Characteristics and Coping Strategies of Neurodivergent Individuals
2025.07.12
Hello, my name is Tatsuya Arakawa, a licensed therapist in California.
In a previous blog post, I wrote about what neurodiversity is, the struggles faced by neurodivergent individuals, and ways to help make life a little easier for them.
In this article, I’d like to take a deeper look into the characteristics of neurodivergent individuals and how we can support them.
This time, I will focus on the trait of "difficulty coping with changes in environment."
One common trait among neurodivergent individuals is that it generally takes them more time to adapt to changes in their environment compared to neurotypical individuals. This is closely related to another trait often seen in neurodivergent people: a strong preference for routines.
So, why do they prefer routines and dislike change? One of the major reasons is anxiety. Life inevitably brings change—moving to a new place, starting a new school, beginning a new job, and so on. Naturally, anyone would feel anxious when facing change, no matter how big or small. However, even without any environmental change, neurodivergent individuals tend to experience anxiety more easily than neurotypical individuals. As a result, when a change does occur, they often experience heightened anxiety.
When it comes to routines, following them can provide a sense of safety and stability. Therefore, even if nothing in the environment changes, being unable to follow a routine for any reason can itself trigger anxiety. And when the environment does change, it usually disrupts routines. This creates a "double punch"—anxiety from the change itself, and additional anxiety from the inability to follow routines—leading to overwhelming emotional distress.
In fact, it is not uncommon for neurodivergent individuals to be diagnosed with not only ADHD, for example, but also with co-occurring mental health conditions such as anxiety disorders.
As we can see, anxiety, difficulty with environmental changes, and a strong preference for routines are all deeply interconnected.
So, what can we do about this? I’ll be discussing this in more detail in the next article.
I hope this article has helped you gain a better understanding through accurate information.
Tatsuya Arakawa, LMFT