Airing Pain #148 Trailer: Links between Hypermobility and Neurodivergence (Transcript)
Airing Pain 148 Trailer | Links between hypermobility and neurodivergence
To be broadcast 5th March 2025
Transcript begins
Paul Evans: Do people with neurodivergence experience pain differently to those who are neurotypical? And what’s the link between neurodivergence and hypermobility?
Speaker 2: The concept that everybody experiences pain in the same way has to be thrown out. Because many people with neurodivergence perceive pain in very different ways. For neurodivergent individuals, their pain may well take quite a different shape to that of somebody who’s neurotypical.
Speaker 3: We notice some differences in brain structure that had been reported in ADHD and autism. So we were thinking, what’s the relationship between joint hypermobility and anxiety? It made us think, is there a relationship between joint hypermobility and neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD and autism?
Speaker 4: I have got autism, I’ve got hypermobility syndrome, I’ve got fibromyalgia, I suffer from chronic pain – none of that was considered alongside my autism diagnosis ‘til I was in my late 50s.
Speaker 5: If you’ve got Ehlers-Danlos, you’re over 7.5 times more likely to be autistic and 5.6 with ADHD.
Speaker 6: I can clearly remember the moment I was officially told I was autistic. I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders. I’m not weird, I’m not abnormal and there’s nothing wrong with me. And it feels amazing to know this.
Speaker 7: Children who are neurodivergent have strengths as well as challenges, but when a child is distressed because we haven’t met their needs, they’re not going to show us their strengths. They’re more at risk of self-harm, eating disorders, challenging behaviours and emotional dysregulation.
Evans: That’s Pain Concern’s “Airing Pain” on links between hypermobility and neurodivergence, available from the Pain Concern website, painconcern.org.uk, from the 26th of February 2025.
End
Transcribed by Alisa Anokhina
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