Neurodiversity & Mental Health

Hey, let's see what we've got from the old mailbag today. Dear Dr. Lloyd, I've been hearing a lot about neurodiversity and mental health. What does it mean to be neurodivergent and how does it impact our mental health? Well, that's a good question. If we break down the world, the word rather, it means that we think about things, we perceive things about the world differently than perhaps our peers or a particular reference group.

But there's a thin line between being a genius and being crazy. Crazy is not such a great term. We love to celebrate our own uniqueness and diversity, especially in the field of mental health. So if you don't think about things in the way that other people think about it, sometimes people call that crazy, but sometimes people call that genius. When it gets to the specifics of the brain, the particular condition or disorder might be talking about a particular area of the brain or a particular auditory, visual, or sensory perception that tends to vary from the general population. But we want to be open and we want to be curious about these divergent neurological behaviours because they can teach us a lot about ourselves and they can help us to grow as a society. So, thanks for the question.