Wired Divergent: Nervous System Regulation & Mental Health for Neurodivergent Brains

I cover a guided neurodivergent somatic practice designed specifically for when you cannot read your internal body signals. I offer alternatives to emotional labeling by using external temperature, physical pressure, and neutral feedback. I walk through a short self-care exercise that avoids the demand to identify complex emotions. I explain how to use your hands, jaw, chest, and feet and other methods (external or internal) to gather simple sensation data without the pressure to feel something specific.CHAPTERS:0:00 Introduction to the self-care practice0:53 Who this check-in is designed for1:34 Starting practice by finding a comfortable starting position9:25 Connecting to the companion strategy episodeAbout Audio and VideoThis show is available as a video on YouTube and Spotify. The audio you are hearing in strategy episodes is taken from the video version, which is recorded both inside and outside, and why there are some changes in the microphone quality.NEURODIVERGENT RESOURCES FROM JEN:Neurodivergent coaching (1:1): https://jendehaan.com/coachingGroup Programs: https://jendehaan.com/offscript/ (introductory program coming soon, check site for other options in future)Newsletter signup: https://jendehaan.com/newslettersWired Divergent videos: https://youtube.com/@jendehaanResources and blog posts: https://jendehaan.comSupport the showLike this episode or show and want more? Support us with a one-time tip: https://learn.improvupdate.com/products/supportWe love our podcast host Capitvate.fm! Contact to ask me anything, anytime. You can support the shows by signing up with Captivate here: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yzjiytzWe have our newsletters on Kit.com. We also have our tip form with them, and sell products on their platform. Easy, and they don't take a cut! Check Kit out and support the show using this: https://partners.kit.com/ijdkivtf8nddTranscriptions by MacWhisper. I use and love the Pro version (subscription free!) - you can get it too using this link: https://gumroad.com/a/20303251/ivpqkSchedule posts? We use Metricool (reasonable for multiple accounts/brands/shows). Support us using our link: https://f.mtr.cool/VZBOZRAboutThis podcast was created, written, and is hosted by Jen deHaan. Jen has certifications related to healthy communities (Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy), nervous system regulation and soon teacher training certification on community resilience. She has a BFA in teaching creative arts to adults. You can find her full bio here.This podcast was made in British Columbia, Canada by Jen deHaan.I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples, and honour the homelands of the Qualicum First Nation and the Snaw-naw-as First Nation, as well as the ties of the Snuneymuxw and K'ómoks First Nations. I would like to express gratitude to these and all First Nations for their continued stewardship of these lands and waters where I create these episodes.DISCLAIMER:Wired Divergent is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. If you're in crisis or need clinical support, please reach out to a qualified professional.Crisis & Support Resources: https://jendehaan.com/mental-health-resourcesFull Disclaimer: https://jendehaan.com/disclaimerThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

I cover why standard somatic advice fails some neurodivergent brains and explain interoceptive confusion, emotions, feelings, and explore how to regulate when you genuinely cannot process emotions using sensations from your body. This can affect nearly half of all autistic, and around 40% of ADHD brains to some extent, and for some of us to a great extent.Many standard therapies, models, and general wellness advice assumes everyone can locate specific feelings as clear physical sensations. And easily apply what emotion that sensation might involve. I discuss how alexithymia changes the link between an emotion and the body for autistic adults and those with ADHD. I share what the research says about having faint or absent internal signals (interoception). I also cover what actually helps when you check in with yourself and find absolutely nothing. All content across my channels revolves around these distinct episodes rather than general videos.And an important note: alexithymia, interoception differences, and so on does NOT mean that we do not have emotions or feelings or sensations. It means that it works differently for us. We have emotions, often strong ones, but have differences in processing them.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:Why asking where you feel an emotion causes distressHow the brain constructs feelings using missing internal dataWhat to track when your body returns a blank or neutral signalHow external markers provide reliable regulation informationCHAPTERS:0:00 Why body check-ins fail1:13 Interoceptive confusion defined2:42 The somatic instruction problem4:14 The missing signal experience7:07 How alexithymia changes emotional mapping9:24 The way brains build emotions12:30 The gap between physical signals and awareness15:38 Alternative tracking for absent sensations18:48 The danger of standard somatic advice20:03 Tracking options beyond emotional labels23:52 Concrete external data strategies27:01 Rejecting shame around blank signalsLEARN MORE:Just a general note that scientific literature often (and often incorrectly) uses deficit-based descriptions and language that can be frustrating or angering to read, including the studies below.Study on alexithymia and interoceptive awareness https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00109452163005942024 study on interoceptive confusion and attention https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11542822/Earlier episode on interoception: https://youtu.be/ZIVvkk6eMQIRESOURCES & LINKS:Neurodivergent coaching (1:1): https://jendehaan.com/coachingGroup practice: https://jendehaan.com/offscript/ (introductory program coming soon, check site for other options in future)Resources and blog posts: https://jendehaan.comPodcast version and regulation practice episodes: https://jendehaan.com/wired-divergentNewsletter signup: https://jendehaan.com/newslettersAbout Audio and VideoThis show is available as a video on YouTube and Spotify. The audio you are hearing in strategy episodes is taken from the video version, which is recorded both inside and outside, and why there are some changes in the microphone quality.NEURODIVERGENT RESOURCES FROM JEN:Neurodivergent coaching (1:1): https://jendehaan.com/coachingGroup Programs: https://jendehaan.com/offscript/ (introductory program coming soon, check site for other options in future)Newsletter signup: https://jendehaan.com/newslettersWired Divergent videos: https://youtube.com/@jendehaanResources and blog posts: https://jendehaan.comSupport the showLike this episode or show and want more? Support us with a one-time tip: https://learn.improvupdate.com/products/supportWe love our podcast host Capitvate.fm! Contact to ask me anything, anytime. You can support the shows by signing up with Captivate here: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yzjiytzWe have our newsletters on Kit.com. We also have our tip form with them, and sell products on their platform. Easy, and they don't take a cut! Check Kit out and support the show using this: https://partners.kit.com/ijdkivtf8nddTranscriptions by MacWhisper. I use and love the Pro version (subscription free!) - you can get it too using this link: https://gumroad.com/a/20303251/ivpqkSchedule posts? We use Metricool (reasonable for multiple accounts/brands/shows). Support us using our link: https://f.mtr.cool/VZBOZRAboutThis podcast was created, written, and is hosted by Jen deHaan. Jen has certifications related to healthy communities (Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy), nervous system regulation and soon teacher training certification on community resilience. She has a BFA in teaching creative arts to adults. You can find her full bio here.This podcast was made in British Columbia, Canada by Jen deHaan.I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples, and honour the homelands of the Qualicum First Nation and the Snaw-naw-as First Nation, as well as the ties of the Snuneymuxw and K'ómoks First Nations. I would like to express gratitude to these and all First Nations for their continued stewardship of these lands and waters where I create these episodes.DISCLAIMER:Wired Divergent is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. If you're in crisis or need clinical support, please reach out to a qualified professional.Crisis & Support Resources: https://jendehaan.com/mental-health-resourcesFull Disclaimer: https://jendehaan.com/disclaimerThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

This is a five-minute nervous system reset you can do at your desk, in a bathroom, in a meeting room you ducked into, outdoors, wherever you happen to be during your workday. Everything here can be done from this regulation practice without anyone around you noticing.About Audio and VideoThis show is available as a video on YouTube and Spotify. The audio you are hearing in strategy episodes is taken from the video version, which is recorded both inside and outside, and why there are some changes in the microphone quality.NEURODIVERGENT RESOURCES FROM JEN:Neurodivergent coaching (1:1): https://jendehaan.com/coachingGroup Programs: https://jendehaan.com/offscript/ (introductory program coming soon, check site for other options in future)Newsletter signup: https://jendehaan.com/newslettersWired Divergent videos: https://youtube.com/@jendehaanResources and blog posts: https://jendehaan.comSupport the showLike this episode or show and want more? Support us with a one-time tip: https://learn.improvupdate.com/products/supportWe love our podcast host Capitvate.fm! Contact to ask me anything, anytime. You can support the shows by signing up with Captivate here: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yzjiytzWe have our newsletters on Kit.com. We also have our tip form with them, and sell products on their platform. Easy, and they don't take a cut! Check Kit out and support the show using this: https://partners.kit.com/ijdkivtf8nddTranscriptions by MacWhisper. I use and love the Pro version (subscription free!) - you can get it too using this link: https://gumroad.com/a/20303251/ivpqkSchedule posts? We use Metricool (reasonable for multiple accounts/brands/shows). Support us using our link: https://f.mtr.cool/VZBOZRAboutThis podcast was created, written, and is hosted by Jen deHaan. Jen has certifications related to healthy communities (Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy), nervous system regulation and soon teacher training certification on community resilience. She has a BFA in teaching creative arts to adults. You can find her full bio here.This podcast was made in British Columbia, Canada by Jen deHaan.I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples, and honour the homelands of the Qualicum First Nation and the Snaw-naw-as First Nation, as well as the ties of the Snuneymuxw and K'ómoks First Nations. I would like to express gratitude to these and all First Nations for their continued stewardship of these lands and waters where I create these episodes.DISCLAIMER:Wired Divergent is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. If you're in crisis or need clinical support, please reach out to a qualified professional.Crisis & Support Resources: https://jendehaan.com/mental-health-resourcesFull Disclaimer: https://jendehaan.com/disclaimerThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

If you are neurodivergent and you socialize, which you probably do, you probablly get hit with the social tax of social masking (or camouflaging) on an almost daily basis. It can lead to meltdown, shutdown, autistic burnout, and more because it is really hard on our nervous systems and body. Most conversations about autistic masking stay on the psychology, or in that "you shouldn't mask" or "hey, just unmask!") territory, so in this episode I cover the body side of things.We should be able to "just unmask". Sure, it would be so great! But the reality is we live in a world that still forces us to do this for safety or need. So until we can just unmask, this episode helps with things you can do in the moment in social situations, because sometimes we can't afford to not mask (for safety, for access, because of various marginalizations, etc).Social masking asks the autonomic nervous system to run a sustained performance for hours, and for a lot of neurodivergent people that load does not clear with a single good night's sleep. I walk through what happens physiologically when masking runs too long, and how it connects to allostatic load and what some autistic communities call masking debt. I also get into why the collapse that follows can feel so far out of proportion to the day, and why low interoception and alexithymia make the cost so hard to notice while it builds.Then I cover two nervous system tools, that I adapted for neurodivergent brains, that give you something concrete to do in the moment.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:How to tell when masking has pushed you past what your nervous system can recover fromWhy standard advice like "just unmask" or "give yourself permission to rest" does not reach the real loadThe body signals that show the cost is building before you hit collapseHow two CRM skills, reworked to be inclusive for neurodivergent bodies, fit into a heavy masking dayWhy this load can be difficult if you also code-switch or face dismissal in medical settingsCHAPTERS:0:00 The post-social collapse most masking talk skips1:27 Why this one is personal3:45 What social masking does to the nervous system7:54 Why "just unmask" misses the actual problem12:37 Allostatic load and the idea of masking debt16:37 The body signals that show the cost is building23:24 Why "give yourself permission to rest" rarely lands25:00 Two CRM skills, adapted for neurodivergent brains30:03 Building a masking-recovery practice that fits you31:53 Coaching, newsletter, and where to go nextSCIENCE:Studies on the costs of autistic camouflaging and masking:https://docs.autismresearchcentre.com/papers/2017_Hull_Putting-on-my-best-normal.pdfhttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6483965/https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/socwork_fac/378/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1750946723001320On why science doesn't support the biology claims of Polyvagal Theory, and why it is harmful for neurodivergent people (supported with science): https://jendehaan.com/blog/is-polyvagal-theory-debunked-2026/andhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051123001060Community Resilience Model (CRM), Trauma Resource Institute: https://www.traumaresourceinstitute.com/crmRESOURCES & LINKS:Neurodivergent coaching (1:1): https://jendehaan.com/coachingGroup practice: https://jendehaan.com/offscript/ (introductory program coming soon, check site for other options in future)Resources and blog posts: https://jendehaan.comPodcast version and regulation practice episodes: https://jendehaan.com/wired-divergentNewsletter signup: https://jendehaan.com/newslettersAbout Audio and VideoThis show is available as a video on YouTube and Spotify. The audio you are hearing in strategy episodes is taken from the video version, which is recorded both inside and outside, and why there are some changes in the microphone quality.NEURODIVERGENT RESOURCES FROM JEN:Neurodivergent coaching (1:1): https://jendehaan.com/coachingGroup Programs: https://jendehaan.com/offscript/ (introductory program coming soon, check site for other options in future)Newsletter signup: https://jendehaan.com/newslettersWired Divergent videos: https://youtube.com/@jendehaanResources and blog posts: https://jendehaan.comSupport the showLike this episode or show and want more? Support us with a one-time tip: https://learn.improvupdate.com/products/supportWe love our podcast host Capitvate.fm! Contact to ask me anything, anytime. You can support the shows by signing up with Captivate here: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yzjiytzWe have our newsletters on Kit.com. We also have our tip form with them, and sell products on their platform. Easy, and they don't take a cut! Check Kit out and support the show using this: https://partners.kit.com/ijdkivtf8nddTranscriptions by MacWhisper. I use and love the Pro version (subscription free!) - you can get it too using this link: https://gumroad.com/a/20303251/ivpqkSchedule posts? We use Metricool (reasonable for multiple accounts/brands/shows). Support us using our link: https://f.mtr.cool/VZBOZRAboutThis podcast was created, written, and is hosted by Jen deHaan. Jen has certifications related to healthy communities (Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy), nervous system regulation and soon teacher training certification on community resilience. She has a BFA in teaching creative arts to adults. You can find her full bio here.This podcast was made in British Columbia, Canada by Jen deHaan.I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples, and honour the homelands of the Qualicum First Nation and the Snaw-naw-as First Nation, as well as the ties of the Snuneymuxw and K'ómoks First Nations. I would like to express gratitude to these and all First Nations for their continued stewardship of these lands and waters where I create these episodes.DISCLAIMER:Wired Divergent is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. If you're in crisis or need clinical support, please reach out to a qualified professional.Crisis & Support Resources: https://jendehaan.com/mental-health-resourcesFull Disclaimer: https://jendehaan.com/disclaimerThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

This is a grounding practice built for shutdown, the offline and quiet state where everything has become a lot and even small routine things feel impossible. The practice asks for almost nothing from you. You can stay lying down, seated, standing at a desk, or wherever you already are, with your eyes open or closed. Nothing has to change, and you can stay exactly as you are the whole time.KEY TAKEAWAYS:This practice is for shutdown states, when your system has gone offline and small tasks feel impossible.There is nothing you have to do, and you can stay in whatever position you're already in.The air on your skin, its temperature, and the texture of the surface under you are accessible exteroceptive starting points.If your body wants more input, pushing your palms into a wall, a doorframe, or your own lap adds pressure you can adjust as you go.Your nervous system was doing something the whole time, even when nothing felt like it shifted.CHAPTERS:00:00 Intro and safety reminder00:53 Who this practice is for: shutdown and overwhelm01:19 Practice05:50 Returning your attention to the room06:26 Closing reflection on what your nervous system was doing06:37 Where to find more resourcesAbout Audio and VideoThis show is available as a video on YouTube and Spotify. The audio you are hearing in strategy episodes is taken from the video version, which is recorded both inside and outside, and why there are some changes in the microphone quality.NEURODIVERGENT RESOURCES FROM JEN:Neurodivergent coaching (1:1): https://jendehaan.com/coachingGroup Programs: https://jendehaan.com/offscript/ (introductory program coming soon, check site for other options in future)Newsletter signup: https://jendehaan.com/newslettersWired Divergent videos: https://youtube.com/@jendehaanResources and blog posts: https://jendehaan.comSupport the showLike this episode or show and want more? Support us with a one-time tip: https://learn.improvupdate.com/products/supportWe love our podcast host Capitvate.fm! Contact to ask me anything, anytime. You can support the shows by signing up with Captivate here: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yzjiytzWe have our newsletters on Kit.com. We also have our tip form with them, and sell products on their platform. Easy, and they don't take a cut! Check Kit out and support the show using this: https://partners.kit.com/ijdkivtf8nddTranscriptions by MacWhisper. I use and love the Pro version (subscription free!) - you can get it too using this link: https://gumroad.com/a/20303251/ivpqkSchedule posts? We use Metricool (reasonable for multiple accounts/brands/shows). Support us using our link: https://f.mtr.cool/VZBOZRAboutThis podcast was created, written, and is hosted by Jen deHaan. Jen has certifications related to healthy communities (Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy), nervous system regulation and soon teacher training certification on community resilience. She has a BFA in teaching creative arts to adults. You can find her full bio here.This podcast was made in British Columbia, Canada by Jen deHaan.I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples, and honour the homelands of the Qualicum First Nation and the Snaw-naw-as First Nation, as well as the ties of the Snuneymuxw and K'ómoks First Nations. I would like to express gratitude to these and all First Nations for their continued stewardship of these lands and waters where I create these episodes.DISCLAIMER:Wired Divergent is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. If you're in crisis or need clinical support, please reach out to a qualified professional.Crisis & Support Resources: https://jendehaan.com/mental-health-resourcesFull Disclaimer: https://jendehaan.com/disclaimerThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy