When Your Brain Works Differently: Neurodiversity and the Mental Load
About this episode
Professor Leah Ruppanner discusses how neurodivergent individuals experience the mental load differently and offers insights on managing it with compassion and shared systems.
What if your brain works differently from everyone else’s — and you’re still expected to carry the same invisible load for your family, work, and life? In this episode of MissPerceived, Professor Leah Ruppanner explores how neurodivergent folks (ADHD, OCD, bipolar, and beyond) experience the mental load in uniquely complex and often heavier ways. She breaks down the seven stages of the mental load, shows where things get especially hard when you’re prone to rumination, catastrophizing, or forgetting, and explains why social norms demanding perfection make all of this even more overwhelming. Leah also shares what she’s learned from interviews and from living with a partner who has ADHD, and offers a gentler way forward: more compassion, more curiosity, shared systems, and dropping what doesn’t actually need your brain’s limited energy. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction — neurodiversity and the mental load 01:00 What the mental load really is (beyond a to‑do list) 02:41 When your brain works differently: distraction, rumination, worst‑case thinking 05:03 The seven stages of the mental load: identify, remember, strategize, decide, delegate, execute, monitor 07:24 How ADHD, OCD, and other…
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