When Healing Makes You More Neurodivergent: Reclaiming Identity After Trauma| Smithfield.

26 June

An organic illustration of neurons resembling roots and branches, symbolising growth and healing through connection.

There’s a curious phenomenon that can occur in trauma therapy, especially for neurodivergent individuals. As healing unfolds, many begin to feel more different, not less. Our sensory experiences intensify, our needs feel sharper, and our social tolerance shrinks. This can feel destabilising, but it’s actually a return to your neurodivergent baseline. Not neurotypical normal, but what’s normal for a nervous system that processes more, senses more, and has adapted to survive in a world not built for it. Sounds a bit scary, right?

Neurodivergent, Not Damaged

Neurodivergent describes brains and nervous systems that naturally process and respond differently from what’s considered typical- including ADHD, autism, dyslexia, OCD, Tourette’s, and sensory processing variation within the neurodiversity umbrella. Historically, these variations were labelled as deficits or disorders within a medical model.
However, the neurodiversity paradigm recognises:

These differences are a natural form of human diversity, comparable to variations in race, gender or culture 9.
There is no single ‘normal’ or ‘ideal’ brain; prevalence of one type doesn't make it more valid 10.
Recognising neurodiversity can reduce stigma and shift perspectives from deficits to strengths-based potential 6.

Yet, living in a world built for neurotypical (NT) brains brings unique challenges. Many neurodivergent individuals experience:

Chronic invalidation: messages that they’re “wrong,” “lazy,” or “inappropriate” 13.
Rejection or misunderstanding in social, educational, and professional settings .
Trait misinterpretation: where neurodivergent traits (e.g. stimming, emotional intensity) are pathologised or treated as problematic 4.
Cumulative stress: from a mismatched environment, which can be traumatic in itself .

Neurodiversity in Practice

The Principles and what that means for Therapy

Differences, not disorders: Resist framing neurodivergence as a “problem to fix”; shift to affirming neurodivergent needs 11.

Value diversity: Recognise unique strengths—whether deep focus, pattern recognition, or creativity- and design therapy around them .

No single normal: Validate each client’s experience as genuinely neurodivergent, not ‘borderline’ or ‘subclinical’.

Social model approach: Focus on changing environments and mindsets - not changing the person .

Therapeutic co-creation: Empower clients to name their own experience and choose the approaches that honour their neurotype .

Diagnosis or Discovery: Finding Your Own Language for Who You Are

A late-in-life diagnosis (of ADHD or autism) can be deeply affirming. But the diagnostic pathway is often inaccessible, expensive, or framed from a deficit lens. And a formal diagnosis is not required to begin healing.

What matters most is permission: permission to explore why life feels harder, louder, or more exhausting than it should. In therapy, self-discovery through reflection on patterns, needs, and nervous system responses can be just as powerful as a label.

Unmasking Through Trauma Therapy

Unmasking isn’t about becoming rebellious, it’s about rediscovering who you were before you adapted to survive.

This might mean:

Choosing silence over small talk.
Recognising a need for more rest.
Crying with less inhibition.
Asserting boundaries with clearer anger.
Reclaiming time and space unapologetically.

These shifts can feel disorienting. But they aren’t signs of regression. They’re indicators of emergence.

The Eight Nervous Systems and How Trauma Affects Them

Trauma’s impact spans eight nervous systems:

Central Nervous System (CNS) – trauma may cause dysregulated memory, emotion, or motor control.
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) – trauma can produce numbness or chronic pain.
Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) – trauma can lock the body into fight/flight (hyperarousal) or freeze/shutdown states.
Enteric Nervous System (ENS) – trauma often manifests via gut issues like IBS or appetite changes.
Cardiac Nervous System – trauma can cause dysregulated heart rhythms or reduced heart‑rate variability.
Respiratory System – trauma often disrupts breathing patterns, shallow breath, breath-holding, or panic breathing.
Ocular System – eye position and gaze connect directly to trauma centres like the superior colliculus and thalamus 14.
Vestibular & Proprioceptive Systems – trauma can impair balance, body awareness, and coordination, often contributing to dissociation.

Sensory Gating and Neurodivergence

Sensory gating is the nervous system’s way of filtering irrelevant stimuli. Research shows:

ADHD: Many adults with ADHD show changed suppression of sensory stimuli, a key marker of sensory gating, and report high distractibility 5, 7.
Autism: Similar gating difficulties contribute to sensory overwhelm 15.
PTSD: Trauma survivors show impaired gating, so sensory overload is common 12.

For neurodivergent people, heightened baseline sensitivity combined with trauma makes overwhelm a lived experience.

How Brainspotting Supports System-Wide Reconnection

Brainspotting engages the ocular and subcortical systems to support integrative healing:

Eye positioning activates midbrain structures like the superior colliculus 2, 8.
Research comparing Brainspotting with EMDR shows significant PTSD symptom reduction 3.
An experimental study found Brainspotting helped reduce PTSD and depression symptoms in severely traumatised participants 1.
Anecdotal case reports note improved heart‑rate variability and decreased emotional dysregulation .

By anchoring gaze and facilitating subcortical processing, Brainspotting supports newfound regulation across sensory, emotional, and bodily systems.

Closing Reflection: Becoming More Yourself

Healing doesn’t always make you feel ‘better’ in the short term, it often makes you feel fuller. More sensitive. Sharper. More you. For neurodivergent individuals, especially those discovering their identity later in life, this can feel like a renewed adolescence: raw, authentic, and real.

But this discomfort isn’t dysfunction, it’s a sign of unmasking. You're not breaking.

You're not losing function, you’re learning what you need to function, well.

That is true healing.

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