[ojkelly]

It’s worth everyone knowing that there is a high proportion of neurodiverse people in our industry, relative to other industries and the general population.

The 2021 Stack Overflow Survey [0] puts ADHD at 8.51% (double the rate in the US [1]), and autism at 3.7% (about 1% globally [2]).

The point here is that, you all already work with people who have ADHD or are autistic. If your company isn’t doing right to retain us, your going to lose talent to those who do.

Small accommodations can go a very long way. Accomodations are personal, not everyone needs the same thing.

For example, I start my day at 10am. Easily managed accommodation, and now I get significantly better sleep. Everyone wins.

OP, I’d love to call out specific companies that are good at this, but I don’t really know.

[0] stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#section-demographics-m [1] https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/attention-deficit... [2] https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

[benjaminsuch]

I would be cautious about what people say in the survey on Stack Overflow. How many of those who claim to have ADHD or Autism have an actual diagnosis of those from a professional?

[dgellow]

That works the other way too. You will also have a lot of people reporting they do not have ADHD or autism when they actually do.

What matters for those type of surveys is how many people report struggles. If someone struggle with attention but does not have the exact number of symptoms required for a formal diagnostic, they are still struggling.

[lentil_soup]

ok, but the whole grand parent comment is a comparison to the global population. Those global statistics are not self reported, they're official diagnoses so will also be missing "people reporting they do not have ADHD or autism when they actually do".

That people struggle is an important statistic, but shouldn't immediately be counted as ADHD or autism. There can be other factors at play.

[bartoszcki]

Yeah, but the questions were not about whether one has symptoms or struggles with some:

"I have a concentration and/or memory disorder (e.g. ADHD)"

"I have autism / an autism spectrum disorder (e.g. Asperger's)"

[sascha_sl]

You are putting way too much trust into "professionals" here. Adult ADHD was essentially not a thing people believed was real a few years ago. Where I live there was no reimbursable stimulants for anyone over 18 until 10 years ago.

Now that people are catching on to the fact they're not actually lazy but just have a much higher barrier to starting and maintaining focus on things they're not extremely passionate about some doctors handle 5-10 new patients a day.

ADHD is not rare. At all. The super strict guidelines exist because people are afraid of Ritalin and they're extra afraid of giving it to children, so double up on your "this is not actually a real thing" hysteria.

[dgellow]

Clickable link for stackoverflow survey: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#section-demog...

[sosuke]

Is there a correlation between ADHD and doing better with a late start?

[erinaceousjones]

"Delayed Circadian Rhythm Phase: A Cause of Late-Onset ADHD among Adolescents?"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6487490/

"Up to 75% of adults with childhood-onset ADHD exhibit delayed circadian rhythm phase, including a rise in salivary dim-light melatonin onset (DLMO) and alterations in core body temperature and actigraphy-measured sleep-related movements occurring approximately 1.5 hours later in the night than healthy adults. In addition, adults with childhood-onset ADHD exhibit a delay in early morning cortisol rise (i.e., a hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical (HPA) marker of circadian phase), with secretion occurring two hours later than healthy controls. Adults with childhood-onset ADHD are also frequently “night owls” who display delayed circadian preference and increased alertness in the evening (Kooij, 2017, Coogan and McGowan, 2017)."

[sosuke]

Thank you for digging that up for me. The more I understand myself the better I'm able to adapt.