~187~How to Advocate WITH Your Neurodivergent Teen (Not Just FOR Them) | ADHD, Autism, IEPs & School Success with Lisa Richer

What do you think? Absolutely.

So

it's what I often see is someone gets diagnosed and there's one of maybe three or four things that happens.

One, it's like, oh, my God, my child's going to be labeled.

Now I need to hide or be in fear.

Another thing is that now that we have a diagnosis, we have to put all of our eggs in.

And another thing is sometimes they're like, it's just going to go away.

Don't worry.

We're just going to go.

It's just going to go away, right? Well, none of those would show.

And I'm a big believer that diagnoses inform.

They do not define who a person is, but it is data and information that helps us figure out how we come to the table, how we leverage what works for that child or doesn't work.

and how that all comes together.

And while, as you were saying, meet them where they are, and we've talked about this because I do that as well, and that messy middle is really where they are, the problem is we want to say that we can just ask, But many times, whether we grew up like I did, where I would ask questions and be told, you don't know what you're talking about.

That doesn't make sense.

Stop asking questions.

It was always too much this, too that.

So then I shut down even more.

And then I stopped trusting my gut.

And then I stopped trusting my intuition.

And so I've spent the last six years kind of moving through those personally and coming to a place that I do still get triggered.

I do still have trauma moments.

but I now have the tools and it's because I finally just asked for help.

What is going on with me? Why am I so dysregulated? What is happening here? How do I fix this? How do I heal myself? Not fix myself, heal myself.

Is that for most of my life, my intuition was always right, my body.

What do you think? Absolutely.

So

it's what I often see is someone gets diagnosed and there's one of maybe three or four things that happens.

One, it's like, oh, my God, my child's going to be labeled.

Now I need to hide or be in fear.

Another thing is that now that we have a diagnosis, we have to put all of our eggs in.

And another thing is sometimes they're like, it's just going to go away.

Don't worry.

We're just going to go.

It's just going to go away, right? Well, none of those would show.

And I'm a big believer that diagnoses inform.

They do not define who a person is, but it is data and information that helps us figure out how we come to the table, how we leverage what works for that child or doesn't work.

and how that all comes together.

And while, as you were saying, meet them where they are, and we've talked about this because I do that as well, and that messy middle is really where they are, the problem is we want to say that we can just ask, But many times, whether we grew up like I did, where I would ask questions and be told, you don't know what you're talking about.

That doesn't make sense.

Stop asking questions.

It was always too much this, too that.

So then I shut down even more.

And then I stopped trusting my gut.

And then I stopped trusting my intuition.

And so I've spent the last six years kind of moving through those personally and coming to a place that I do still get triggered.

I do still have trauma moments.

but I now have the tools and it's because I finally just asked for help.

What is going on with me? Why am I so dysregulated? What is happening here? How do I fix this? How do I heal myself? Not fix myself, heal myself.

Is that for most of my life, my intuition was always right, my body.