THE NEURODIVERGENT PROTOCOL
How do you turn a diagnosis into a blueprint for wellbeing?
Purpose of This Protocol
This protocol is for individuals who already have a formal ADHD diagnosis from a qualified clinician.
It is not a diagnostic tool, nor a substitute for medical advice.
Its purpose is to help you understand how your brain actually works—to track your lived experience with precision, and to collaborate more effectively with professionals, loved ones, and community.
Think of it as a map for life after diagnosis: a framework for translating awareness of your attention, emotion, motivation, and cognition into practical, sustainable wellbeing.
The goal isn’t control—it’s coherence. When you understand your own rhythms, you can build systems that match them instead of fighting against them.
Understanding ADHD: A Neurocognitive Overview
ADHD is not a failure of discipline. It’s a difference in brain regulation—how your mind manages attention, emotion, and reward across time.
Key dynamics include:
- Dopamine variability, affecting motivation and energy.
- Executive timing differences, making planning and follow-through harder without external structure.
- Regulatory imbalance, meaning intensity is hard to modulate, not that capacity is lacking.
ADHD is best understood as a pattern of dysregulation, not deficiency. Its expression shifts with environment, sleep, and stress—which means it’s changeable.
Progress comes not from “fixing” the brain, but from aligning your environment and routines with its natural design.
The Four Neurological Functions for Quality of Life
At the core of this protocol is the idea that wellbeing isn’t a mystery—it’s a rhythm your brain can learn to keep.
My model, Quality of Life as Neurological Balance (See Rethinking Maslow), describes how four key brain systems cooperate to create a life that feels coherent and sustainable:
- Focus Regulation — Directing and sustaining attention on what matters.
- Cognitive Integration — Turning information into order, structure, and follow-through.
- Emotional Regulation — Calming intensity and recovering from stress.
- Motivational Regulation — Linking effort to reward and purpose.
When these four functions achieve dynamic equilibrium—our neural coherence—the mind feels steady and life makes sense. Instability in one function forces the others to strain and compensate, creating the cycles of distraction, emotional overload, and burnout many people know too well.
This isn’t a “problem” to fix but a pattern to rebalance.
Just as physical fitness depends on training different muscle groups, quality of life depends on training these four neural rhythms.
Every strategy, tool, and medication in this protocol exists for one purpose: to help your brain restore balance among its four core functions—so wellbeing becomes practical, reliable, and sustainable.
ADHD Self-Regulation & Quality-of-Life Reflection
This guided reflection is for individuals with a confirmed ADHD diagnosis who want to explore their own patterns of regulation and wellbeing.
It helps you observe how these four systems—Focus, Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation—shift across time, turning self-awareness into meaningful growth.
The process is not about labeling deficits, but about learning the art of self-regulation—seeing how imbalance can become information, and difference can become design.
Through reflection and practice, you’ll learn to:
- Observe patterns instead of judging them.
- Replace shame with understanding.
- Build routines that fit your brain’s tempo.
- Advocate for yourself using clarity, not apology.
This is a living process. Over time, the protocol becomes a mirror of growth—a personalized map of your own neurological ecology.
By continuing, you confirm that you’re using this tool for personal reflection and collaboration with your clinician or support network.
Your data remains private and under your control.
FYI: How A Diagnosis Is Made
If you are seeking formal diagnosis or clinical evaluation, please consult a licensed professional who uses validated tools such as the clinical assessments listed by clicking the Show More below.
Formal ADHD diagnosis typically involves three converging components:
- History — Symptoms must have been present since childhood or early adolescence, even if not formally recognized.
- Consistency Across Domains — The same regulatory difficulties must appear in multiple areas of life—home, work, relationships, learning, or self-care.
- Functional Impairment — The symptoms must clearly affect daily wellbeing or achievement. Diagnosis is not about having traits—it’s about impact on functioning.
Most clinical assessments reference the 18 symptoms listed in the DSM-5, grouped into inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive categories.
Primary Clinical Diagnostic Assessments
1. DIVA-5 (Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in Adults)
Structured clinical interview aligned with DSM-5 criteria. Explores symptom presence and impairment across childhood and adulthood in five life domains (work, relationships, social life, leisure, self-image). Often used by psychiatrists and psychologists.
→ Excellent for comprehensive adult assessment and life-history mapping.
2. ASRS-v1.1 (Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale, WHO)
Quick self-report screening tool co-developed by the WHO and Harvard. Covers 18 DSM symptoms rated by frequency (“Never” to “Very Often”).
→ Best for initial screening and discussion with a clinician.
3. BADDS (Brown Attention-Deficit Disorder Scale)
40-item self-report inventory focusing on Executive Functions: Activation, Attention, Effort, Affect, and Memory.
→ Useful post-diagnosis to monitor executive-function challenges over time.
4. CAARS (Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scales)
Clinician and self-report versions measuring symptom severity and change across treatment. Often paired with observer ratings (from partners, family).
→ Strong for treatment follow-up and comparison between self- and external perception.
Complementary or Pediatric Tools
5. Conners 3 (Children & Adolescents) — school/home versions for parents and teachers.
6. Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Rating Scale — widely used in pediatric and family-medicine contexts.
7. WURS (Wender Utah Rating Scale) — retrospective scale for adults recalling childhood ADHD symptoms.
Performance-Based or Objective Tests
8. QbCheck / QbTest — computerized test using motion tracking to objectively measure attention, impulsivity, and activity.
9. T.O.V.A. (Test of Variables of Attention) — continuous-performance test measuring response consistency and inhibition control.
Multimodal or Specialized Assessments
10. ACE+ (ADHD Child Evaluation Plus) — combined clinical, behavioral, and neuropsychological assessment.
11. Barkley Adult ADHD Rating Scale (BAARS-IV) — clinician-oriented scale covering current and childhood symptoms plus emotional dysregulation items.
12. Weiss Functional Impairment Rating Scale (WFIRS) — measures daily-life impact across domains; useful adjunct for monitoring treatment outcomes.
