About Quietly Neurodivergent

If long pages are hard to read, you can start with the summary just below and then dip into the sections that feel relevant.

Summary

Quietly Neurodivergent is a calm, practical website for autistic, ADHD and otherwise neurodivergent people from about 16 upwards.

It focuses on study, work and everyday life – not “fixing” you.
Posts are written in plain language, with clear headings and short sections.
The site is informed by research and lived experience, but it is not a source of diagnosis, medical advice, emergency support or legal advice.
You can expect gentle honesty, practical suggestions and a refusal to sugarcoat how hard things can be.

What this site is

Quietly Neurodivergent exists to:

offer realistic, non-patronising support for autistic, ADHD and otherwise neurodivergent people,
sit in the space between lived experience and research,
explore how to navigate school, university, work and daily life without toxic productivity or “just try harder” advice.

The aim is that, reading a post, you can think:

“That sounds like me – and here are some things I might try.”

This site is not a “positivity” or self-help brand. It’s allowed to acknowledge that some problems are structural, and that sometimes there isn’t a neat solution.

Who it’s for

The primary audience is:

autistic, ADHD and otherwise neurodivergent people who are
- in secondary school, college or sixth form,
- in higher education,
- in any kind of work, or between roles.

A secondary audience is:

parents, carers, partners, educators and managers who want to understand these experiences a bit better.

The writing is aimed at a thoughtful neurodivergent reader aged 16+, not at professionals discussing neurodivergent people from a distance.

Where “quietly neurodivergent” came from

Quietly Neurodivergent didn’t appear out of nowhere. It grew out of my academic work and my other writing at Thinking Sociologically, where I look at how people move through systems that were never quite built for them. While working on my PhD I kept noticing how often the theory matched my own life: holding things together at work or study, then quietly falling apart in private.

“Quiet neurodivergence” is the phrase I started using for that pattern – people who are genuinely struggling, but whose difficulties are largely invisible because they mask well or happen off-stage. This site is where I try to translate that idea into everyday language and lived examples: fewer citations, more real days, and small tools you can adapt for your own life.

What you’ll find here

Most posts try to include four elements:

Recognition – naming a feeling or problem so you know you’re not imagining it.
Explanation – a simple account of why this might be happening for neurodivergent people.
Practical ideas – a few realistic things to try, with no promise that any single thing will work for everyone.
Permission – reminders that it’s OK to adapt, discard or ignore suggestions, and to seek professional help if needed.

Topics include, for example:

studying and revising when executive function is not cooperating,
navigating email, meetings and communication at work,
burnout, masking and unmasking,
sensory needs in everyday environments,
planning, routines and “good enough” organisation.

Some posts will be short and practical; others will go into more depth where that’s actually useful.

What you won’t find here

This site is not:

a place to get a diagnosis,
medical or clinical advice,
emergency or crisis support,
legal or financial advice.

You may see references to research, law or policy, but always at a general level and in plain language. Anything that might affect your health, safety, income, immigration status or legal position is something to discuss with a qualified professional who knows your situation.

How the writing works (and what to expect)

Posts aim to be:

Calm and steady – no clickbait, no “life hacks” promising to fix everything.
Concrete – examples from real situations rather than vague “a person” scenarios.
Plain language first – technical terms only when they genuinely help, and they’ll be explained in everyday words.
Short-ish paragraphs – usually a few sentences at a time, with headings so you can skim to the section you need.

You’ll also see:

identity-first language like “autistic person”, “ADHD person”, “neurodivergent person”,
limited jargon and acronyms, and very little “inspirational” framing.

Humour might appear occasionally – a wry aside, or a situation many neurodivergent people will recognise – but it’s there to support the content, not to make fun of anyone.

How this site is funded

Right now, Quietly Neurodivergent is a small, independent project.

To help cover costs such as hosting and time, the site may use:

Google AdSense for advertising,
occasional other ethical, clearly labelled forms of income in future (for example, affiliate links or small digital products).

You can read the details in the Privacy Policy, which explains what data is collected for analytics and ads, and how to change your choices.

There are no sponsored posts that pretend not to be sponsored, and anything that might create a conflict of interest will be clearly labelled.

Accessibility and design choices

The site is designed with neurodivergent and disabled readers in mind, which means:

keeping layouts simple and as low-clutter as possible,
avoiding auto-playing audio or video,
using headings and lists so you can jump around,
aiming for decent colour contrast and readable fonts,
keeping cookie banners and pop-ups to a minimum.

The Accessibility page explains this in more detail, including known limitations and how to give feedback if something isn’t working for you.

When your brain has no spoons

On days when reading is hard:

It’s completely fine to read only the summary or the first few paragraphs.
You can bookmark posts to come back to later.
You can skip around using headings and bullet lists instead of reading in order.

If a post feels too heavy, you’re allowed to close the tab and do something else. The content will still be here when and if you want it.

About the person behind the site

Quietly Neurodivergent is run and written by:

Andrew Wright
Email: [email protected]

Andrew writes from a mix of:

personal experience as a neurodivergent person,
conversations within neurodivergent communities,
engagement with research in areas like psychology, sociology and education.

He is not a clinician, therapist, lawyer or emergency service. That’s why the site has a separate Disclaimer & boundaries page, and why posts regularly signpost to seeking professional support when needed.