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🎙️ Episode 26: Understanding Neurodivergence - More Than Diagnosis
"I can be autistic without autism spectrum disorder, in the same way that I can have legs without being broken."
Summary:
In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, clinical psychologist and AuDHDer Aaron Howearth takes on a question sparked by a challenge on social media: can you identify as autistic without holding a formal diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder? The answer is yes — and in this episode, Aaron unpacks exactly why, drawing on clinical definitions, diagnostic criteria, the neurodiversity-affirming paradigm, and his own lived experience as an autistic ADHDer and former Navy serviceperson.
Aaron begins by untangling three terms that are often conflated: neurodiversity, neurodivergent, and diagnosis. He explains that neurodiversity — like biodiversity — simply refers to the natural range of cognitive styles that exist across humans, while neurodivergent describes a brain that functions differently from the neurotypical majority. Autism, he argues, is a cluster of cognitive characteristics — not a disorder by default. Autism Spectrum Disorder, on the other hand, is the diagnostic label that applies only when those characteristics cause functional difficulties in the person's life.
Drawing on Damian Milton's Double Empathy Problem, Aaron explores how social and communicative differences in autism are not inherent deficits, but mismatches between communication styles — a dialect problem, not a language problem. He walks through how the same characteristic (say, cognitive rigidity or impulsivity) can function as both a strength and a barrier depending on the environment, using vivid examples from his own clinical work and time in the Navy.
Aaron also addresses the claim that autism diagnosis is "not a social construct," offering a clinical and philosophical unpacking of what a social construct actually is — and why diagnosis, by its very nature, fits that definition. He closes by emphasising that a neurodiversity-affirming perspective does not deny difficulty; it contextualises it. A person's expression of their characteristics as strengths or challenges will always interact with physical health, social inclusion, life stress, and environment.
Key Themes & Takeaways
- Neurodiversity vs Neurodivergent vs Diagnosis — Why these three terms are distinct, and why conflating them creates confusion about identity, language, and clinical need.
- Autism vs Autism Spectrum Disorder — Autism refers to a profile of cognitive characteristics; ASD is diagnosed only when those characteristics cause functional difficulties.
- Diagnosis as Social Construct — A clinical and philosophical explanation of why all diagnostic frameworks, including ASD, are socially constructed — and why that doesn't undermine their validity or usefulness.
- The Double Empathy Problem — Milton's framework explaining that autistic communication difficulties emerge from mismatch, not from inherent deficit; neurotypical people experience the same difficulty in autistic-majority environments.
- Valence-Neutral Characteristics — Every autistic or ADHD characteristic is contextually neutral: the same trait can be adaptive in one environment and a barrier in another.
- Cognitive Bandwidth & Masking — How the implicit effort of operating in a neurotypical world consumes cognitive resources, raising baseline stress and reducing capacity for flexibility.
- Formulation Thinking — Why a neurodiversity-affirming lens requires us to account for the interaction between characteristics and everything else in a person's life: sleep, health, social safety, and stress.
Referenced Concepts
- DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Damian Milton's Double Empathy Problem
- The neurodiversity-affirming paradigm
- Social and relational models of disability
We are different, not defective.
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Keywords: AuDHD podcast, autism and ADHD, neurodivergent psychologist, neurodiversity affirming, Howearth Psychology, queer psychologist, autism diagnosis, ADHD awareness, lived experience, neurodivergent mental health, clinical psychology podcast
