Tag: adhd

disability, faith, Mental health, neurodivergence, resources

Progressive Christianity and neurodivergence

jennadewitt

Justin, Ell, and I hosted a gathering for neurodivergent progressive Christians for Disability Pride Month 2025. Though this year’s event was not specifically for asexual and aromantic people, there is significant overlap with these communities, which was reflected in this discussion. (See our previous conversations about the a-spec Christian intersection here.)  

Discussion questions:

  1. How has your neurodivergence affected your experience of Christianity? 
  1. How has your faith affected your experience of being neurodivergent?
  1. How have you been supported by your community?
  1. What challenges have you encountered in your communities?
  1. How can the Christian community as a whole better support and uplift neurodivergent people? What can Christianity learn from neurodivergent people and their lived experience?
  1. What encouragement/words of affirmation can you share with other neurodivergent Christians?
  2. What spiritual practices, resources or supports have helped you with your neurodivergence and faith?

disability, neurodivergence, Poetry

That’s All

jennadewitt



Can’t pay attention
Brain broke
Too high a price
Can’t afford the toll
Out of memory
Blind to time
Got distracted from my work
To write down the rhyme

Podcast playing but I don’t hear
I hear but don’t listen
I listen but it’s unclear
Process in and out
Doesn’t hit the brain
All this shame
Driving me insane

Habits live hard
And they die fast
Working to sit still
But it doesn’t last
So much to think about
Just to think at all
Bump into the corner
To avoid a fall

Let me move
Let me be
What works for you
Doesn’t work for me
They call me gifted
They call me rare
My mind diverged
From the truth or dare

I got good grades
Flash good girl smile
Anxiety got me As
4.0 nerd style
But that doesn’t get you help
Doesn’t get what you need
So ladies do the work
Gotta let them see you bleed

So tired I go wild
So restless I need rest
But if you give me urgency
I’m passing every test
Novelty is candy
Need the energetic calm
Got the bounce in my leg
Got the stim toy in my palm

I organize to realize
I couldn’t survive otherwise
Losing things losing minds
Depression working overtime
Need a plan need a break
Keep it real never fake
Be proud of our kind
Break out of the grind

None of this is your fault
Stand strong stand tall
It’s A-D-H-D
That’s all.

disability, essays, faith, Mental health, neurodivergence

ADHD Showed Me I Wasn’t a Spiritual Failure

jennadewitt

I had the honor of writing about ADHD and spiritual practices for Sojourners Magazine!

If you had told me 11 years ago at my first contemplative retreat that I had ADHD, I would have been skeptical. I was an organized, overachieving Enneagram 3, a bookworm, and a grown professional woman — not a small bouncy boy disturbing his classroom because of his attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The problem, I was told by all around me, was that I lacked spiritual discipline. But just a few hours into the retreat on a Saturday afternoon, I had to admit I wasn’t excelling at the assignment of stillness and silence.

When a friend had suggested the Jesuit-led contemplative retreat, I’d eagerly agreed. At the time, I was fresh out of college, dealing with a boatload of baggage from a brief flirtation with charismatic church culture, and spiritually restless. I also felt trapped in a spiral of shame, depression, and anxiety. Maybe spending some time at a beautiful, peaceful retreat center would discipline my hyperactive mind into spiritual maturity.

Read more here!

https://sojo.net/articles/adhd-showed-me-i-wasnt-spiritual-failure

Mental health, neurodivergence, Poetry

life preserver

jennadewitt

do you ever dream about them

the teachers, the doctors, the counselors

the psych professor who saw a lot of promise in you

the professionals who didn’t see it

do you ever shout at them in your sleep

i was just a kid

and you were the expert on the tower

with training and power

who was supposed to notice

that i was drowning