Heart for Neurodiversity

Each story of coming to faith and confessing Jesus as Lord and saviour is different. My experience of it was in 2015, where I arrived as a somewhat lost and confused 22-year-old having been spat out by the world that promised so much but gave so little that could satisfy. I didn’t know who I was, and to some extent I’m still learning about myself, but I know that I am bought at a price and treasured by him. That being said, in recent times I have begun a journey into understanding my own neurodiversity.

Neurodiversity in its simplest terms is having a different way of thinking that is considered by the world as ‘outside the norm’, and my journey into understanding it better started my experience with the neurodiverse in my life thus far. That started when I worked with a lovely chap with learning disabilities as a teenager, progressed to working with service users at a disability charity in my early twenties and now working as an SEN teacher at a school. These experiences with some of the most amazing neurodiverse individuals have been both rewarding and humbling. However, in the midst of working with such individuals I have questioned whether I myself am a neurodiverse individual.

Neurodiversity can include many different conditions such as Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Dyscalculia to name a few. I have dyslexia, and although undiagnosed, I exhibit many of the signs of ADHD. This means I struggle to focus; I am more disorganised than I want to admit, I feel certain emotions much more strongly, and my anxiety in certain situations is through the roof. This has meant that over the years there have been many ups and downs. Through those times there were the usual questions, like ‘where are you in all this Lord’ or ‘why would this happen to me’. But over time (and with a lot of patience from the people close to me), I have come to realise that many of my struggles can be attributed to parts of my neurodiversity.

The link between mental health struggles and neurodiversity is undeniable, the challenge of a Sunday morning service to a neurodiverse individual (or even a loved on of such a person) cannot be ignored, and the manner in which neurodiverse individuals can fall off of the radar in times of crisis can be alarming. We must reach out, because we are well placed to do so. I believe that as Christians we are so well placed because the hope and belief that we have is ‘neurodiverse’ in relation to the world we live in. We think differently because Jesus is so different than anything this world offers, and that should be the reason why we are able to reach the neurodiverse.

There are times in my life when I have been in full blown crisis and the love of Jesus reflected to me from fellow Christians has sustained me. There have been times in my job where a student is in full blown crisis and I have been able to reflect the love of Jesus to them in that moment. But in all honesty, there have been times where I have walked past someone who was clearly struggling, because it was the easy thing to do. There is no condemnation in that but there is a challenge to stop and engage.

My heart is that church could become a safe space for the neurodiverse, diagnosed or not, to learn that God loves them, but also that he has plans and purposes for them regardless of the challenges that they face. My heart is that people within the church who are struggling to access all that church has to offer would find a safe space to come and just be, no expectation to do or say anything profound or clever. There are so many things in this world that fight for our attention, and even for neurotypical people this can be really difficult. Now put yourself in the shoes of a neurodiverse person, who, for example, struggles to concentrate, finds social interactions exhausting and anxiety inducing and is already trying to think four steps ahead of you so that they can prepare themselves so that they don’t mess up.

We have to support them to understand to the best of their ability that the only person worthy of our attention is Jesus. He is the one who has broken through in my life, and is walking on this journey with me. We MUST help and support others either within, or coming into the church to walk that journey also.