?? PERSONAL NEWS... Part 1

Here’s a list.? It’s a list about me.?

It began in 2022 with “congratulations Ben you are…”

& continues with “so I am going to…”

Here goes... ?

I have incredible hearing

Wool makes my skin hurt

Very happy in both excel & photoshop

I have no friends

Am anxious about basically everything

I have a very high IQ

I write emails in 5x sentences

Love patterns (literally & figuratively)

[I also love punctuation!]

Talk a lot for work & hardly at home

I always want to make everything better, faster, clearer, simpler

I like listening to the same song on repeat

I have a really acute sense of smell & taste

Blunt & direct. Sorry

I never lose anything

I have large collections of books, perfume, bottles, Lego, glassware, hats, tattoos, antiques & taxidermy

I like my own time & not leaving home

I am fiercely protective of my family

Phone call over F2F or Zoom any day

I prefer animals & plants to humans

I can act “normal” but it’s really tiring

I blink & clear my throat lots

I love, in fact need routine, systems & structure

I am gullible & na?ve

I have a photographic memory

I am extremely curious

I switch off by watching people on reality TV

My time to mastery of something is very fast

I only cry when I’m singing

I dance happily between the minutiae & the big picture

I steer clear of other parents at school pick up & events

I learnt I could draw really well at 25

I eat one meal & drink one meal a day

I am anxious before I meet you & tired after I meet you, because in that meeting, our time together, I am giving absolutely all of me to you. I am present, focused, nothing else matters?

I have known all these things for a long time but not why all these things

Now I know

I am autistic/ADHD.

It all makes sense - A green light to be myself

But what does NOT make sense is why;

-?????? up to 40% of neurodivergent [ND] adults are unemployed [that’s conditions like ADHD, Autism, Dyscalculia, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia & Tourettes]

-?????? up to 85% of those in the UK prison system are ND

-?????? There’s up to a 10 year assessment waiting time in the UK

-?????? There’s an ADHD medication shortage

-?????? There’s hundreds of thousands of people scared to share their diagnosis with employers, friends & family

Society is broken, people are struggling but thankfully there are some incredible people & organisations who are lighting the way for THE HIDDEN 20% by busting the myths & breaking the cycle of shame & silence.

It’s not all bad it’s just wildly out of balance & perspective

& it’s not allowing 1.6 BILLION PEOPLE to be themselves.

Too much; deficiency, myth, stigma, shame, ignorance, blame & stereotyping & not enough; truth, support, unity, equality & education

WE ARE DIFFERENT

N??T

DEFICIENT

I can’t wait to share with you how neurodivergence has shaped our lives, hopes, heroes & dreams & the potential of the paradigm perspective shift that is underway.

I feel compelled to do my bit & my best, to speak up & use my small amount of influence & experience to join the snowballing groundswell of work happening to “normalise” difference & divergence.?

So I am going to…

• Take all the learnings from Seedlip on how to change perception, stigma & social behaviour.
• Combine them with my philanthropic experience of working with non-profit organisations in Peru, Rwanda, Nigeria, Botswana, Ethiopia & the UK.
• Work with a group of the most amazing people (not naming names yet ;)

Tomorrow…

I’ll tell you how we’re going to do it.

Come as you are. Thanks for reading. Ben ??

?