Written by Kearin Green
For this interview, I sat down with Purple Lantern committee members Dee, Eve, and Lili to discuss the aims of their brand new society, and accessibility issues within the university, whilst being our fun, neurodivergent selves.
What is the society?
Dee: It’s Purple Lantern society.
Eve: No, I think she means ‘what is it about’.
Dee: Ohh.
Lili: It’s a society for neurodivergent students, so that’s people primarily with conditions like ADHD and autism, but it extends to things like dyslexia and dyspraxia.
Dee: Anxiety, depression…
Lili: All stuff like that.
Why did you establish Purple Lantern society, and why do you think it’s important?
Eve: We wanted to make a neurodivergent-friendly space, because I don’t think there are enough of those spaces at the university. Like, like-minded people just being able to meet in a low-pressure environment. To provide space for neurodivergent people to chill to support one another, and to spread awareness about neurodiversity.
Dee: The idea started within the Living Well With Autism group, which is how we all know each other. After the person who led the group left the university, it came up to us to organise and plan everything. I had been looking into other university neurodivergent groups and noticed that all of them revolve around autism. It’s great that there are those spaces, but it would also be cool if other neurodivergent people could also have that space. It also came from not only the Living Well With Autism group being disbanded, but also because I found out that you could be part of the group and still be self-suspecting or self-diagnosed- and not a lot of people know that. Not a lot of people even knew about the group in the first place. It was never really advertised properly. Then, over the summer, it kicked off.
Eve: It was quite stressful. The panic that it instilled in me…
Dee: We were not the ones originally planning this entire thing. We could be BCC’d in all the emails and stuff but it wasn’t originally our responsibility to plan all of this. I fortunately had Eve and Lili’s numbers. I emailed around, asking questions, trying to form it over the summer and discussing things for the union. It was just fingers crossed that everything would work out.
And it did?
Dee: Yeah, it happened quite late. We started off as five people and then it became three.
Eve: Basically, to sum it up, it was a complete last-minute panic. We had two months to set it up. We knew we wanted to get to Freshers’ but we weren’t too sure we’d get there.
Dee: After people left, for numerous reasons, I literally asked my housemate if they wanted to fill the position, that’s the point it got to.
Eve: But everything ended up working out, really. I’m the treasurer now. I’m kind of bad at maths, though. I shouldn’t tell people that.
Dee: We just all work things out together, help one another with tasks and do this together.
Lili: It’s all worked out so much better than I thought it was going to, to be honest. I remember looking at the requirements of a successful society, and it would say things like ‘you need to get 20 members in the first week’ and I was like, ‘are we going to be able to do that? Is that possible?’
Dee: But before our description was up on the UPSU website, we already had three members. We added the description and then came the big influx in. I do get that Purple Lantern isn’t very obvious with neurodiversity.
Purple Lantern's logo
Why did you call it Purple Lantern?
Dee: Because firstly, purple is the main colour of the university. Secondly, the lantern, it alludes to light, like lighting the way. It’s a sense of a superpower. That’s my theory at least.
Imagine if you had called the group Brains?
Dee: [Laughs]. Because that’s what the woman from HowtoADHD calls people. Like she greets her viewers with ‘hello brains’.
Lili: We thought about NDs at one stage but then I thought it sounded too much like Deez Nuts.
[Laughter fills the room].
Why would you encourage people to join Purple Lantern?
Lili: A big thing is improving and maintaining the wellbeing of neurodivergent students.
Dee: Meeting people and making friends that are also neurodivergent.
Lili: If you’re neurodivergent, you’re likely to struggle with connecting with people.
Dee: That’s something we get because us, as neurodivergent people, understand that struggle. So now we can just all struggle with connecting with people together!
Eve: Socialising is just a big thing anyway. Everybody, neurodivergent or not, disabled or not, deserves to be safe and be supported and have friends. And by joining us, we can help you do that.
Lili: It also gives people the opportunity to have experiences that they haven’t had before. A lot of the socials we do, all of them being neurodivergent friendly, are sometimes joint socials with another society. It might encourage you to join their societies too.
Dee: The only way a lot of people find out about other societies is through Freshers’ Fair- which isn’t very sensory friendly. By doing these joint socials, it gives people the opportunity to see what they can do without having to go to Freshers’, which can be really overwhelming for a lot of people.
It sounds like joining your society would make university life much more accessible for neurodivergent people.
All: Yeah, exactly.
Is there anything you believe the university can do to make the institution as a whole, from learning to living, more accessible to neurodivergent people?
Lili: There’s a lot of good stuff academically. When it comes to socialising and university life, there are less things to help you with that.
Dee: Academically, it’s fine. As someone with ADHD, it is hard for me to sit down and focus, but I also understand that it’s a learning curve. I think they need to advertise their resources much more. If I think back to Living Well With Autism, it wasn’t clear that you could go to the group without an official diagnosis. It also comes down to what ASDAC too. They ask me what I need, but I don’t always know. What can you offer me? What is there?
That happened to me too. I just took everything I could get, even if it didn’t help, to show that I was ‘trying’.
Eve: You need to know what to ask and advocate for yourself. And if you don’t know how to do either of those things, it’s really difficult to get what you need.
Dee: I remember getting results for an ADHD assessment that I had done and the disability officer explained to me that they weren't qualified to explain the feedback of the assessment to me or answer the questions I had about the results. The person that usually could help and knows how to do these things had been let go, which, you know, doesn’t help.
There really should be a person in that department who specialises in neurodivergency.
Eve: ASDAC is only really for academic issues, but it doesn’t help me with the socialising aspect of university. A lot of people struggle with that.
Dee: That’s why something like Living Well With Autism was helpful and important, but now neurodivergent people have lost that resource at university. It even helped me academically, because neurodivergent people do things in a certain way, and need to know how to apply their methods. Some people just write something in their planner and they’re done. Sorted.
Eve: It’s also an awareness thing. I like to assume at this point that most people know what neurodivergent means, hopefully. Most people know what ADHD and Autism are at this point, but a lot of people don’t know about learning difficulties like dyspraxia. I’m sure I might have it and still a lot of people don’t know.
How has being neurodivergent affected your university experience, and how has Purple Lantern helped?
Lili: I have both autism and ADHD and they both affect me in different ways. My autism really affects me socially, especially on my course (Film Production) where there is a lot of group work and contacting industry professionals with the hope that they’ll call you back. For me, that’s very anxiety-inducing. My ADHD affects me academically because I have a tendency to procrastinate. The society has allowed me to see how many neurodivergent people there are here, and it’s really nice to know that. It makes me feel good that there’s so many people who want to join our group. It’s a break from the academic side of things and a place to relax.
Eve: I’m autistic. If you had told me at 16 that by second year I’d have friends and we would hang out together and socialise at university- I wouldn’t have believed you. I thought university? No. Socialising? No, because I am not good at that. It didn’t seem possible. I still have my difficulties. I can’t heal my autism, and I don’t want to heal myself either, I’m not that sort of person. I still have lots of social anxiety, so it’s just nice to have this space within the society. When I look at other societies at the university, I think that they look cool and I’d love to join them, but they’re not…I can’t…no. It’s just there’s a group of people…but with this society, it’s like we’re all one. It’s nice not to have that judgement. I’ve spent so much time masking, which is horrible, so to be in this space and be able to provide this space to people means a lot to me- without getting too soppy.
Dee: Academically, I’m always checking my timetable to make sure I’m doing everything right in terms of times and places. Alarms and reminders are my best friends. I don’t particularly like lectures- it’s not really my learning style, I like reading and learning like that- but everything at uni is a lecture. Just managing everything is hard as well. I always fall behind- I’m already falling behind and it’s like, the third or fourth week of university. Socialising is hard as well. I’m quite impulsive, so that impacts things. I’m also an international student, so when I came here I didn’t know how to connect with people or make friends, because the culture is different and so is the language. I’m glad we have these societies where you can find like-minded people.
I’m also Vice President of the Pagan society and I’m really glad I found the society. I don’t like going to bars or clubs because it’s loud and I can’t hear what people are saying, which sucks because I want to make friends and connect. What I’ve found with the two societies is that we’ve been able to make alternative events for people who don’t want to drink. So instead, we’ll just go get an ice cream, something like that. That’s what some people would rather do. If this society existed when I got my diagnosis a while ago, I would’ve joined even earlier. Because at the time I was so keen to meet like-minded people, especially in this aspect.
Another thing I like is that we provide people with answers to the questions which are asked so much, for example, where to get an ADHD diagnosis. There’s not always very obvious answers. When you have a community like this, especially with using Discord as our way of communicating, there will be someone who knows or somewhere to signpost. We can help each other as a community.
I do feel that university services could signpost more, especially since so many people start to realise that they might be neurodivergent at the average university-starting age. You move away from home , your life changes and you begin unmasking in the process of that- especially girls, who on an average are diagnosed later.
Dee: Exactly. This problem goes even deeper because medical professionals aren’t educated enough about neurodivergency. They still believe in stereotypes, and some don’t even know where to signpost you to the right places.
Eve: Literally with autism all of the research that has been done and the diagnosis criteria that has been set is based on boys.
Lili: Yeah, even when I’m online and I want to see what’s happening to me is an autism thing or ADHD thing, it always goes like ‘this might be what is happening to your child with ADHD’. What about adults with ADHD?
Society hasn’t adapted to the fact that ADHD kids eventually grow up to be ADHD adults. The fact that these results come up first, and it’s so hard to find anything that applies to you, just shows the lack of acknowledgement, even though it’s happening to so many people. Some people even believe you outgrow ADHD, I swear to god.
Dee: People still believe in stereotypes. Some aren’t aware of the spectrum these conditions have. They’ll believe autism is still always being non-verbal and not acknowledging you, when there are lots of people at university with autism who are the absolute opposite of that. It’s these crazy stereotypes. It’s not even that more people are getting ADHD or autism, it’s that people are getting professional help, and those who slipped through the cracks are finally being acknowledged.
What advice would you give to neurodivergent people starting university who feel like they might not fit in?
Lili: At least academically, it was very helpful for me to mention before I started that even though I wasn’t officially diagnosed, I was suspecting. That way a lot of help was already in place for me when I started. Socially, it is still more difficult.
Dee: I suppose try to find a society for neurodivergent people.
Lili: Yeah, join our society!
Dee: Exactly, join our society! What I also found helpful was going to Wellbeing Café sessions- just going to do your own arts and crafts and talking to people at the café.
Lili: Don’t feel pressured to do things which are socially expected of you, like going to nightclubs when you actually don’t want to.
Dee: It’s not worth it. You go because you feel like you need to, and then you think ‘why did I do this’.
Eve: So many people act like they drink and club but there’s actually so many people who don’t like it.
Dee: Don’t try and break yourself to fit in. You will find your people by not trying to fit in. It may be on your course or in a society, or even outside uni. Uni is only for three or four years- it’s just a phase in your life, and you should enjoy it the way you want to, because it’s not forever.
Eve: I feel like I’m going to shove this in bold, italic, underlined, size 72 font. There are so many people who want to help, so please reach out. You are not alone, I know it feels like it, but you’re really not. Listen, I’m mentally ill, I’m still getting there, getting the t-shirt. Like, you know, there are a lot of hands, and as hard as it is, you need to grab a hand. A big thing I struggled with when I started university was this idea that everyone was going to know I was different, and if I told them I was autistic they would just be like: ‘I don’t like you anymore’. But so few people care. You do get the minority who care about it- and I’m sure you wouldn’t really want to be friends with people like that anyway- but, the majority of people don’t care. They see you as an equal. I did fear that if they found out I’m autistic that they would all just hate me- fun social anxiety moment.
Lili: The society has actually made me go up to people on my course and say hi, and say that this is the society I run. I don’t care what you think. So that’s been great.
Dee: In a way, getting my diagnosis and sharing my diagnosis has been liberating. Because I own what I am. I am this person and if you don’t like it, you can go suck it. If you don’t like it, I don’t care. I’m here for myself and I’ll do the best that I can.
About The Author: Kearin Green (she/her)
Hi, I’m Kearin and I am the magazine’s Welfare Officer! I am a second year Film Production student and am currently committed to using our support platform to give mental health a louder voice at our university. I also write about cinema, political issues, humour pieces and whatever comes to mind.
(This piece was edited by Amber Turner-Brightman)
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