SUMMARY - Neurodivergence in Crisis: When the System Doesn’t Understand You
An autistic adult in crisis experiences sensory overload in a crowded, bright, noisy emergency room, their distress intensifying with every stimulus, the environment designed for crisis intervention making their crisis worse. A person with ADHD tries to explain what is happening but their thoughts are racing, they cannot organize their words, and the intake worker becomes impatient, interpreting their communication style as uncooperative rather than recognizing it as part of how they process.