Introduction, Developmental Neurodiversity Association

[Guest guest]

Hello, everybody.

I am s.

I am a neurodivergent. I have Dyslexia,Dyspraxia,ADHD myself. I was in special

education for 3 years. As a little kid, I resembled somebody with autism because

of my problems with verbal communications and hypersensitivity.

I was misplaced with the intellectually handicapped in 1st grade too. Auditory

therapy, speech therapy, phonics, and motor skills therapy helped remediate my

Dyslexia and Dyspraxia. There have been misdiagnoses of bipolar disorder with

schizoaffective disorder by psychiatrists without any psychological testing

being done in 1999 and 2002. I learned about neurodivergence in 2003, and I owe

a lot to Dr. Harold N. Levinson's books.

I was diagnosed as having Inattentive type ADHD, Dysthymic Disorder, Generalized

Anxiety Disorder, and Avoidant Personality Disorder in 2004 after a

neuropsychological testing by a psychologist. I went to see Dr. Levinson in New

York and got tested by him, and he diagnosed me as having cerebellar vestibular

dysfunction which he believed was the root of neurodivergent conditions. His

testing made it possible for me to be examined by Veteran Affairs neurologists.

They and a neuropsychologist tested me which led to the confirmation of my

Dyslexia and Dyspraxia.

I succeeded in getting my own neurodivergence recognized and documented for the

first time since my special education years. For many years, I thought I was

stupid, incompetent, and worthless. Many other people thought I was that way

too. I have above average intelligence like many neurodivergents have. I know

what it's like to be viewed as being stupid but also be viewed as being smart

too. I am a paradox because I can seem stupid and smart at the same time. I have

both considerable weaknesses and considerable strengths.

My strengths are in imagination, intuition, outside the box thinking, and long

term memory. My weaknesses are in sequences, routine, time, coordination,

organization, short term memory, auditory processing, and visual tracking. I use

my strengths to compensate for my weaknesses. I am the uneven type. I can

confuse a lot of people. I am an extremely sensitive, emotional person like many

neurodivergents are, and I have taken cod liver oil or fish oil with its Omega 3

fatty acids DHA and EPA to help decrease my hypersensitivity and

hyperemotionality. Because of my experiences as a neurodivergent, I believe in

treating others like I want to be treated - a human being with a soul. It's part

of my idealism in regards to my belief that there should be unity and universal

love as well as tolerance and accepting of diversity. Therefore, I feel that my

life mission is to be a neurodiversity advocate.

I recently founded Developmental Neurodiversity Association (DNA) which is

nonprofit organization to help people with neurological,learning differences.

It is based on Developmental Adult Neuro-Diversity Association (DANDA)

http://www.danda.org.uk/

I also just recently created Developmental Neurodiversity Association facebook

group as an extension of DNA.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=131944976821905 & ref=ts

Developmental Neurodiversity Association's Mission Statement is to see that a

different type of mind is not being viewed as a deficient mind but has strengths

and not just weaknesses

Developmental Neurodiversity Association's Objectives are the following:

1. To help people with Developmental Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, AD/HD, Autistic

Spectrum, Tourette Syndrome, Dyscalculia, and related conditions reach their

full potential by providing and improving emotional and practical support,

particularly for those conditions for which there has been less provision such

as dyspraxia.

2. To raise awareness and understanding of these conditions,particularly their

assessment, their effects, their treatment and the inter-relationship between

the different conditions.

3. To establish networks of groups to help people with these conditions get

involved in activities for interaction, mutual support, and education, provided

that the activities shall be charitable.

4. To help bring about psychiatric reform that includes psychiatrists to have

their patients do neurological and psychological testing and not just go by what

they observe to differentiate neurodivergence from psychiatric disorders like

schizophrenia and bipolar. It would help prevent psychiatric misdiagnoses and

unnecessary medicating.

5. To help bring about education reform that includes multisensory teaching

methods as primary teaching in schools to cut down on learning problems in

school. It would help decrease unnecessary learning disability diagnoses, the

drop-out rate, and misplacement of neurodivergent children in special education

classes for the intellectually handicapped.

6. To educate about natural and chemical-free ways to feed and raise

neurodivergent children. It would include raising awareness of alternative

treatments,remedies that can be used in place of psychiatric medications.

I want to put a lot of emphasis on non-drug alternative remedies like herbs,

massage/bodywork, aromatherapy, biofeedback, vitamins/minerals, meditation,

audio-visual stimulation, methods, color therapy, and other things. I want

to help with preventing misdiagnosing too. The symptoms of neurodivergence

overlap quite a bit with psychiatric disorders.

For instance, poor coordination, left/right confusion, problems with

memory/concentration, disorganization, and speech problems are not just symptoms

of disorganized type of schizophrenia but also dyspraxia. I also want to raise

better awareness and understanding of Dyslexia. Too many people think it's a

visual processing problem, but most Dyslexics have auditory/phonological

processing problems and that's recognized by International Dyslexia Association.

The main thing is that I want to stress that having a different type of mind

doesn't mean having a deficient mind. We are not retarded, stupid, nor crazy for

having an " outside the box " type of mind. I want to stress the importance of

early intervention therapies like I had. Of course, I won't stop stressing the

need for education reform. It is strongly needed. We neurodivergents need to be

taught in a multisensory way. We can't be taught by just auditory sequential

teaching methods that are taught in most schools.