OLMSTEAD CONNECTION:  Not having sufficient TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH & MEDICINE is leading to the Unnecessary Institutionalization and Risk of Institutionalization inherent in Homelessness of people with Neuro-Developmental Disabilities.
  • Further, we do need more research.
  • BUT a lot of this is integrating what we've already got.
Alice Merton
No Roots

"A THOUSAND TIMES --- I've seen this road  --- A THOUSAND TIMES."

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<![CDATA[The Grapes of Wrath]]>Mon, 31 Oct 2022 10:47:10 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/vals-blog-2/the-grapes-of-wrath
A lot of what I'm trying to say with regard to:
  • Anti-Social Personality Disorder specifically and
  • More broadly Cognitive Disability in Criminal Justice, and
  • Even More Broadly --- Neuro-Diversity in the Society ---

IS BASED ON NEW KNOWLEDGE AND CONTINUING AREAS OF IGNORANCE & HUMAN LIMITS THAT ARE DIFFERENT THAN WE THOUGHT.

When we think of other animals --- we think sometimes about HOW MUCH MORE AWARE WE SEEM ---
  • But it is becoming more obvious--- that we are not as aware as we thought ---
  • It costs us a lot of ENERGY to bring things into CONSCIOUS AWARENESS --- and it is pretty much on an AS NEEDED BASIS.
  • Further, we look at living things like insects and they seem very expendable with brief lives or other animals in which many are conceived --- few survive --- and we think that we are so different.
  • BUT are we so different?
  • Now there are a lot of ways to look at this --- all these lives are meaningless OR these lives are meaningful in ways we don't appreciate.
  • Importantly, Professor Graham Rook at King's College London says we're not INDIVIDUALS --- WE'RE ECOSYSTEMS.
  • It doesn't look like we could ever have really gotten a firmer grasp on Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders and Psychiatric Disorders without MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
    • The newly discovered roles of the Immune System and the Microbiome are NOT INTUITIVE based on our prior conceptualizations.
  • We have a lot of unconscious behaviors and unconscious cognitive shortcuts/biases --- at least in part TO SAVE ENERGY.
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
Directed by John Ford

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<![CDATA[Waiting for Godot & Science]]>Tue, 25 Oct 2022 12:16:01 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/vals-blog-2/waiting-for-godot-science
If Samuel Beckett felt like he was "WAITING for GODOT" ---I feel like I'm waiting for "SCIENCE" to give the SOCIETY the GREEN LIGHT to:
  • Recognize that "DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES" are a MIXED BAG on all sides.
  • Recognize DOUBLE EMPATHY PROBLEMS and that EMPATHY is EFFORT.
  • NEURO-DEVELOPMENTAL INFLAMMATION and SENSORY PROCESSING ISSUES are HIGHLY INDIVIDUAL and we're MISSING a lot of Folks because they didn't fit neatly into categories that aren't TRULY FUNDAMENTAL CATEGORIES.
    • Even as there are serious issues that need to be addressed and
    • At least SOME of the BIOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS are ALREADY THERE IN THE RESEARCH, but not necessarily to the CLINICIAN, and certainly not to the PATIENT or the broader SOCIETY.
Samuel Beckett
Waiting for Godot

I'm Waiting for Science and it feels frustratingly similar.

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<![CDATA[Lateral Thinking & Conspiracy Theories]]>Fri, 30 Sep 2022 12:33:17 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/vals-blog-2/lateral-thinking-conspiracy-theories

Conspiracy Theories, Paranoia, Delusional Disorders have abounded throughout HISTORY AND they are often LATCHING ONTO UNDERLYING CONCERNS in the Society.


The CONCERNS CHANGE --- when was the last time you heard someone say "CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED" ? [Of course, Carthage was destroyed in 146 B.C.]

Some of our current CONSPIRACY THEORIES are NUTS --- but they are grounded in TROUBLING REAL LIFE PROBLEMS that have as of yet not been amenable to easy resolution.

I'm going to pick on the Q-ANON folks but there are others including ANTI-VAXERS, ANTI-LGBTQA+, etc.
  • The positions are often EXTREME and RIDICULOUS --- BUT what the conspiracy theories or delusions are often reflecting is a KIND OF UNCERTAINTY within the Society. 
Most of us may know that Hillary Clinton didn't sexually abuse anybody at a pizza parlor ---
  • BUT there is a problem of sexual abuse of children in this country and other countries and we don't have a good handle on it.
Carthage Must Be Destroyed
Researchers seem adamant that vaccinations don't cause AUTISM ---BUT researchers have been until more recently quite fuzzy as to what did cause AUTISM --- and even now there are still questions.
LGBTQA+ --- TRANS issues have dominated public discussion the last 10 years --- The Florida Legislature has jumped on the CRAZY TRAIN. ---
  • BUT how open is the discussion in the SOCIETY and do we need to do both more public education & research?
  • It's one thing to say consenting adults should be able to have sex with whoever they want ---
    • It's another thing to talk about major biological changes to minors when the rate of Success on TRANSITIONING is not 100%.
I think it may very well be true that once these issues are resolved conspiracy-theorists may move on to something else --- and that is not necessarily a bad thing. 

It's a alerting us that we have MORE WORK TO DO --- even if we might frame it differently.
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<![CDATA[If Empathy is EFFORT ---What does that mean for Neuro-Diversity with the emphasis on Diversity  ---- A Lot of EFFORT]]>Wed, 20 Jul 2022 11:33:33 GMThttps://orchidadvocacy.org/vals-blog-2/if-empathy-is-effort-what-does-that-mean-for-neuro-diversity-with-the-emphasis-on-diversity-a-lot-of-effort

  • Two of the things that we're slowly coming to terms with:
    • Our "empathy" often isn't that Empathy with EFFORT --
      • It's really more maximizing the efficiency of like-minded people, and
      • We are struggling to address pretty hard-wired split second Empathy determinations that are really based on "which team you're on."
 
  • If we're using that EMPATHY of EFFORT
    • it can be TIME-CONSUMING
    • it can be FRUSTRATING, and
    • it may be forcing us to come to terms with our own limits at the same time we're being asked to exercise MORE EFFORT in understanding someone else.
 
  • I don't think it's any accident that the Americans with Disabilities Act says yes we need to make REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS ---
    • Unless it would be an "UNDUE HARDSHIP"
 
  • If we just default to an idea that EMPATHY is something GOOD PEOPLE do --- and don't really have the ability to recognize:
    • The Double Empathy Problem not just in autism but in human relationships generally
    • We're going to UNDER-ESTIMATE what it really takes.
 
  • Further, Neurodiversity is really testing EMPATHY on the part of everyone because----
    • Neurodiversity isn't some MONOLITH --- it's all over the place, and
    • Neurodiverse people are going to have to empathize with other Neurodiverse people who may be very different from themselves.
    • and if they can do that ---
    • they'll have a lot to TEACH the SOCIETY
PBS The Brain with David Eagleman
In-Groups & Out-Groups

Neuro-Divergent Therapist Louise Taylor
Neuro-Diversity & Empathy

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