A person named Elise has compiled a spreadsheet of responses from neurodivergent people about their jobs and careers. I learned something from browsing through it. Most of the respondents seen to favor jobs that don’t require extensive interactions with people, but there was on grade school teacher there — they liked the strict schedule. There was a PhD researcher in the mix, but they seem to have lucked into a position with no teaching, just field and lab work. One paramedic says, “Dopamine dump in intense situations feels normal to people with ADHD.”
It seems neurodivergent people are diverse. Who knew?
Diverse but with very predictable work preferences. A neurodivergent cashier or bartender would be a true outlier.
By 1st grade, my son had many diagnoses which was somewhat before “neurodivergent” became a term of art. He never worked until at 30 he got a job at a mixed marital arts gym where he trained setting up for classes and working with kids classes, which he liked. Now he’s working as a PT aid, loving that and looking at getting certified. There are a couple of neurodivergent stand up comics. So lots of people interaction in those roles.
And then there’s the president…I’m convinced that Donald Trump would have qualified as neurodivergent if he were younger and didn’t have daddy shielding him.
That spreadsheet was…. surprisingly comforting and uplifting to read.
I’m not sure why but it made me feel pretty nice for a few minutes this morning.
@Walter Solomon, someone put down retail worker but no specifics. Depending on the neurodivergence, I could see cashier or bartender working for some people. At the same time, most people I know who are cashiers typically aren’t doing those jobs out of the love of the job…
The Onion on YT – Michael Falk, enchanted by prison’s rigid routine (2:19)
Mathematician here… :-D
Interesting how many of the neurodivergent choose to work with animals and/or the environment. It’s not large pool of data points but still… it’s interesting. Although there is a pretty wide selection of job descriptions.
@2 I never saw him as neurodivergent, but he does fit the profile of NPD perfectly. ND doesn’t necessarily have a classic profile because ND is kind of a catch-all category with many different causes and displayed behaviors, so is it possible that Cheetolini is ND? Maybe but he seems more of a sociopath and/or NPD than anything else. Certainly his niece Mary Trump (psychologist) seems to think so.
Me: “I never saw him as neurodivergent, but he does fit the profile of NPD perfectly”
That conflates mental illness with neurodiversity, no
Bubblybot: Yes—it does conflate two distinct concepts.
Neurodivergence refers to natural variations in cognitive functioning—such as autism, ADHD, or dyslexia—that are not inherently pathological. These are typically lifelong, non-degenerative, and framed within the neurodiversity paradigm as differences, not deficits.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), by contrast, is classified as a mental illness under the DSM-5. It involves enduring patterns of behavior that cause significant distress or impairment and are considered maladaptive rather than simply different.
While both can affect social interaction and perception, equating them risks pathologizing neurodivergence or, conversely, minimizing the clinical seriousness of personality disorders. As one analysis puts it, “neurodivergence is not a mental health issue in itself, but it’s common for neurodivergent individuals to also experience mental health issues”.
So yes—saying someone “fits the profile of NPD” while contrasting that with being “neurodivergent” muddles two frameworks that should be kept analytically distinct.
(https://neurolaunch.com/is-mental-illness-neurodivergent/)
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Fits in with what I know. And this time, I appended a citation.