Help is on the way for people struggling to understand either themselves or someone they know who is autistic or has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Whangārei counsellor Dee Jones, who specialises in autism and ADHD, will be speaking at two workshops in Invercargill next month.
Ms Jones said the way a person’s brain functioned could be described as neurotypical or neurodivergent.
Most of the the population were neurotypical but for about 15% of people, their brains were wired differently which gave them a different perspective on life.
Neurodivergent people who were diagnosed autistic or ADHD did not have a mental health condition but a different way of thinking and relating to others, Ms Jones said.
Unfortunately, neurotypical and neurodivergent people had difficulty at times understanding each other through a lack of knowledge of how the other operated.
In some ways it was like the two groups belonged to different cultures, she said.
Some of the people who had contributed greatly to humankind including Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Jane Austen and Benjamin Franklin were now considered to have been autistic.
Ms Jones is based in Brisbane but will be visiting family in Invercargill so decided it was a good opportunity to run the workshops.
The first, on November 18, is aimed at employers and employees.
"Your neurodivergent staff are amazing, but you do have to respect the differences."
The second on November 21 is relationship-focused.
