Category: Types of Neurodivergence – Staff Experiences

Dyslexia

Dyslexia in STEM 

As part of SciFair 2022, Dr Damian Parry talked about his experiences of life in STEM with dyslexia.

Damian was suspected to have dyslexia as a teenager but was not formally diagnosed until recently. In this video he talks us through his life before, during and after his diagnosis, and the impact dyslexia has had throughout. A fascinating bit of insight that we’re proud to share! The interview was carried out by Freda Tuor (stage 3 biomedical sciences) and Adam Murar, who kindly let us share it. SciFair 2022 is taking place at NUSU next week on Tuesday 15th March (during British Science Week) – read more at https://www.scifair.uk/ or on their Instagram page @scifair20

Watch the video here:

https://fb.watch/obubnFDERa/

OCD

Tell me about your neurodivergence…

I have had OCD since I was 13 at various levels of intensity. Up until a few years ago it was manageable and then something happened (not sure what) and suddenly I was back to it being awful and scared to leave my bed or breathe or eat. I had to, at that point, become a lot more vocal about my needs and my disorder and people have been very accepting about it. I am 44 now and I get a bit embarrassed that at my age I cannot decide on whether something will harm me or not but when I have asked colleagues some very odd questions, they haven’t really batted an eyelid. Intrusive thoughts, OCD or not, are a lot more prevalent than we think, it seems.

What workplace adjustments have helped you?

I have been allowed to keep my desktop at work and leave my laptop at home to allow the laptop to not get contaminated by the journey away from the clean house. This is my next exposure to deal with this, along with thousands of others.

Are there any external websites that you can recommend that have helped you? 

I am extremely focused on my OCD and find it hard to deal with other peoples. I must regulate what I read or who I talk to as it just takes one instance of me thinking ‘what if’ and I have another compulsion. So perhaps trigger warnings before links:

Perhaps some links to OCD Action and OCD UK could be added here for through information.

By Emma