Inner worlds vs outer worlds
What links climate change, neurodivergence and creativity?
I’ve spent a while trying to find a neat way of marrying my two big obsessions: the way we tell stories about climate change, and neurodivergence - specifically the ‘getting stuff done without imploding’ angle on neurodivergence and executive function. And I keep coming up blank. There’s just not a neat way to package all of this in one theme, or at least not an immediately obvious one.
I’m not really interested in the ’neurodivergent thinking can save the world’ kind of vibe, because I don’t think that’s true (stay tuned for why!), and I’m also not here for ‘neurodivergence wouldn’t exist if we didn’t do capitalism’ because that’s also not true (stay tuned etc etc).
What makes my hyperfixation twang is that the inner world of the creative (the writer, in my case) and the external world of the environment struggle for the same reasons.
The same problems that cause climate change cause us as individuals to burnout and struggle to function and subsequently to pathalogise what are otherwise perfectly rational reactions to living in a world wholly unsuited to our actual needs, and one that is rapidly ending at that.
So look. None of this is controversial. We already know all this stuff. Climate change is driven by the economic myth of infinite growth in a place of finite resources, and to uphold this paradigm we find ourselves trapped doing work none of us want to do that in turn destroys the only planet we have to live on. The act of forcing ourselves to do that work, and the act of upholding that system, makes us sick, physically, mentally, and causes huge problems for everyone, especially for people with certain brain types.
We can just call the problem capitalism, of course, because, well, you know, broadly speaking that’s the problem. But it’s too easy in a way; it doesn’t quite capture the spirit of the thing. Plus it’s hard to keep talking about capitalism as the problem without sounding like an overexcited undergraduate who just discovered that Karl Marx said some things, and more importantly it doesn’t get us any closer to tangible action or change. It’s also worth pointing out that I’m not anti-productivity as an idea. I’m very pro productivity, if the things we’re producing are art and food and music and healthcare and stories and very soft blankets (ok and maybe some NSFW stuff too shhhhh).
I don’t actually have the answer to the question I started with. It’s just something I think about a lot. But I do see the whole thing as interconnected systems and microcosms and macrocosms and cycles of behaviour from the barely consequential to the earth shatteringly vast. There is a common narrative in some environmental circles that to heal the world we must first heal ourselves, and broadly speaking I subscribe to that. We can’t possibly have the deep, meaningful, authentic relationships we need with each other and our communities if we are struggling with our own existence as a human person. We need to work on our personal traumas and pathologies alongside creating horizontal networks of mutual aid to strengthen the grassroots against the onslaught of the billionaire class. We can’t do one without the other. We can’t work closely enough with each other when we’re filled with maladaptive behaviours and self-hatred, but equally we can’t lock ourselves away while we try to become perfect before we exist in community.
So maybe the question I’m actually asking isn’t actually how climate change and neurodivergence are linked, but how can we live more connected, more creative lives, not just individually, but globally?
If that’s the case, then the only place we can start is here, with me, with you, one by one, with our own creative work, and whatever we learn from that can only ever ripple outwards and impact everything around us. It’s that well worn therapy thing: change yourself and everything else changes around you. If those of us who have been completely broken by the machinery of this dystopian hellscape of a world can find our way back to the creative work we always knew we had in us in the first place, well, then I reckon something profound might just happen.
Yesss, I think the denial of limits is huge here -- capitalism operates on the premise that production has no limits, and we are taught to internalize that in our own lives. for me embracing my limits and learning how to honor them has been key for my creativity and just general well-being, but it’s so counter to all the reach-your-full-potential superpower inspiration porn that gets shoved down our throats all the time.
I just started reading Psychopolitics by Byung-Chul Han (which is a bit dense, def not a fun summer read lol) but the first chapter is about freedom, and he says that under neoliberalism, freedom has become coercive -- all the motivational “you can do anything you set your mind to!” stuff has basically become a threat to achieve and it’s driving us into distress bc we’re not able to just be like, no actually I can’t and that’s okay, and I think that’s true on a planetary level too.
Anyway, I just started an interview series as an excuse to chat with other creative people about my interests (lol) and I would love to talk to you about this in podcast form if you’re interested!
I think sometimes us neurospicies can be better at seeing the destructive systems, when our brains do that everything-to-its-logical-conclusion thang. And perhaps we notice the parts we're playing in them, because they can be more destructive to us, executive function and nervous system-wise, so we notice our embeddedness.
Plus there's the whole 'strong sense of social justice' thing so many of us have going on, the way unfairness of any kind can feel like a personal attack. Like you say, it is capitalism, but it's not *just* that. Systems of domination could be another way to phrase it, perhaps? After all feudalism doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs either, or chattel slavery. What we want is community and freedom from exploitation (when do we want it? etc...), and all these systems seek to suppress that.
So I guess I'm saying that I think there is a link, albeit maybe tangential and not absolute. (I'm sure there are neurotypicals who think systemically and have a strong sense of social justice, I just don't seem to meet many normies cos they probably think I'm odd...) We all have our gifts, and I'm really hoping that overthinking might be some kind of superpower, otherwise, well, I'm going to need to find another hobby.