👉🏽 Subscribe for thoughtful, bite-sized emails — from Liz Zhou, a neurodivergent therapist — on how to take care of your nervous system & understand your brain.
The "taboo" topics that no one talks about
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Something I really appreciate about the neurodivergent community is our willingness to talk about “taboo” topics. Topics like: psychedelics, sex, money, disability, death, the state of the world, privilege, power, and oppression… and more. Topics that make people squirm. I’m not saying that every single neurodivergent person is 100% comfortable with these topics. But it’s been my observation that, as a community, we’re willing to confront the uncomfortable. Maybe because, as neurodivergent people, we’re kind of a walking taboo anyway. Different. “Not normal.” Outside of the box. It makes sense that we’re willing to talk about things that mainstream society prefers to ignore. For a long time, I’ve had a special interest in a topic that is deeply taboo — grief, death, and dying. My relationship with death is complex, meaningful, and multilayered — and it’s also not as depressing or gloomy as people might think. ❤️ Pausing here because I’m aware these are sensitive topics. If you don’t feel like engaging with them today, please feel free to shift attention to something else; or take mindful pauses as you read. I took a death doula training last year, where I learned terms like “green burial” & “water cremation,” and held rose petals in my hand as we rehearsed an end-of-life celebration ceremony. One of my favorite books is Briefly, Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End — by Alua Arthur, a death doula. I listen to podcasts like End of Life University: Real Talk about Life & Death as I boil my tea in the morning. And if you were to ask me to help you pre-plan your funeral today to make it as meaningful and loving as possible, I wouldn’t bat an eye. I’d say, “Great. Where do you want to start?” My online shopping cart includes children’s books about grief, death, and dying – books like, The Invisible String, When Dinosaurs Die, and The Fall of Freddie the Leaf. Why? Because 1) I want the children in my life to have access to compassionate education about life & death, and 2) these books speak to the inner child in me. The colors, visuals, and simple language of children’s books makes it easier to confront the uncomfortable. And all of these things, together? ☝🏽 They contribute to my complex, meaningful, and multilayered relationship with grief, death, and dying. In other words, they fill me with life.
Feel free to reply and let me know: What’s a taboo topic that you’re interested in? I’d love to know. Talk soon, P.S. If you need help taking care of your nervous system, I’d love to support you. I offer Nervous System Healing Intensives — three 90-minute sessions, using brain-body modalities (Brainspotting, IFS, EMDR) that go deeper than talk therapy & help you feel better, sooner.
Intensives are a type of short-term, accelerated therapy — for folks who are looking for something different than weekly therapy; who need longer than 50-min sessions to go deep & get to the root of the issue. 👉🏽 If you want to get an Intensive on the books, contact me HERE. I'm scheduling for July & August 2025! P.P.S. Have the topics of grief, death, and dying been on your mind lately? You might like my recent blog post: How to Cope with End-of-Life & Death Anxiety. P.P.P.S. Know someone who needs to hear this? Forward it along. New readers can subscribe HERE. I help highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults heal their nervous systems & connect with their authentic selves.
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Liz's Neurodivergent Letters
👉🏽 Subscribe for thoughtful, bite-sized emails — from Liz Zhou, a neurodivergent therapist — on how to take care of your nervous system & understand your brain.
While on a hike recently, I came across a sign that said: 🚫 If you see a bear, don’t make eye contact (which the bear may perceive as a sign of aggression) Which was right next to another sign: 👀 If you see a mountain lion, DO make eye contact (which shows the lion that you are aware of its presence & not afraid) These signs made me feel a bit spooked, reminding me of the possibility of encountering these creatures. (Though, to my relief, a third sign in the vicinity stated that the last...
Every single day, our brains are processing countless pieces of input. Notifications from five different apps. The ping of incoming text messages The microwave timer going off. Emails piling up in your inbox. The physical pile of letters & bills on your desk. Phone calls & voicemails. The to-do list that keeps growing. 🧠 Due to the sheer amount of stimulation around us, it can be hard for our brains to discern what is actually urgent vs. what seems urgent but is not a true emergency. The...
There’s a book on my shelf that I’ve been reading for... what feels like forever. Every week or so, I’ll pick it up & read through another chapter. The content of the book is complex, so I can only process one chapter at a time. Then, my brain gets tired and needs a break. (The book, for the record, is called A Disability History of the United States, and it’s definitely not a “light read.”) My point is: the slow pace of reading a physical book - feeling the material in my hands, turning each...