Many people have at least one or two things that can be considered surplus. They have too many books, clothes, toys, to name a few. This causes clutter and chaos in their lives. They may be aware that they have the “problem of too much” and may be trying to correct their situation. I too have the problem of too much – I have too much of other people’s attention! And I don’t have a quick way to control this problem.

Why would getting other people’s attention be a problem? one might ask. Why don’t you want to be in the spotlight? I’m telling you that being under the spotlight isn’t fun all the time, sometimes it is a lot of pressure. People pay attention to the most trivial things I do, such as, how I see them, how I interact, how I respond, how I react, how I communicate and what I find irritating about this is that they don’t pay attention to how I feel! They only pay attention to what appears on the outside and not what happens on the inside. They do this because I’m neurodivergent and they want to know me and help me, but they don’t know how. This causes chaos in my brain. I become conscious of my actions and I feel anxious. I want to prove I am the same as them and I stretch and stress. In the end, I am exhausted.

I have been pondering on how to deal with this problem and how to solve it. This isn’t my problem alone, it is a problem many neurodivergent individuals face. The only way to solve this is by understanding the difference between each other. The more the awareness of neurodiverse individuals, their abilities and their challenges, the more likely it is for them to have better experiences. I would suggest that we spread awareness of people like me who may have a different demeanor than their intellect and yet are fully capable of being a wholesome human being. I would also recommend other individuals like me to share their experiences with the world.