Neurodivergence, Trauma, and the Body

Neurodivergence and trauma are often talked about as separate things. 

One is framed as how you’re wired; the other as what happened to you. But in lived experience—especially in the body—they frequently overlap in powerful, confusing, and deeply human ways.

Both show up as dysregulation.

The Body Doesn’t Care About Labels

Whether dysregulation comes from growing up autistic or ADHD in a world that wasn’t built for you, from chronic stress, attachment ruptures, or acute trauma, the nervous system responds in similar ways.

Hypervigilance. Shutdown. Overwhelm. Difficulty resting. Difficulty trusting. Sudden spikes of emotion or total numbness.

The body doesn’t distinguish between “this is neurodivergence” and “this is trauma.”

It simply asks: Am I safe? Am I allowed to be as I am?

For many neurodivergent people, the answer for much of their life has been no—not because of inherent brokenness, but because of constant misattunement, masking, correction, and pressure to perform “normal.”

That experience alone can be traumatic.

Masking Is a Nervous System Strategy

What often gets labelled as “coping skills” are actually survival strategies encoded in the body. Masking, people-pleasing, perfectionism, dissociation, intellectualising—these aren’t character flaws. They’re adaptive responses to environments that felt unsafe.

Over time, the cost is disconnection:

 • From sensation

 • From emotion

 • From authentic impulse

 • From rest

This is why insight alone rarely creates change. You can understand yourself perfectly and still feel hijacked by anxiety, shame, or exhaustion.

Because the work isn’t just cognitive.

It’s somatic.

Regulation Is the Bridge to Integration

Healing—whether we call it trauma work, or nervous system regulation—is about restoring choice.

Choice to notice sensations without panic.

Choice to feel emotion without collapse.

Choice to act without abandoning yourself.

As regulation increases, something subtle but profound happens: parts of you that were split off for safety begin to return. Not dramatically. Gently. In waves.

This is integration.

Not becoming someone else—but becoming more you, with less internal friction.

A Fuller Life Is a More Embodied One

The path to a full, integrated life isn’t about fixing what’s “wrong.” It’s about learning the language of your body, honouring its signals, and creating enough safety to live from authenticity rather than survival.

For neurodivergent people—especially those carrying trauma—this is a foundational piece of the work.

When the nervous system feels supported, life expands.

And from that place, meaning, connection, and vitality become possible again.