The unique nervous systems and sensitivities of human beings develop and evolve continuously over the course of our lives, shaped profoundly by our social environments. However, new participatory research from the Autistic Collaboration Trust and S23M highlights a troubling reality: 85% of neurodivergent adults often or always feel overwhelmed and misunderstood, while over 60% routinely feel disrespected and unsafe in modern society. According to the findings, an individual’s overall sense of wellbeing is fundamentally determined by the alignment—or lack thereof—between their unique sensitivity profiles and the ecologies of care in which they are embedded.
Development and Evolution of Human Nervous Systems
Laws and social norms devised for large, "super-human" scale societies can never adequately substitute for trustworthy, caring, and loving relationships. By their very definition, macro-scale laws and social norms are formulated in total ignorance of individual sensitivity profiles and diverse life circumstances.
Human nervous systems are deeply relational. When individuals are forced to navigate environments that ignore their specific neurological needs, the result is chronic distress. Healing and thriving, therefore, require collaborative niche construction alongside others who are committed to nurturing shared understanding and de-powered ecologies of care.
Cults vs. Healthy Cultural Organisms
Large-scale, anonymous social environments are inherently traumatising because they force frequent interactions between people who know little or nothing about one another. In contrast, small, "human-scale" social environments minimise anonymous encounters over time.
Healthy social ecologies allow people to develop a positive relationship with their natural sensitivity profiles. The social norms that emerge organically within egalitarian, human-scale cultural organisms are attuned to specific ecological contexts rather than being dictated by abstract institutions in distant locations.
Conversely, non-egalitarian social environments across all scales exhibit the core characteristics of a cult. So-called civilisations built on hierarchical structures of coercive power are no exception. All empires rely on myths of cultural superiority, which include the normalisation of institutionalised violence, bullying, and neglect. The laws and norms generated in these systems prioritize the perpetuation of coercive hierarchies over human and ecological wellbeing. In practice, the only difference between smaller cults and the power structures of modern corporations or nation-states is a matter of scale.
The Reality of Internalised Ableism
The degree to which individuals consciously experience their social environment as a traumatising cult depends heavily on their level of internalised ableism and their capacity to maintain cognitive dissonance over long periods. This capacity ultimately ties back to individual sensitivity profiles.
Participatory research conducted by the Autistic Collaboration Trust reveals that many autistic and intersectionally marginalised people experience the dominant culture as deeply traumatising. In hypernormative civilisations, marginalised populations are routinely subjected to internalised ableism. Meanwhile, individuals who view themselves as culturally "well-adjusted" experience the dominant culture as relatively safe, having fully internalised the behavioural patterns demanded by a competitive economic model.
Cultural and Psychological Safety in Workplace Settings
Global survey data examining workplace environments underscores this stark division. Non-marginalised employees generally experience typical workplace cultures as normal and comfortable. In contrast, employees from marginalised population segments feel significantly less safe and welcome on the job.
Survey metrics show that over 40% of employees are frequently afraid to express their authentic selves when interacting with superiors, while more than 25% experience similar fears when interacting with peers.
Among employees who consider themselves culturally well-adjusted, more than 90% feel entirely at ease among peers, though around 20% report feeling somewhat guarded around management. However, the picture changes dramatically for marginalised workers. Among employees identifying with one or more marginalised groups, over 50% are frequently afraid to be authentic around superiors, and over 25% feel unsafe around peers.
The figures are even more pronounced for neurodivergent employees, where 70% report regular fear of authenticity around superiors, and over 40% feel the same way around peers. These findings highlight that internalised ableism in the modern workplace is an undeniable reality, challenging traditional definitions of professional normality.
The Neurodivergent Childhood Experience in Our Civilisation
The exposure to internalised ableism begins early in life, deeply embedded within hierarchical family structures and conventional educational settings.
Among neurodivergent children, 90% are frequently afraid to express their authentic selves at school, and nearly 70% report feeling the same fear within their own families. Furthermore, over 90% of neurodivergent children regularly feel overwhelmed and misunderstood, more than 80% feel disrespected, and over 70% feel physically and emotionally unsafe.
Consequently, over 70% of neurodivergent children frequently distrust family, friends, and classmates, while roughly 80% resort to emotional detachment as a survival mechanism. Over 90% experience chronic anxiety, and 80% struggle with depression.
The Adult Neurodivergent Experience in Our Civilisation
These traumatic dynamics continue into adulthood, permeating all aspects of daily life unless individuals consciously choose to opt out of the hypernormative trajectory of modern civilisation.
The ability to opt out depends entirely on access to a healthy ecology of care—a support system that can take decades to build, leaving it out of reach for many. Among neurodivergent adults, 70% are frequently afraid to be authentic at work, nearly 60% feel unsafe expressing authenticity within their families, and over 45% feel guarded around friends. Overall, 85% of neurodivergent adults regularly feel overwhelmed and misunderstood, and over 60% feel disrespected and unsafe.
As a coping mechanism, over 35% frequently distrust their parents and peers, and over 60% emotionally detach to survive. More than 80% experience ongoing anxiety, and 50% battle clinical depression.
The Human Sense of Agency
A genuine sense of agency is a human-scale phenomenon that emerges from de-powered dialogues within trustworthy relationships. Research indicates that most neurodivergent individuals lack access to sufficient healthy relationships, severely limiting their opportunities for de-powered dialogue.
An individual sense of agency is fundamentally the feeling of being understood, respected, and cared for, combined with the ability to contribute to group decisions free from coercion. Healthy cultures treat agency as a collaborative human-scale dynamic rather than an isolated individual attribute.
By contrast, the competitive individual agency promoted by economic ideology is incompatible with scientific understandings of human cognition and relational ecology. Clinging to anthropocentric myths of technological progress and meritocracy remains a primary barrier to ecological wellbeing, global solidarity, and cultural adaptation on a finite planet.
Cognitive Dissonance
Overall wellbeing is determined by the health of one’s surrounding ecology of care, individual sensitivity profiles, and the capacity to resolve cognitive dissonance. Communal wellbeing directly reflects the health of the relationships that constitute the sense of self. Cognitive dissonance surfaces whenever human emotional limits are breached.
Those who consider themselves culturally well-adjusted often maintain a capacity for cognitive dissonance that appears nearly limitless from an autistic perspective. This pervasive disconnect reveals the hypercompetitive nature of modern institutions, which frequently prioritize perception management over genuine human health.
Rediscovering Our Faith in Humanity
Recognizing that cognitive and emotional limits are immutable and essential for survival offers a path toward intersectional solidarity and healing at society’s margins. It is only within nurturing, human-scale ecologies of care that individuals can rediscover faith in humanity and reconnect with the healing cycles of the natural world.
The diverse sensitivity profiles of neurodivergent individuals function as a cultural immune system, guiding societies back toward life-affirming frameworks. While ecological overshoot guarantees ongoing challenges, understanding human-scale limitations helps minimize suffering and reintegrates communities into a sustainable relationship with the living planet.
Ongoing research initiatives, including anonymous surveys conducted by the Autistic Collaboration Trust and sponsored by S23M, continue to gather crucial baseline data on psychological safety, intersectional experiences, and cognitive dissonance in workplaces and healthcare settings, providing vital insights for a more inclusive future.
