Neurodiversity for ADHD & ASD (2020) PDF

Neurodiversity for ASD & ADHD Dr. Hylke Vervaeke  Introduction Awareness behavioral and personality traits and disorders exist along a spectrum Impulsivity, mood, gender identity, risk-taking behaviour, intra/extra- version, openness, (anti) social behavior, stress-sensitivity, re...

Neurodiversity for ASD & ADHD Dr. Hylke Vervaeke  Introduction Awareness behavioral and personality traits and disorders exist along a spectrum Impulsivity, mood, gender identity, risk-taking behaviour, intra/extra- version, openness, (anti) social behavior, stress-sensitivity, resilience and vulnerability Border between normal and abnormal behavior? Border between ‘health’ – ‘dysfunction’ – ‘disorder’? 2  ADHD & ASD: disorder or diversity? How to view ADHD, autism and other psychiatric states? Disorder or diversity? Disability or difference? 3  Introduction to Psychiatric Conditions When does personality trait become ‘psychiatric disorder’? For classification and diagnosis Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4  Introduction to Psychiatric Conditions Do we live in disease-based society? DSM-IV & DSM-5: categorical diagnosis > either you have psychiatric disorder (‘ill’) or not (‘normal’) For some diseases categorical diagnosis is logic: A disease state that is qualitatively separable from the state of being ‘well’, for example, tuberculosis or leukemia Many psychiatric disorders might be better conceptualized as dimensional or spectrum traits DSM-5: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is NOW finally approached in a spectrum/dimensional way! 5  Neurodiversity for ASD & ADHD Reaction from high functioning autistic people: concept of neurodiversity (1998) ‘there is a diversity among human brains regarding sociability, learning, attention, impulsivity, mood and other important mental functions’ ‘neurodivergent vs. neurotypical’ 6  Neurodiversity for ASD & ADHD Concept of neurodiversity > regular scientific journals such as Nature Comment in Nature by Laurent Mottron is professor of psychiatry and holds the Marcel & Rolande Gosselin Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Autism at the University of Montreal. Eight autistic people in his group: four research assistants, three students and one researcher 7 8  Neurodiversity for ASD & ADHD ADHD & ASD generally described in a negative way: ADHD: overly active, low concentration, low impulse control, easily distracted ASD: impaired social relationships, strange behaviors, narrow interests But emphasis could also be placed on the more positive aspects of the conditions 9  Neurodiversity for ASD & ADHD What would be positive aspects of ADHD? What would be positive aspects of ASD (level 1 – Asperger)? 10  Neurodiversity for ASD & ADHD ADHD people advantages: spontaneous, creative, divergent mind, vital, high-energy, fast-thinking… ASD (level 1): strong persistent interests, attention to detail, unusual memory, fascination with systems and patterns, and ability to concentrate for long periods 11  Neurodiversity for ASD & ADHD Growing body of research: high functioning autistics outperform neurologically typical children and adults in a wide range of perception tasks: – spotting a pattern in a distracting environment – auditory tasks (such as discriminating sound pitches) – detecting visual structures and mentally manipulating complex three-dimensional shapes – Raven's Matrices (a classic intelligence test in which subjects use analytical skills to complete an ongoing visual pattern) – simultaneously process large pieces of perceptual information, such as large data sets 12  Neurodiversity for ASD & ADHD Neurodiversity in practice: Be aware of your mental condition Strong points Pitfalls Adjust life and surroundings to your unique qualities (‘Niche construction’) What would be niche construction for ADHD & ASD? 13  Autism: disorder or diversity? Niche construction for ADHD: Choose job: being out in nature, traveling or moving around frequently, working with one’s hands, handling emergencies, being physically engaged, doing many different things in short period of time Use smartphone for organizing and managing daily schedule GPS tracking keys, wallet… Behavioral Therapy 14  Introduction to Psychiatric Conditions Niche construction for ASD: Choose job: solitary work, science or IT, working with large data sets, jobs high concentration Use (cognitive) behavioral therapy to learn and understand social relationships Connect with like minded people via internet for support and understanding 15 16  Neurodiversity vs. Psychiatric Disorders Pitfall Neurodiversity = romanticizing psychological/psychiatric conditions Advantages by ADHD, bipolar disorder and high-functioning autists Almost NO advantages for individual in case severe depression and schizophrenia: severe brain disorders with negative consequences for individual and surroundings 17  Learning outcomes You are aware that personality traits (functional and pathological) exist along a spectrum / continuum You can elaborate on the concept of neurodiversity in your own words You can apply neurodiversity and ‘niche construction’ for psychiatric conditions (high-functioning autism, but also depression and ADHD) 18