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About Us
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Neurodiversity and Brain Boosting

Are you some flavor of neurodiverse?

I personally don't consider neurodiversity to be a brain problem. I feel that neurodiversity is an advantage in many ways. You may or may not feel the same way as I do.

Neurodiverse people experience and interact with the world in a different way than neurotypical people. Some examples of neurodiverity include autism, attention deficits disorders, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia and more. There is evidence that neurodiversity stems from the brain processing information in different ways than is typical.

Embrace your superpowers

Neurodiverse people have many strengths.

For example, autistic people are better with working with different types of systems; such as computer languages, machines and mathematical systems. They also excel at recognizing repeated patterns and spotting details in complex patterns. Children on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) outperform much older children on tests involving how a Polaroid camera works and sequencing pictures (discussion in Baron-Cohen et al. 2009, Baron-Cohen and Lombardo 2017).

Likewise, people with dyslexia have a advantage over neurotypical people when deciphering information from blurry low resolution images; talents useful in fields like radiology, astronomy, and cellular microscopy (Schneps et al. 2012).

Be fabulous. Jean-Léon Gérôme Bashi-Bazouk (1869). Oil on canvas.

Jean-Léon Gérôme, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Use brain boosters to overcome challenges

However, if you are having problems with your life or job due to challenges with your neurodiversity you can supercharge your brain. Use these brain boosters to help your brain function optimally for you.

Brain training can overcome perfectionism and anxiety

Many autistic people have issues with perfectionism and anxiety. Some types of brain training can help you control anxiety and break out of perfectionism's paralyzing grip. I did this years ago after I read a book about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and it changed my life. I don't have OCD but I did have obsessive thought loops.

For all those wondering what book I read that changed my life; it was Brain Lock by Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D. I followed his simple steps to mastering control of my thoughts and rid myself of over 95% of troublesome obsessive thoughts in one week. Not only that, but I told two other people the simple steps and it worked for them without even reading the book. You do have to do the exercises and it takes a little work at first but the rewards are great. I have remained almost totally free of intrusive brain loops type thoughts since.

George Grie Panic Attack or Anxiety PTSD 2007 oil on canvas.

George Grie, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsKick yourself into gear to get over panic attacks

Brief intermittent intense exercise (BIE) can significantly reduce the severity of panic disorder (PD). Muotri et al. 2026 looked at two different 12-week protocols for people with PD.

1) Jacobson's Relaxation training: most treatment for PD uses cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with interoceptive exposure (IE). IE strategy repeats the symptoms associated with panic attacks such as shortness of breath, heart palpitations, and dizziness in order to increase tolerance and reduce distress.

2) BIE: Brief structured bursts of intense activity (sprinting) designed to trigger and safely resolve the symptoms of a panic attack.

Both groups improved but the BIE group improved more as measured by lower panic severity, fewer panic attacks, better mood, and greater engagement in activity.

Here was the BIE plan:

  1. Warm-up: light stretching followed by 15 minutes of brisk walking.

  2. High-intensity sprints: One 30-second session of very high-intensity running (either on treadmill or outdoors) followed by 4 1/2 minutes of slow walking. People gradually built up to six sprints per session.

  3. Recovery and cool-down: 15 minutes of relaxed slow walking People focused on watching their heart rate and breathing return to normal.

High intensity sprinting teaches your body and brain that a racing heart doesn't always signal an impending catastrophe!

This plan could be implemented with other forms of high intensity short term exercise as well.

Eight methods for increasing your attention span and working memory

1) Set up ways to avoid distraction; such as noise canceling headphones, blocking distracting websites, avoiding the great smelling donut shop, turning off/hiding/locking up your phone and/or using a social media blocker.

Some people, such as myself, may need an optimal level of distraction to occupy the brain and function well. I use music and background noise to help me work. Silence doesn't do it for me.

2) Set defined breaks and do something different with your brain and body. Go out in nature.

3) Be aware of what you are doing and question yourself. Ask, "Do I really need to surf TikTok?" "Does using this app make me feel better or worse?" or even "Is this healing for my mental or physical health?"

This works really well if you evaluate your mood while or directly after doing the activity.

4) No multitasking, everyone stinks at it. It makes you waste time and fries your brain.

5) Work on your brain health! Check out Brain Boosters or Brain Regeneration Starter Kit. Yes, you can heal your brain.

6) Work on your overall health (sleep, exercise, food, nature).

7) Practice devoting your attention to something. The brain is like a muscle; you can teach yourself to concentrate longer by gradually upping the amount of time you spend not being distracted. Apps like TikTok and Face Book can encourage dumbing down of your attention span and your intelligence by delivering you a lot of really poor content very quickly.

Go read a book or a website written by a human. Read things that engage your brain. Create or do something - draw, learn to code, carve, sculpt, teach yourself quantum physics, write, walk, knit, hike, learn yoga with your dog - the choices are infinite. Start small and scale up as you get better.

8) Your brain wants a challenge, not lukewarm AI mush served with a side of propaganda. Learn something ...anything... and get passionate about it. Passion is attractive to your brain and to other people.

From one neurodiverse person to another; learn to use your neurodiversity as an asset not a detriment. For example, my ability to hyperfocus, remember obscure details, see an overall pattern, and make nonlinear connections helps me understand and put together information from hundreds of research papers to create this website. Often I see connections that other miss because my brain works differently than theirs. I would not trade my wonderfully useful and delightfully elegant brain for that of a neurotypical person.

I'm sure you have strong talents you can use too! You just need to focus on identifying your positive traits and playing to them. By reframing what other people consider a weakness into a strength, you can enable a new way of thinking about your abilities.

References:

Arnsten A, Mazure CM, Sinha R. This is your brain in meltdown. Sci Am. 2012 Apr;306(4):48-53. doi: 10.1038/scientificamerican0412-48. Full article.

Baron-Cohen S, Ashwin E, Ashwin C, Tavassoli T, Chakrabarti B. Talent in autism: hyper-systemizing, hyper-attention to detail and sensory hypersensitivity. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009 May 27;364(1522):1377-83. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0337. Full article.

Baron-Cohen S, Lombardo MV. Autism and talent: the cognitive and neural basis of systemizing. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2017 Dec;19(4):345-353. doi: 10.31887/DCNS.2017.19.4/sbaroncohen. Full article.

Becker JH, Lin JJ, Doernberg M, et al. Assessment of Cognitive Function in Patients After COVID-19 Infection. JAMA Netw Open.2021;4(10):e2130645. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.30645 Full article.

Befekadu R, Grenegård M, Larsson A, Christensen K, Ramström S. Levels of soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 and 2 are associated with survival after ST segment elevation myocardial infarction. Sci Rep. 2022 Aug 30;12(1):14762. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-18972-5. Full article.

McEwen BS, Morrison JH. The brain on stress: vulnerability and plasticity of the prefrontal cortex over the life course. Neuron. 2013 Jul 10;79(1):16-29. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.06.028. Full article.

Muotri RW, Luciano AC, Guirado AG, Neto FL, Bernik M. Brief Intermittent Intense Exercise as Interoceptive Exposure for Panic Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial. Frontiers in Psychiatry (First published: February 08, 2026) doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1739639 Full article.

Schneps MH, Brockmole JR, Sonnert G, Pomplun M. History of reading struggles linked to enhanced learning in low spatial frequency scenes. PLoS One. 2012;7(4):e35724. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035724. Full article.

Sutin AR, Stephan Y, Luchetti M, Terracciano A. Purpose in life and markers of immunity and inflammation: Testing pathways of episodic memory. J Psychosom Res. 2023 Nov;174:111487. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2023.111487. Full article.

Taquet M, Geddes JR, Husain M, Luciano S, & Harrison PJ. (2021). 6-month neurological and psychiatric outcomes in 236 379 survivors of COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study using electronic health records. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(5), 416–427. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00084-5 Full article.

Wang X, Ji L, Tang Z, Ding G, Chen X, Lv J, Chen Y, Li D. The association of metabolic syndrome and cognitive impairment in Jidong of China: a cross-sectional study. BMC Endocr Disord. 2021 Mar 4;21(1):40. doi: 10.1186/s12902-021-00705-w. Full article.

Yates KF, Sweat V, Yau PL, Turchiano MM, Convit A. Impact of metabolic syndrome on cognition and brain: a selected review of the literature. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2012 Sep;32(9):2060-7. doi: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.112.252759. Full article.