The brain-body connection.
Your brain is not a separate organ sitting above the body. It is part of it, built by it, and in constant two-way conversation with it. So much of what arrives looking mental actually starts in the body, and in a neurodivergent brain these body systems are more likely to be involved, not less.
One system, talking both ways.
In the model, the body is the single biggest amplifier. When the body is dysregulated, the brain reads as dysregulated, and the traffic runs in both directions at once.
Where the body drives the brain.
Pick one. Each is a loop, not a one-way street, and each is checked as part of a brain health assessment. The tag shows how settled the evidence is, from well established to still emerging.
Disordered eating
Well establishedWhy it clusters with a neurodivergent brain.
The pattern most assessments miss.
The striking thing is how often these travel together, and how often they travel with autism or ADHD. Look at the mind alone and you see anxiety, low mood or fatigue. Look at the whole system and you often find the body underneath, driving it. Sometimes the body is the amplifier tipping a neurotype into struggle. Sometimes it is the cause, wearing a psychiatric mask.
This is why we look at the body.
A brain health assessment checks these systems as a matter of course, because the answer to a mental presentation is so often physical, and because no one else tends to look.
Start with a brain health screening
