Finding Your Habitat

No matter what your weaknesses are in mainstream society, if you find the right habitat for your skillset then you will find balance in your life.

Neurodiverse folk require habitats that are quite alien to the neurotypical world and it can be a lifelong battle to find your tranquil place, strong castle or cosy nest.  I first experienced a sense of my natural habitat when I stumbled across a ruined cottage at the age of 12.  It sat on the top of a Scottish hill called Bunillidh and it became an icon for my dreams.  Bunillidh represented escape from social pressures, a place where I could be myself and  where only people with substance and grit would dare visit.  As it turned out, life is not so simple and I have been hunting for my Bunillidh ever since.

Everyone  has their own ideal habitat and one of the reasons why the neurotypical world can be so condescending  is that they are simply protecting their own comfortable spot.  Neurodiverse folk, with their vast range of strange habits, threaten, confuse and complicate the typical world.  Diverse people have to work hard to fit in socially but it is in the workplace and home that things can become impossible. The search for habitat becomes critical to mental health.

The typical workplace revolves around the idea of "optimisation", because the economy demands the best service for the best possible price.  Diverse ideas are usually in conflict with this and it is a rare business which is able to enclose neurodiversity within its optimisation package.  It is up to those who are able to go it alone in the business world to show how optimum does not necessarily mean typical and create jobs for those neurodiverse workers who feel able but discounted for their lack of standardisation. Finding your ideal workplace habitat can be extraordinarily difficult, even in the neurotypical world, but for the neurodiverse who fails to slot in, the knock on effect into home life can be devastating.

Houses are built for the average person and if they are modified to suit the diverse then they usually become devalued.  If you are a person who has moved around a lot then you can become  trapped in alien habitats or risk losing thousands every year making and undoing property modifications.  It is so important for the mental, emotional and physical health of diverse people that they may be allowed to mould their surroundings to their needs without having to win the lottery to do so.  Governing officials and regulators often cause extreme and unnecessary hardship for diverse folk because their obsession with "best practice" is focussed on the neurotypical world.

In my experience the workplace habitat has been the hardest to find with  social habitat a close second. Although I still haven't found my dream Bunillidh, I am now living in my optimised Bunillidh which should allow me  to be who I am without the neurotypicals feeling uncomfortable when they visit - and if I achieve that, a miracle will have happened and I will finally rest.