What is neurodivergence?
Neurodivergent brains learn, process, and communicate differently
Neurodivergence describes natural differences in how brains learn, process information, and communicate. It includes neurotypes and learning differences like ADHD, autism, and dyslexia, often bringing real strengths, alongside real friction in school, work, relationships, and daily life.
This page explains how neurodivergent profiles often intersect with emotion skills: emotional awareness (alexithymia), emotion regulation, empathy, and executive functioning. It also explains why supportive, multimodal learning tools can help.
Note from the founder
I grew up with strong traits of ADHD and autism, including executive dysfunction and alexithymia (difficulty identifying and describing emotions). For a long time, I thought my struggles were personal failures.
The turning point was realizing this wasn’t a character flaw. It was a skills gap: emotion skills that can be learned with the right supports.
I built Feelpath to make emotion skills easier to learn for neurodivergent people like myself: clearer language, visual tools, and gentle feedback that helps progress stick between sessions and between real-life moments.
Nick Venturino
Founder, Feelpath
Different learning styles need different supports
Many neurodivergent people need more than talk to integrate change. Feelpath adds visual, interactive tools that support practice, make sessions easier to revisit, and help new skills generalize into daily life.
A practical takeaway
If something isn’t sticking, it may not be motivation; it may be a mismatch between the support and the learning style.
Neurodivergences & Emotion Difficulties
Emotions show up differently across people and neurotypes. This table highlights a few commonly reported patterns of difficulty / strain across domains. When emotional awareness is harder (alexithymia), regulation, executive functioning, and social-emotional inference can get harder too—especially under stress.
| Profile | AlexithymiaLow emotional awareness | Emotion dysregulationDysregulation under stress | Social-emotional skill gaps†Difficulty with empathy & perspective-taking | Executive dysfunctionDifficulty with planning, initiation & follow-through |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADHD | ◐ | ● | ◐ | ● |
| Autism (ASD) | ● | ● | ◐ | ◐ |
| AuDHD | ● | ● | ◐ | ● |
| CEN* | ● | ● | ◐ | ◐ |
| HSP* | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ |
| Trauma / CPTSD | ● | ● | ◐ | ◐ |
| Anxiety / Depression & Perfectionism | ◐ | ● | ◐ | ◐ |
Research references
Selected peer-reviewed sources supporting the main patterns summarized in this table, including the idea that alexithymia (low emotional awareness) can cascade into harder regulation, social-emotional inference, and downstream functioning—especially under stress.
- Kinnaird, Stewart, & Tchanturia (2019): Investigating alexithymia in autism: A systematic review and meta-analysis
- Bird & Cook (2013): Mixed emotions: the contribution of alexithymia to the emotional symptoms of autism
- Craig et al. (2016): Executive functioning in children/adolescents with high-functioning autism: a meta-analysis
- Demetriou et al. (2020): Executive function in autistic adults: a meta-analysis
- Bora et al. (2013): Meta-analysis of neuropsychological tests in major depressive disorder (incl. executive function)
- Scott et al. (2015): A quantitative meta-analysis of neurocognitive functioning in posttraumatic stress disorder
- Trevisan et al. (2019): Interoceptive awareness and alexithymia: A meta-analysis distinguishing accuracy vs sensibility
- Laloyaux et al. (2015): Evidence of contrasting patterns for suppression vs reappraisal emotion regulation strategies in alexithymia
- Kiraz, Sertçelik, & Taycan (2021): Alexithymia and impulsiveness in adults with ADHD (primary study)
- Edel et al. (2010): Alexithymia, emotion processing, and social anxiety in adults with ADHD (primary study)
- Herpertz et al. (2024): Emotion processing difficulties in ADHD: a Bayesian meta-analysis
- Ditzer et al. (2023): Childhood maltreatment and adult alexithymia: a meta-analysis
- McDonald et al. (2024): Emotion dysregulation in autism: A meta-analysis
- Song et al. (2019): Empathy impairment in autism spectrum conditions from a multidimensional perspective: A meta-analysis
- Milton (2012): On the ontological status of autism: The “double empathy problem”
- Crompton et al. (2020): Neurotype-matching (not autistic status) influences ratings of interpersonal rapport
- Di Tella et al. (2024): On the relationship between alexithymia and social cognition: A systematic review
- Beheshti et al. (2020): Emotion dysregulation in adults with ADHD: a meta-analysis
- Edwards (2022): Posttraumatic stress and alexithymia: A meta-analysis of presentation and severity
- Khan & Jaffee (2022): Alexithymia in individuals maltreated as children and adolescents: a meta-analysis
- Somerville et al. (2024): Emotion controllability beliefs and young people’s anxiety and depression: A systematic review
- Acevedo et al. (2018): Sensory processing sensitivity brain circuits review
- Network-based meta-analysis of sensory processing sensitivity (2025): Relations with personality/temperament traits
† In this table, “difficulty reading emotion / empathy” refers to how easy it is to read cues and infer what someone might be feeling/meaning (emotion recognition and perspective-taking), not how much someone cares. This domain is also harder to measure and comparatively under-researched, so the notes are meant to add nuance and reduce overgeneralization.
* CEN (Childhood Emotional Neglect) is an experience; HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) is a temperament trait. They’re included because support needs often overlap with neurodivergent profiles.
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