⚠️This episode includes discussion of suicide, mental health crises, and systemic failures in neurodivergent healthcare. Listener discretion is advised, and we encourage you to prioritise your wellbeing while listening ⚠️.

In this Hot Topic episode of The Neurodivergent Experience, Jordan James and Simon Scott respond to reports that the NHS is once again restricting access to ADHD assessments in an attempt to save money — often without informing GPs or patients already waiting.

They unpack how limiting assessments don’t just delay diagnosis, but actively block access to support, accommodations, medication, and self-understanding, particularly for Autistic and ADHD people who already struggle to advocate for themselves. Drawing on their own late diagnoses, Jordan and Simon explain how years without recognition lead to mislabelling, shame, burnout, and serious mental health harm.

The conversation then turns to the real-world consequences of these delays, including a Guardian report detailing the death of a young man who fell through the cracks of the assessment and shared-care system. Jordan and Simon speak openly about grief, anger, and fear — and why framing ADHD as “not life-threatening” ignores the reality of emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, chronic stress, and suicide risk.

This episode has a clear message: withholding diagnosis and treatment is not neutral — it is dangerous.

They discuss:

• NHS limits on ADHD assessments and lack of transparency
• Long waiting times and being stuck between child and adult services
• Why diagnosis is a gateway to support, not a label
• ADHD medication, emotional regulation, and quality of life
• Why ADHD can be life-threatening
• Suicide risk, burnout, and drowning in unregulated thoughts
• The cost of denying support vs investing in people

A raw, emotional, and urgent conversation about assessment delays, systemic failure, and the very real human cost of treating neurodivergent care as optional.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this season 3 opening episode of The Neurodivergent Experience, Jordan James and Simon Scott revisit a foundational question from the very first episode of the podcast: what makes me neurodivergent?

Returning to the topic with years of lived experience, self-understanding, and community insight, they reflect on how their understanding of autism, ADHD, and neurodivergence has evolved.

They explore neurodivergence as an alternative neurotype, not a single deficit, and unpack how traits often grouped under autism and ADHD — including dyslexia, dyspraxia, PDA, hypersensitivity, RSD, and hypermobility — can show up differently in every person.

They discuss their abilities — challenging both deficit-only narratives and toxic positivity — and explore special interests, bottom-up processing, pattern recognition, empathy, storytelling, and deep knowledge-gathering.

They discuss:

• Revisiting “what makes me neurodivergent?” years later
• Neurodivergence as an alternative neurotype, not a single condition
• How disability is shaped by environment, not just diagnosis
• Energy, hypersensitivity, executive function, and burnout
• Masking, communication gaps, and being misunderstood
• Why “autism” alone doesn’t explain lived experience
• Special interests, knowledge-gathering, and bottom-up thinking
• Neurodivergent culture, labels, and identity

A reflective, wide-ranging conversation about disability, ability, identity, and why neurodivergent people make sense — even when the world around them doesn’t.

Our Sponsors:

🧠 RTN Diagnostics - Right to Choose – Autism & ADHD Assessments (UK)

🧘‍♀️ Ashley Bentley – Integrative Coaching, Breathwork & Hypnotherapy

• → https://bit.ly/ashleynde

🔗 Stay Connected

• Instagram: @theneurodivergentexperiencepod
• Facebook: The Neurodivergent Experience & Jordan's Facebook page
• YouTube: @TheNeurodivergentExperience
• TikTok: @neurodivergentexperience

❤️ Support the Show

If this episode resonated with you:

✅ Follow or Subscribe to The Neurodivergent Experience

⭐ Leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

🔔 Turn on notifications for new weekly episodes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this final episode of our January series on The Anatomy of a Breakthrough, we arrive at strategy - not as hustle, force, or rigid self-improvement, but as a creative, embodied collaboration with your own life.

Throughout the month, we’ve explored how real change unfolds when state comes first, story begins to soften, and strategy is allowed to emerge from alignment rather than pressure. In this episode, we bring it all together.

Drawing on the wisdom of thinkers, artists, and teachers such as Buckminster Fuller, Vincent van Gogh, James Clear, Tim Ferriss, Shunryū Suzuki, Hugh Laurie, Millard Fuller, and contemporary author Jordan Gruber, Ashley weaves a deeply neurodivergent-affirming exploration of how meaningful change actually takes shape.

We’ll explore:

Why strategy works best when it builds the new rather than fights the old

How small, sustainable actions quietly create upward spirals

Why confidence often follows action - not the other way around

How embodied knowledge can return when we meet ourselves in the right state

What it means to design a strategy that truly fits your nervous system

The episode closes with a deeply nourishing Yoga Nidra, inviting your nervous system into a state of rest, receptivity, and neuroplasticity - a place where new patterns can gently take root.

If you’re tired of forcing change, waiting for motivation, or feeling like strategy has to be punishing to be effective, this episode offers a kinder, wiser way forward.

✨ You’re allowed to edit your life. You’re allowed to begin again. And you’re allowed to take one small step at a time.

❤️ Support the Show

If this episode resonated with you:

✅ Follow or Subscribe to The Neurodivergent Experience

⭐ Leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

🔔 Turn on notifications for new weekly episodes

Our Sponsors:

🧠 RTN Diagnostics - Right to Choose – Autism & ADHD Assessments (UK)

🧘‍♀️ Ashley Bentley – Integrative Coaching, Breathwork & Hypnotherapy

• → https://bit.ly/ashleynde

🔗 Stay Connected

• Instagram: @theneurodivergentexperiencepod
• Facebook: The Neurodivergent Experience & Jordan's Facebook page
• YouTube: @TheNeurodivergentExperience
• TikTok: @neurodivergentexperience

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.