What is Neurodiversity? Understanding Neurodiversity Through the Lens of Biodiversity

Introduction: The Forest and the Mind

Walk into a forest and take a slow look around. You’ll see towering pines reaching for the sky, broad oaks spreading their canopies, birches shimmering with white bark, moss creeping across stones, and mushrooms quietly recycling fallen leaves. None of these species is “wrong.” Each has its niche. Together, they form a resilient ecosystem.

Now imagine if the forest were only pines, or only oaks. The balance would collapse. Diversity is not a flaw; it’s the foundation of resilience.

Human brains work the same way. Just as biodiversity allows ecosystems to thrive, neurodiversity allows humanity to thrive. There is no single “normal” brain—only many ways of sensing, thinking, learning, and being. All of them are real. All of them matter.

For many late-identified adults, encountering this idea is the first moment their life begins to make sense.

The Origins of Neurodiversity

The term neurodiversity emerged from autistic communities in the 1990s, though its origins have often been oversimplified. Australian sociologist Judy Singer is frequently credited with coining the term in her 1998 thesis, but recent scholarship by autistic academics has clarified that the concept itself was collectively developed within online autistic communities.

Singer’s framing was explicitly connected to biodiversity. Just as biodiversity refers to the full range of species within an ecosystem, neurodiversity refers to the full range of human neurological variation. And like biodiversity, the term was intended as an advocacy concept—created to challenge systems that treat difference as defect.

Archival research has also shown that journalist Harvey Blume was the first to use the terms neurological diversity and neurodiversity in print in 1997–1998, crediting autistic self-advocates rather than any single academic source. A 2024 study by autistic researchers concluded that neurodiversity should be understood as a community-developed concept, not an externally imposed theory.

This shift in language matters. When autism or ADHD is framed only as disorder, people are positioned as broken. When these differences are understood as part of neurodiversity, space opens for context, belonging, and self-understanding.

Since then, neurodiversity has grown into a broader paradigm influencing education, workplace design, therapy, and self-advocacy worldwide.

Two Ways of Understanding Neurodivergence

To understand why neurodiversity matters, it helps to compare two common frameworks.

The Medical Model
This model defines neurological differences as deficits or pathologies. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and related conditions are viewed as deviations from a presumed norm. The focus is diagnosis, treatment, or cure. While this framework can provide access to services, it often positions the individual as the problem and reinforces the idea that they must be fixed.

The Neurodiversity Model
This model understands neurological differences as part of natural human variation. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other neurotypes bring both strengths and challenges. The question shifts from “What’s wrong with this person?” to “What environments and supports allow this person to function well?”

This distinction is not theoretical—it shapes lives. A child viewed through a deficit lens may be punished for stimming; the same child understood through a neurodiversity lens may receive sensory support and recognition for their creativity. For adults, especially those identified later in life, this reframing can undo decades of internalized shame.

The Biodiversity Analogy

The forest metaphor isn’t just poetic—it’s practical.

In ecology, monocultures are fragile. They’re vulnerable to disease and collapse. Diverse ecosystems, by contrast, are adaptive and resilient. Each species contributes differently: pollinators, decomposers, canopy builders, ground cover.

Human systems work the same way. When only one cognitive style is valued—fast, linear, socially fluent, detail-light—entire forms of intelligence are overlooked.

Autistic pattern recognition can resemble tree roots mapping underground systems.
ADHD dynamism can resemble wildfire—disruptive, but often generative.
Dyslexic big-picture thinking resembles migratory birds, connecting distant ideas.
Anxiety sensitivity can function like a sentinel species, detecting threat early.

In an ecosystem, there is no “normal” tree. There is interdependence.

Strengths and Challenges: A Whole Picture

Neurodiversity does not deny struggle. It contextualizes it.

Autism
Strengths: deep focus, honesty, pattern recognition, originality, systems thinking
Challenges: sensory overload, social fatigue, difficulty with constant multitasking or unpredictability

ADHD
Strengths: creativity, innovation, problem-solving, hyperfocus, adaptability
Challenges: executive function strain, time blindness, impulsivity, cyclical burnout

Dyslexia
Strengths: visual-spatial reasoning, creativity, big-picture synthesis
Challenges: text-heavy environments, traditional academic structures

Other neurotypes bring their own patterns of capacity and friction. Crucially, many challenges arise not from neurology itself, but from environments designed around a narrow definition of “normal.”

From Deficit to Context

Viewing neurodivergence through a biodiversity lens changes how difficulty is understood.

Rather than asking why an individual struggles, the question becomes whether the environment fits. A person with ADHD is not inherently disordered; they are navigating systems that demand sustained attention to low-stimulation tasks. An autistic person is not defective; they are often overwhelmed by sensory and social environments built without them in mind.

Research consistently shows that people who understand themselves through a difference-based lens report higher self-esteem, clearer goals, and greater confidence than those who internalize deficit-based narratives.

Why Neurodiversity Matters Beyond the Individual

Neurodiversity benefits everyone.

In workplaces, cognitive diversity improves problem-solving and innovation.
In education, flexible approaches reduce shame and disengagement.
In families and communities, acceptance replaces pressure to perform “normal.”

Just as ecosystems thrive through diversity, human systems become healthier when multiple ways of thinking are valued.

Putting Neurodiversity Into Practice

Applying a neurodiversity lens means:

• designing environments that adapt to people

• respecting varied communication styles

• reframing burnout and executive dysfunction as signals, not moral failures

• centering self-advocacy and lived experience

• shifting institutions away from deficit-based models

The goal is not sameness. It’s fit.

A Balanced Perspective

Embracing neurodiversity does not require denying difficulty. People can value their neurotype while still wanting support, relief, or accommodation. Acceptance and support are not opposites.

Neurodiversity invites us to hold both truthfully.

Closing Thoughts

Biodiversity teaches us that sameness is fragile. Systems built around a single species, a single crop, or a single way of functioning are more vulnerable—not less. Diversity is what allows ecosystems to adapt, recover, and endure.

Neurodiversity teaches us the same about humanity.

Neurodivergent minds are not deviations from a standard template. They are part of the full range of human variation that has always existed. The question has never been whether neurodivergence is real. The question is whether our systems—schools, workplaces, healthcare, relationships—are willing to evolve enough to support it.

When people are given accurate context for how their brains work, shame begins to loosen. When environments are shaped with difference in mind, capacity expands. And when neurodivergence is understood rather than pathologized, individuals are no longer asked to survive at the expense of themselves.

Like a healthy forest, humanity thrives not because everything grows the same way, but because many different forms of life are allowed to take root.

I’m a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and a late-diagnosed AuDHD adult. I offer neurodiversity-affirming therapy and psychoeducational courses for adults seeking to better understand their neurotype. My work supports people exploring autism and ADHD, navigating late identification, burnout, and identity shifts, or looking for accurate context for how their brain works. Through therapy and structured learning, I help adults move from self-blame toward clarity, self-understanding, and more sustainable ways of living. I offer free 15-minute consultations to explore whether therapy, a course, or a combination of both may be a supportive next step.