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Beany Brain #114: I'd Like a Brain Spa, Please + We're Actually UNDERdiagnosing

Author

Abigail Munday
October 06, 2026

Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!

Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope today’s newsletter will bounce us up as we contemplate the upsides and challenges of being neurodivergent, a little beauty, some creativity, and just general yeehawesomeness.

Table of Contents

Photo by Abigail Munday

I’d Like a Brain Spa, Please

First, a wee update. Thanks to my friend Ms. K sending me a prompt (and Ms. R sending one to me back from the future, aka October 6), I’ve officially put my jewelry away in its appropriate home after being in a little travel bag the past 2 months. Outer accountability, folks. (And I did it on my birthday, even. New year, new me, new jewelry home.)

Now my noggin would like some inner accountability in the form of brainwashing.

But not the kind you think. Not the fascist kind.

Nope.

Recently a friend in the US told me that her teenage daughter asked for a Japanese head spa treatment for her birthday.

To be honest, I don’t even know what that is. But the young lady apparently enjoyed it and I’m glad she got what she wanted and had a lovely birthday.

It got me thinking.

What if I could remove my brain and get it brain spa-ed? All the intrusive thoughts, catastrophizing, anxiety, negative spirals, masking, toxic perfectionism.

All the goodies that are co-occurring with autism and ADHD that actually make life extra extra tough sometimes.

What would that be like?

I’m ready!

Selfie by moi

Ha Ha Haiku

A funny haiku for you every week in every newsletter, whether it’s one of my own or one I curate for you. HA. Ha. Haiku.

hahahahaha
hahahahahahaha
hahahahaha

By Joel Munday

Photo by Abigail Munday

We’re Actually UNDERdiagnosing

Gosh. I’ve heard this question from several folks recently: But what about all the overdiagnosing of autism? Of ADHD?

Duncan Astle. Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge. Professor of Neuroinformatics. This dude has plenty of qualifications, and he says we’re actually UNDERDIAGNOSING if you look at the raw data.

Here’s his take from an interview on BBC Radio 4:

Instagram Post

Quick summary:

  1. We are certainly diagnosing more.

  2. Let’s use ADHD as an example. Currently in the UK, 2.5% of boys have an ADHD diagnosis, 0.7% of girls, and about 0.5% of adults.

  3. The actual numbers of diagnosed people are low.

  4. In the UK, they have a national representative population survey of 20,000 people under 18 years of age. In that group, the prevalence of ADHD folks is 3.1%, and that’s the clinical need in the population.

  5. That 3.1% is higher than the 2.5%.

  6. Even though there have been more diagnoses, we’re still underdiagnosing.

  7. The recent diagnoses are just rising to meet the underlying prevalence in the population.

So who’s going underdiagnosed?

Dr. Georgina Brown in ADHD Direct says that marginalized people groups are underdiagnosed.

She writes:

ADHD and autism are underdiagnosed across the board. That’s a fact. But for people who are already marginalised—particularly those from Black, Asian, and ethnic minority communities—the gap becomes a chasm.

Too often, we think of neurodiversity through a narrow lens: white, male, middle-class, and outwardly “disruptive.” That outdated stereotype shapes everything from referral patterns to classroom concerns to diagnostic thresholds. As a result, countless individuals—especially Black children and adults—are mislabelled, misdiagnosed, or missed entirely.

BME boys with ADHD traits are more likely to be seen as “aggressive” or “badly behaved” than neurodivergent. BME girls who mask their autism may be praised for being quiet or withdrawn, while their struggles go unnoticed. Adults from minoritised backgrounds often face years of gaslighting and dismissal, with their mental health challenges seen as personal failings, not neurological wiring.

It’s a gender issue too.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) remains significantly underdiagnosed in women, resulting in a persistent gender gap with important clinical, functional, and psychosocial implications.

This is interesting:

Standard diagnostic tools, including the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised (ADI-R), were developed and validated primarily using male samples. As a result, they are less sensitive to the more nuanced behavioral patterns often observed in autistic females (Tsuji et al., 2022). The so-called “female autism phenotype” is frequently marked by subtle social difficulties, advanced masking or camouflaging strategies, and internalized distress. Furthermore, autistic women show elevated rates of psychiatric comorbidities such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders—conditions that may obscure core autism traits and lead to misdiagnosis or delayed recognition (Tsuji et al., 2022; Navarro-Pardo et al., 2021; Stroth et al., 2022).

And this:

ASD is not a mental illness, but without appropriate identification, women often endure years of misdiagnosis and ineffective interventions.

If you have a specific interest in learning more about how autistic women deal with social settings, workplaces, friendships and relationships, and how we navigate through a neurotypical world with brains that are differently wired, the whole darn article (above) in the science journal is eye-opening. And for me, it was…Check. Check. Check. The resonating frequency was so high that I think I need to get back to my novel now to chill out.

I will come back to it in a later edition of Beany Brain.

But for now,

Yeehawesome!

Yeehawesome! is a happy-brain roundup in each issue of Beany Brain. What’s happening that’s good in brain land? What’s bringing me joy?

  1. A friend and I went to the Ishikawa Prefectural History Museum for an international clothing exhibit this week. I’m not allowed to use the photos I took for anything other than personal use (per instructions at the exhibit), but I can share a screenshot from the museum’s website (above). The craftsmanship! The colors! The design! The impact! The cultural meanings! It was just yeehawesomely fab.

  2. More beautiful clothing! Thanks to my friend Ms. C for sending me this link for The Metropolitan Museum of Art costume exhibit. A mesmerizing 20 minutes (with arguably some high-falutin’ explanations).

  3. From Gizmodo: Why do dill pickles light up when you electrocute them? Very interesting and unexpected. (Thank you to my husband for this quirky, scientific link.)

Quote of the Week

Adjusting our expectations to match the season we’re in doesn’t mean we’ve failed. It means we have an opportunity to honor our humanity, and that is a gift.

As a neurodivergent individual, this is tough. We live in a world that sees output as success and choosing to rest as a character flaw. Just in case you needed this reminder: your value doesn’t come from your output. When God created you, God created you as a human with dignity. There’s so much value in who you are, just because you are you, not what you produce.

Denea from The Calm substack 

Beany Brownie Points and Extra Bonus Funniness

Wonderful Wednesday

Wonderful Wednesday was a day once a year in college when they would suddenly and surprisingly call off all classes and we’d play all day. The cafeteria provided special fun food and we’d do stuff outside like slip ‘n slides and jello wrestling in sumo suits. This segment of Beany Brain is dedicated to that memory of silliness and fun—no words, just a photo from the week that I’ve taken or found that reminds me to let the joy in. Since Beany Brain is published on Wednesday every week (at least, Wednesday in Japan), I hope you enjoy this Wonderful Wednesday.

Photo by Abigail Munday

Today’s Beany-full Summary:

  • What would it be like to have a cleansing brain spa?

  • A Cambridge professor of psychiatry argues with data that we are actually underdiagnosing neurodivergencies.

  • Go forth in Beany joy. What will help you feel yeehawesome this week?

Thank you for reading this installment of Beany Brain! You’re very welcome to hop on by any old time.

If you’re enjoying Beany Brain, please share with a friend or seventeen at www.beanybrain.com. Cheers big time!