Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasnt Designed for You

AUDIBLE EDITORS PICKA paradigmshifting study of neurodivergent womenthose with ADHD, autism, synesthesia, high sensitivity, and sensory processing disorderexploring why these traits are overlooked in women and how society benefits from allowing their unique strengths to flourish.As a successful Harvard and Berkeleyeducated writer, entrepreneur, and devoted mother, Jenara Nerenberg was shocked to discover that her symptomsonly ever labeled as anxiety were considered autistic and ADHD. Being a journalist, she dove into the research and uncovered neurodiversitya framework that moves away from pathologizing abnormal versus normal brains and instead recognizes the vast diversity of our mental makeups.When it comes to women, sensory processing differences are often overlooked, masked, or mistaken for something else entirely. Between a flawed system that focuses on diagnosing younger, male populations, and the fact that girls are conditioned from a young age to blend in and conform to gender expectations, women often dont learn about their neurological differences until they are adults, if at all. As a result, potentially millions live with undiagnosed or misdiagnosed neurodivergences, and the misidentification leads to depression, anxiety, low selfesteem, and shame. Meanwhile, we all miss out on the gifts their neurodivergent minds have to offer.Divergent Mind is a longoverdue, muchneeded answer for women who have a deep sense that they are different. Sharing real stories from women with high sensitivity, ADHD, autism, misophonia, dyslexia, SPD and more, Nerenberg explores how these brain variances present differently in women and dispels widelyheld misconceptions (for example, its not that autistic people lack sensitivity and empathy, they have an overwhelming excess of it).Nerenberg also offers us a path forward, describing practical changes in how we communicate, how we design our surroundings, and how we can better support divergent minds. When we allow our wide variety of brain makeups to flourish, we create a better tomorrow for us all.