on neurodivergence and addiction

cuz maybe we can be just as self-destructive too

I thought it would be fun to share a work in progress. That means I found it abandoned in my drafts, gave it a quick read-over to make sure it made some sense and then hit post.

Where would you go from here? What would you want to hear more about? What would you leave out?

Let me know in the comments.

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Content warning: I’m not always sure if content warnings do more harm than good, but here’s one anyway. This post mentions addiction but NOT the use of substances in any detail

My new favourite comfort show is Elementary. It’s the Sherlock Holmes that’s based in New York played by Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes with Lucy Liu as Watson. I’m now on my third watching of it and I swear, I’ve never watched something again in its entirety before (besides Schitt’s Creek, of course), but this show is just class. One of the things I’m most drawn to is the continual reference to his addiction because, in this version, Sherlock is a recovering heroin addict. He even relapses in the show, like many people I’ve known who struggle with various kinds of addiction.

Now we don’t know what kind of neurodivergence Sherlock is flirting with in this series, but one thing we do know is that he most certainly is not experiencing the world like the norm. The video I attached below is a scene in which Sherlock is in his regular Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting, sharing about wishing he had been born in a different time because how he filters the outside world through his senses is just too fast, too loud and too much. His story reads much like an autistic (he doesn’t identify like that and the writers have him dating an autistic for a time in this series which deserves an essay of its own), but he could also be of exceptionally high intelligence which in itself is a neurodivergence (OK, I know IQ is bullshit, but those with extremely high intelligence tend to have over-excitabilities which are basically just sensory sensitivities and I find that link fascinating).

The way that Sherlock describes his experience in the world is both heartbreaking and beautiful, but it also sounds hella traumatic too. It’s so incredibly relatable to me as I’m sure to many neurodivergent folks. It just becomes too much for our systems and skill sets to deal with. If we can find a way to cope that can quickly alleviate our suffering, why wouldn’t we?

We don’t talk enough about addiction in these neurodivergence streets.

I think that we’d make up a large percentage of the people in the rooms. I’m not saying this because I feel we have addictive personalities (or if that is actually a thing), but I do believe that the world is very intense for our nervous systems. Overwhelming our ability to function without as much discomfort, agony or pain. There’s just so much going on at any one time, both outside our bodies but also inside as well...

Emotions and thoughts.

Physical sensations.

Lights, sounds, smells and textures.

Unwritten rules and expectations.

Small talk.

Sometimes we need it all to slow the fuck down. We need things to slow the fuck down in the fastest ways possible.

Or maybe that was just me…