Our individually unique nervous systems and sensitivities develop and evolve over the course of our lives, shaped by dynamic interactions with our surrounding social and physical environments. However, a stark picture of modern society is emerging from recent participatory research conducted by the Autistic Collaboration Trust and sponsored by S23M. The findings reveal that 85 percent of neurodivergent adults often or always feel overwhelmed and misunderstood, while more than 60 percent frequently feel disrespected and unsafe. According to the research, an individual’s overall sense of wellbeing is fundamentally determined by the alignment between their unique sensitivity profile and the ecology of care in which they are embedded—or, conversely, the lack thereof.
Development and Evolution of Human Nervous Systems
Laws and social norms that are deemed to be applicable in large-scale societies can never serve as a substitute for trustworthy, caring, and loving relationships. By definition, such institutional laws and social norms are formulated in profound ignorance of individual sensitivity profiles and diverse life circumstances.
When society relies on abstract regulations rather than human-scale connections, it creates environments that fail to support human flourishing. Understanding how nervous systems adapt requires looking closely at the difference between large anonymous structures and smaller, community-focused networks.
Cults vs. Healthy Cultural Organisms
Large-scale anonymous social environments are inherently traumatising, as they involve frequent interactions between people who know very little or nothing about one another. In contrast, over time, small human-scale social environments minimise interactions between strangers, fostering genuine familiarity and trust.
Healing involves collaborative niche construction with others who are committed to nurturing shared understanding and de-powered ecologies of care beyond the human in egalitarian, human-scale environments. Healthy social ecologies allow individuals to develop a positive relationship with their unique sensitivity profiles. The laws and social norms that emerge and evolve in egalitarian, human-scale cultural organisms are attuned to specific ecological contexts rather than being shaped by abstract institutions located in distant places.
All non-egalitarian social environments, irrespective of scale, share the core characteristics of a cult. So-called civilisations based on hierarchical structures of coercive power are no exception. All empires are founded upon myths of cultural superiority, which include the normalisation of institutionalised forms of violence, bullying, and neglect. The laws and social norms that evolve within such systems are primarily concerned with the perpetuation of specific hierarchical structures of coercive power and violence, paying far less attention to human and non-human wellbeing.
Ultimately, the only meaningful difference between smaller cults and the social power structures operating within modern corporations and nation-states is a matter of scale.
The Reality of Internalised Ableism
The extent to which people consciously experience their social environment as a traumatising cult depends heavily on their level of internalised ableism and their ability to maintain cognitive dissonance over months, years, and decades—a capacity that ultimately ties back to individual sensitivity profiles.
Participatory research reveals that many autistic and intersectionally marginalised people experience the dominant culture in which they are embedded as deeply traumatising. In our hypernormative civilisation, marginalised population segments routinely find themselves at the receiving end of internalised ableism. In contrast, those who consider themselves culturally well-adjusted experience the dominant culture as relatively safe, having successfully internalised the behavioral patterns of homo economicus.
Cultural and Psychological Safety in Workplace Settings
When examining workplace environments, global survey results demonstrate that non-marginalised employees experience typical corporate cultures as entirely normal. Conversely, employees from marginalised population segments feel significantly less safe and welcome at work.
Over 40 percent of surveyed employees report being often or always afraid to express their authentic selves when interacting with superiors, while more than 25 percent experience this same fear when interacting with peers. Because the survey dataset includes a large volume of responses from marginalised population segments, there is a stark contrast between overall aggregate results and the experiences of those who identify as culturally well-adjusted.
Among employees who consider themselves culturally well-adjusted, roughly 20 percent report not feeling entirely relaxed when engaging with their bosses, but more than 90 percent remain completely at ease among their peers. In sharp contrast, among employees identifying with one or more marginalised population segments, over 50 percent are frequently or constantly afraid to be their authentic selves around superiors, and over 25 percent feel the same way around peers.
The figures are even more pronounced for neurodivergent employees, where 70 percent report a constant fear of authenticity with superiors, and over 40 percent feel apprehensive around peers. These glaring disparities raise serious questions regarding the prevailing definition of normality in modern industrialised societies and confirm that internalised ableism remains an undeniable reality in the workplace.
The Neurodivergent Childhood Experience in Our Civilisation
The experience of being subjected to internalised ableism begins at an early age within powered-up family structures and conventional educational environments. Among neurodivergent children, 90 percent report that they are frequently or always afraid to express their authentic selves at school, and nearly 70 percent experience this same fear within their own families.
Furthermore, over 90 percent of neurodivergent children frequently feel overwhelmed and misunderstood, over 80 percent often feel disrespected, and over 70 percent frequently feel unsafe. Consequently, more than 70 percent of neurodivergent children often or always distrust family members, friends, and classmates, prompting approximately 80 percent to emotionally detach as a coping and survival mechanism. Over 90 percent frequently experience anxiety, while 80 percent report struggling with regular feelings of depression.
The Adult Neurodivergent Experience in Our Civilisation
The experience of facing internalised ableism persists well into adulthood, touching every aspect of daily life unless individuals consciously choose to opt out of the hypernormative and traumatising life path promoted by modern civilisation. The ability to opt out, however, depends heavily on whether an individual is embedded in a healthy ecology of care—a foundation that can take decades to establish. For many, that path remains entirely out of reach.
Among neurodivergent adults, 70 percent are often or always afraid to be their authentic selves at work, nearly 60 percent fear authenticity within their families, and over 45 percent feel apprehensive among friends. Furthermore, 85 percent of neurodivergent adults consistently feel overwhelmed and misunderstood, while more than 60 percent frequently feel disrespected and unsafe.
As a direct result, over 35 percent of neurodivergent adults frequently distrust family, parents, and friends, and over 60 percent find themselves emotionally detaching to cope and survive. More than 80 percent experience chronic anxiety, and half report persistent depression.
The Human Sense of Agency
Human agency is a human-scale phenomenon that naturally emerges from de-powered dialogues within healthy, trustworthy relationships. Research indicates that most neurodivergent people lack access to many healthy, trustworthy relationships, leaving them with severely limited opportunities to engage in de-powered dialogue.
An individual sense of agency is fundamentally the feeling of being understood, respected, and cared for, alongside the tangible experience of actively contributing to group decisions without being subjected to coercive forces. Healthy cultures understand agency as a collaborative, human-scale phenomenon rather than as an isolated individual attribute or a product of abstract, superhuman-scale institutions. Within non-coercive environments, autistic learning styles naturally avoid over-imitation, thereby helping to reduce spurious cultural complexity.
The competitive individual sense of agency postulated by the ideology of homo economicus proves to be a misguided myth that is entirely incompatible with modern scientific understandings of human cognition and the relational ecology of life. Acknowledging that human agency operates within a collaborative framework—and is inherently incapable of scaling to massive societal levels without causing untold harm—runs into direct conflict with the progress myth of industrialised societies. Clinging to the anthropocentric myths of technological progress and meritocracy forms perhaps the greatest obstacle to achieving compassion, ecological wellbeing, global intersectional solidarity, and necessary cultural adaptation during an era of ecological overshoot on a finite planet.
Cognitive Dissonance
An individual’s overall sense of wellbeing is determined by the health of their surrounding ecology of care, their unique sensitivity profile, and their capacity to resolve cognitive dissonance. These elements are tightly interwoven at a human scale, where individual wellbeing mirrors communal health and reflects the condition of all relationships that constitute a person’s sense of self. Cognitive dissonance surfaces whenever human emotional limits are reached.
The catch is that individuals who consider themselves culturally well-adjusted often possess an almost unlimited capacity for maintaining cognitive dissonance from an autistic perspective. The extent to which the toxic cultural environment of the global monoculture has fostered a hypercompetitive atmosphere—where institutions focus almost exclusively on perception management—is clearly reflected in ongoing research into the cognitive dissonance experienced by intersectionally marginalised people.
Rediscovering Our Faith in Humanity
Recognising that cognitive and emotional limits are just as real, immutable, and relevant to human survival as the laws of physics may allow society to embark on a path of intersectional solidarity and healing at the margins. It is only within nurturing, small-scale ecologies of care beyond the human that people can rediscover their faith in humanity and trust in the healing powers of the broader cycle of life, which extends far beyond human comprehension.
The diverse array of autistic and neurodivergent sensitivity profiles constitutes a human cultural immune system capable of guiding communities back toward healthy, life-affirming cultural organisms. Encouragingly, a growing number of younger people are discovering that an energetically de-powered, less materialistic life benefits physical wellbeing, while a socially de-powered life at human scale is essential for mental health.
Given the current reality of global ecological overshoot, the path ahead inevitably involves varying degrees of human and non-human suffering. Becoming fully aware of human-scale limitations not only helps minimise suffering and cognitive dissonance, but also successfully reintegrates individuals into the sacred cycle of life through trustworthy relationships.
Ongoing Research and Healthcare Insights
The vast majority of healthcare professionals remain largely uninformed about autistic culture, diverse ways of being, and the high prevalence of complex trauma among intersectionally marginalised populations. Fortunately, committed allies of the neurodiversity movement—such as Dr. Zoe Raos, a gastroenterologist in Waitematā, Tāmaki Makaurau—are beginning to speak out publicly regarding the distinct lack of cultural and psychological safety for autistic patients and medical colleagues alike.
To further investigate these systemic issues, the Autistic Collaboration Trust, with sponsorship from S23M, is conducting several ongoing anonymous surveys and research programmes. These initiatives explore intersectional safety, the realities of growing up neurodivergent, cognitive dissonance in daily life, and psychological safety in workplace and healthcare settings. By gathering lived experience reports and baseline data, researchers aim to illuminate the profound gaps in modern institutional design and advocate for environments that truly respect human scale and neurodivergent wellbeing.
