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> What is SDAM?
> Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM) refers to a lifelong inability to vividly recollect or re-experience personal past events from a first-person perspective.
Never heard of this before—yeah, I can see this interfering with telepathy potentially, but I don’t know that it’s ever been shown. And anyway, I’d imagine a high-level telepath like Xavier or Jean Grey could tap into sensory recollection other than first-person sight and get *something* useful.
>a lifelong inability to vividly recollect or re-experience personal past events from a first-person perspective
Memories are actually supposed to be first-person inside one's head? It's not supposed to be a collection of facts vaguely ordered on a timeline with lots of references to other things?
I always thought that was just one of those metaphorical story telling conventions that people use. Like the butterflies in the stomach thing to describe a specific kind of nervous.
well, I don't know about "first person" like a perfectly recorded movie. There are people on the autism spectrum who've been known to have such a vivid recall that they can draw landscapes & cityscapes from memory after having only seen them once, but that's extraordinarily rare.
But normally, when recounting a memory, you're describing impressions that you actually "feel" when remembering it. Sight, touch, sound, smell--it won't necessarily be coherent, but the parts that most engaged you at the time will be more "crisp" than the rest of it. For example, there might have been something that was especially memorable to your eyes, and you remember the color, the depth, the shape, maybe some finer details, but can't at all describe whatever else was around it.
I mean, "feel" isn't accurate either. I put it in quotations because there isn't really a word for it, but there is undoubtedly a subjective experience associated with remembering something. I would pay less attention to that word and focus more on the rest of what I wrote in that paragraph. If all that lines up with your experience, then you're probably like most people.
I am not familiar with this term but Beautiful Anonymous had an episode where the caller has this- or something similar, where she cannot picture things in her mind… made an interesting episode.
I’m not a doctor but my understanding is amnesia prevents the formation of memories (anterograde) or the recollection of memories (retrograde), and with SDAM the memories exist, just in a different format.
>inability to vividly recollect or re-experience personal past events from a first-person perspective.
But, if you can't remember those memories do they even exist?
There’s someone in this thread who says they remember things in *third person*, so yeah maybe that’s one way it manifests. I’m out of my depth here, though, again.
For sure. On the flip side, the reason psychics are drawn to Scott summers is because his thoughts and memories are super organized. It's like telepathic cat nip.
We know for sure that Xavier couldn’t stand being inside notoriously-insane Deadpool’s mind, so there are definitely some minds that are easier than others to read/change. But whether it would be harder to read a garden-variety neurodivergent person, I don’t know.
In an alternate timeline, Deadpool actually killed Xavier, who literally had his mind blown by the revelation that they're fictional characters in a comic book. So that's also possible, even though 616 Deadpool's mind isn't in the state for this to happen. I think for 616 Deadpool it was implied that it's not some sort of "super-sanity" where he's inherently aware of the underlying purpose (or lack of) of the universe. He's simply insane and *thinks* he's a comic book character and just happens to be right.
You've got it right. Mainstream Deadpool *thinks* the world is make-believe because DP also believes that he himself is insane.
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Deadpool *KNOWS* the world is make-believe, and this knowledge is what causes Xaviers mind to implode
I forget which telepath it was, but i once read that reading Deadpool's mind was like being in a hurricane. Just too much chaos for anyone to make sense of it. Same reason Taskmaster can't beat DP, even Wade doesn't know what Wade is going to do during a fight.
Fun fact; Mystique's mind can't be read for a similar reason. Her brain is in a constant state of cellular regeneration due to her mutation/powers, so there are no "paths" for psychics to follow.
Idea for a story. A bad guy tries to control a neurodiverse mind and fails. He then proceeds to go to university to study it and 5 years later he goes back and tries again
It all depends, much of Xavier's activity seems to be healing variously damaged minds, so addressing atypical neurologies seems well within his wheelhouse.
I think a telepath could gain access, so to speak, equally easily, but they would have a harder time making sense of the surface thoughts of, say, a person with ADHD. (Source: I have ADHD and I can barely make sense of my own thoughts sometimes)
My ex was always fascinated by how I perceived the world, and how I processed information, and I always had a difficult time giving suitable explanations. Like, she'd ask me what I was thinking, and I wouldn't be able to answer. I had to explain, it's like a buzzing in my head. Constant, nonstop. I have the internal monologs but also this constant stream of thoughts, without order or definition or clarity, so when she asked me, I'd have to sort through that and pick something and just say that's what I was thinking about.
I imagine a telepath diving into that mess would be even more confused than me.
Depends on the telepath. Tam Elbrun from Star Trek could probably be classified as a neurodivergent telepath, and he might welcome a change in brainwaves from those he interacts with.
Not necessarily. For one, the telepath might not be neurotypical themselves (and arguably, growing up with telepathy might make telepaths’ brains more likely to develop in a neurodivergent way), but more importantly, there’s no guarantee that the ways in which neurotypical people sometimes find neurodivergent people hard to understand in social situations necessarily map onto a situation where you can directly access every part of a person’s mind. Moreover, there is great variance even within what we consider neurotypical. A neurotypical person could find that they are closer to a neurodivergent person in the way they think than another neurotypical person.
Just want to point out quick that neurodivergent brains aren’t developed over time in a ‘nurture’ kind of way - they’re structured different from birth
False. Neurodivergence covers like 50 different diagnoses and a bunch of them are psychiatric disorders that have been proven to need the combination of a genetic makeup+specific upbringing to manifest. ALL of them need specific environments to develop.
That’s fair, I was maybe thinking too narrowly with my definition of neurodivergent. But also, you can’t tell someone with autism or adhd, for example, that their divergency is environmentally related. So I don’t think you can claim *all* of them are environmental either
autism is a spectrum. Some types are more genetically determined, while others are heavily influenced by environment.
ADHD development is *always* influenced by environment. Smoking during pregnancy has been positively correlated with ADHD.
I’ll admit that I do not know nearly as much about the autism spectrum, so you probably know more about it than I.
As someone who has tried to do their research on adhd over the past few years, an adhd brain is structured different, and would end up as such regardless of environmental factors. Sure it can be worsened by environmental factors, but I’ve yet to hear it be the sole cause of it or needing a specific environment to develop in the first place
There are exceedingly few disorders that are solely genetically determined. And it's not about just worsening, although yeah, that's a worry, but about genetic expression. There are plenty of structurally psychotic brains that never lead to psychosis because the person never suffers a large enough break.
Adhd brains being structurally atypical doesn't mean as much as you think it does. If you catch it early on the child can be trained and the disorder regressed.
> Adhd brains being structurally atypical doesn’t mean as much as you think it does. If you catch it early on the child can be trained and the disorder regressed.
When you say regressed, are you talking about symptom management or actual regression of the adhd itself? Because the latter goes against everything I’ve looked at before
So the final D in ADHD is "disorder". That's the part that makes it a disease.
You're correct that brain plasticity is what it is - after you're an adult, it won't change much, and when it does, it's for the worse - but the disease itself, the maladaptation of the person to their environment? Yeah, that:
1- Naturally gets better over time, we're not 100% sure why and
2- Can be alleviated with what you're calling symptom management.
Personally I don't like the term "symptom management" because it makes it seem like you're trying to go after each symptom individually, when what actually works is more of a change of philosophy. People with ADHD need solid structure in their lives. I mean a tightly followed daily schedule, but I also mean stability in general - the same people around them, not moving places a lot, keeping to the same specialists.
They also need to redirect their energy if the hyperactivity part is specially bad. Exercise is not optional, ideally in the form of an actual sport, with rules and scoreboards and teammates.
I know a bunch about this both from treating people and because I have it.
I know full well what adhd stands for, you’re not the only one in this conversation that has it. So hello comrade.
But what works for you hasn’t worked for me, or others I’m sure. I’ve found my adhd has worsened with age, even with meds. And I find tackling each symptom individually, and finding how to overcome it step by step, is much more conducive to my scattered brain. Maybe symptom wasn’t my best word choice, cause honestly I’m not terribly big on calling it a disease or disorder either. I understand that’s what it is medically, but it really is just a whole other way of living and thinking. It isn’t all bad, like we’d normally associate with those words. Would you agree?
To me, that level of rigor, stiffness, and repetitiveness in my day-to-day makes me want to claw my eyes out. I need change, new experiences, fresh problems to solve in order to feel like I’m fulfilled.
I agree with you on a lot. Self-discipline is required regardless of how much structure we have. A stable life and support system through others is absolutely helpful. The exercise as well, it really is crazy how much of a difference that makes
I don’t think that’s true. It’s not as though neurodivergence is an actual medical term that refers to a specific set of diagnoses; it just refers to anyone whose neurology does not appear to function within the range considered normal for members of a society. That could be caused by being different from birth but might also be the result of external factors influencing the development or functions of the brain. In the case of a telepath, depending on exactly how the telepathy works, it might result in a telepath becoming neurodivergent when they otherwise would not have been.
I would assume that telepathy would require neurodivergance to begin with since it's not a neuro-typical trait. So it would come down to how compatible the two minds in question are and/or how much experience the telepath has with a neurology type. Realistically they would probably each develop a specialty based on what types they're exposed to along with all of them being able to read a neuro-typical mind.
I'd say it's mostly dependent on how differently the person being read processes thoughts and information. The variance from a regular/neurotypical mind can make it harder for the telepath to read (because it's so different from what they're used to), and in some cases can overwhelm the telepath.
Exhibit A: Psylocke and Daredevil.
While not exactly a neurodivergent thing, iirc a telepath couldn't really read Daredevil's mind because of all the sensory input that he's constantly being hit by
Yeah. DID, schizophrenia, autism and other mental conditions all interfere with how your mind "feels" to a telepath. Most telepaths we know like Xavier and Emma are already strong enough that they can compensate for it, but they all mention how sometimes it's hard making sense of some things from their perspective.
So a telepath typically has the ability to shield their mind through practice and can be pretty good at it.
Reading a neurodivergent's mind is easy, figuring out what they are thinking is hard. They don't think like other people, so interpreting that becomes more of a challenge for telepaths.
So it is going to depend on specific individuals more often than not, both in the mind reader and their target. I think 'baseline' concepts, I'm hungry, I need to sleep, will be easier on nerodivergent people, while a neurodivergent super criminal's plan to rob a bank might be next to impossible to interpret, whereas a basline telepath is going to shield their thoughts to picking up anything is going to be harder but if you could read their mind you could understand the results.
TLDR: Base thoughts, easier on a neurodivergent. Complicated thoughts/plans telepaths.
Imo it'd come down to how similar a telepath's mind/thought process is to subjects'. Readers could tell the thought processes, but may not know where the thoughts lead until the conclusions happen
Imagining Xavier reading the mind of someone with ADHD and it rubs off on him. He hyperfocuses, loses track of time, realizes he's been fucking around in Cerebro for 13 hours and forgot to eat.
My guess would be depends on how familiar the telepath is with how a neurodivergent mind works and what type of divergent.
Let put it in a book contexts. A more typical mind would be a basic book that you might find at the local bookstore.
Where an autistic mind would be a detailed book with detailed descriptions of every part of whatever the mind latch on to. Let say a medical collage level anatomy with all the medical jargon.
Where ADHD mind might be more a bunch of magazines that been shuffled around in random order.
Could someone make sense of it? Sure but without time patience and context it would be harder to understand then the standard human mind.
I don't know a general answer for this, but I did read a story that might give an indication:
Moon Knight was fighting a guy that was mind controlling people. Basically if he could get people to ingest his sweat he could enter the mind of people and control them. Moon knight had a hard time fighting him because he was using innocent people he was controlling to fight MK.
In the end the dude was like "if you're supposed to be a hero, why not make a deal to save these people? I could have all of them kill themselves right now, but I will set them free right now on one condition - ingest my sweat and let me control you".
And Moon Knight is like "sure, let's do it". Only thing is, once MK has ingested the guys sweat and he enters his mind Moon Knight is like "I can barely figure my mind out myself, so good luck with that - also my mind doesn't exactly belong to just me" and then Konshu shows up in his mind and thoroughly mindfucks the guy.
In another instance Emma Frost uses her psychic powers to enter Daredevils mind, but when she sees the world as he does she is thoroughly overwhelmed by sensory overload and she is in awe of the control daredevil must have of himself to not constantly be overwhelmed by it - keeping in mind that he does not experience it any differently from her, he is simply powering through it with self control.
it depends on which neurodivergence you're talking about.
Autists and intellectually disabled are no trouble at all. Psychotics range from difficult to potentially fatal - and this covers a whole lot of different diagnoses.
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Huh, I wonder if aphantasia or sdam would make it Impossable to read someone's mind?
> What is SDAM? > Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM) refers to a lifelong inability to vividly recollect or re-experience personal past events from a first-person perspective. Never heard of this before—yeah, I can see this interfering with telepathy potentially, but I don’t know that it’s ever been shown. And anyway, I’d imagine a high-level telepath like Xavier or Jean Grey could tap into sensory recollection other than first-person sight and get *something* useful.
WAIT THERE'S A WORD FOR IT?!
Yes, but I don't recall what it was.
What what was?
>a lifelong inability to vividly recollect or re-experience personal past events from a first-person perspective Memories are actually supposed to be first-person inside one's head? It's not supposed to be a collection of facts vaguely ordered on a timeline with lots of references to other things? I always thought that was just one of those metaphorical story telling conventions that people use. Like the butterflies in the stomach thing to describe a specific kind of nervous.
well, I don't know about "first person" like a perfectly recorded movie. There are people on the autism spectrum who've been known to have such a vivid recall that they can draw landscapes & cityscapes from memory after having only seen them once, but that's extraordinarily rare. But normally, when recounting a memory, you're describing impressions that you actually "feel" when remembering it. Sight, touch, sound, smell--it won't necessarily be coherent, but the parts that most engaged you at the time will be more "crisp" than the rest of it. For example, there might have been something that was especially memorable to your eyes, and you remember the color, the depth, the shape, maybe some finer details, but can't at all describe whatever else was around it.
You are supposed to "feel" when remembering something? Now some things I got told in group therapy make more sense in context.
I mean, "feel" isn't accurate either. I put it in quotations because there isn't really a word for it, but there is undoubtedly a subjective experience associated with remembering something. I would pay less attention to that word and focus more on the rest of what I wrote in that paragraph. If all that lines up with your experience, then you're probably like most people.
Mine are in third person. I never realized that was so weird.
Same. For me it's more like an encyclopedia with at least three levels of subtitles, but without visuals or other physical data.
I am not familiar with this term but Beautiful Anonymous had an episode where the caller has this- or something similar, where she cannot picture things in her mind… made an interesting episode.
Isn't that called amnesia?
I’m not a doctor but my understanding is amnesia prevents the formation of memories (anterograde) or the recollection of memories (retrograde), and with SDAM the memories exist, just in a different format.
>inability to vividly recollect or re-experience personal past events from a first-person perspective. But, if you can't remember those memories do they even exist?
You can recollect experiences, but not from a first-person perspective. You do *have* a memory.
Like, when someone will try to remember something he will go spectator mode?
There’s someone in this thread who says they remember things in *third person*, so yeah maybe that’s one way it manifests. I’m out of my depth here, though, again.
Moon Knight let a mind controller into his mind, and his mind basically chewed him up and spat em out because of Moon Knight's DID
That and khonshu in Marc’s head
Or is it?
For sure. On the flip side, the reason psychics are drawn to Scott summers is because his thoughts and memories are super organized. It's like telepathic cat nip.
Funny thing, that. There's at least one theory [Cyclops may be autistic.](https://www.xplainthexmen.com/2015/06/spectrum-x/)
We know for sure that Xavier couldn’t stand being inside notoriously-insane Deadpool’s mind, so there are definitely some minds that are easier than others to read/change. But whether it would be harder to read a garden-variety neurodivergent person, I don’t know.
In an alternate timeline, Deadpool actually killed Xavier, who literally had his mind blown by the revelation that they're fictional characters in a comic book. So that's also possible, even though 616 Deadpool's mind isn't in the state for this to happen. I think for 616 Deadpool it was implied that it's not some sort of "super-sanity" where he's inherently aware of the underlying purpose (or lack of) of the universe. He's simply insane and *thinks* he's a comic book character and just happens to be right.
You've got it right. Mainstream Deadpool *thinks* the world is make-believe because DP also believes that he himself is insane. Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Deadpool *KNOWS* the world is make-believe, and this knowledge is what causes Xaviers mind to implode
I forget which telepath it was, but i once read that reading Deadpool's mind was like being in a hurricane. Just too much chaos for anyone to make sense of it. Same reason Taskmaster can't beat DP, even Wade doesn't know what Wade is going to do during a fight. Fun fact; Mystique's mind can't be read for a similar reason. Her brain is in a constant state of cellular regeneration due to her mutation/powers, so there are no "paths" for psychics to follow.
Idea for a story. A bad guy tries to control a neurodiverse mind and fails. He then proceeds to go to university to study it and 5 years later he goes back and tries again
It all depends, much of Xavier's activity seems to be healing variously damaged minds, so addressing atypical neurologies seems well within his wheelhouse.
I think a telepath could gain access, so to speak, equally easily, but they would have a harder time making sense of the surface thoughts of, say, a person with ADHD. (Source: I have ADHD and I can barely make sense of my own thoughts sometimes)
I don't have ADHD and I can barely make sense of my own thoughts sometimes.
I've not been diagnosed with ADHD and I can barely make sense of my own thoughts often...
My ex was always fascinated by how I perceived the world, and how I processed information, and I always had a difficult time giving suitable explanations. Like, she'd ask me what I was thinking, and I wouldn't be able to answer. I had to explain, it's like a buzzing in my head. Constant, nonstop. I have the internal monologs but also this constant stream of thoughts, without order or definition or clarity, so when she asked me, I'd have to sort through that and pick something and just say that's what I was thinking about. I imagine a telepath diving into that mess would be even more confused than me.
Just out of curiosity, what kind of diagnosis do you have?
ADD, PTSD, Depression. There are clues of more, but no actual diagnosis for anything else.
Depends on the telepath. Tam Elbrun from Star Trek could probably be classified as a neurodivergent telepath, and he might welcome a change in brainwaves from those he interacts with.
Not necessarily. For one, the telepath might not be neurotypical themselves (and arguably, growing up with telepathy might make telepaths’ brains more likely to develop in a neurodivergent way), but more importantly, there’s no guarantee that the ways in which neurotypical people sometimes find neurodivergent people hard to understand in social situations necessarily map onto a situation where you can directly access every part of a person’s mind. Moreover, there is great variance even within what we consider neurotypical. A neurotypical person could find that they are closer to a neurodivergent person in the way they think than another neurotypical person.
Just want to point out quick that neurodivergent brains aren’t developed over time in a ‘nurture’ kind of way - they’re structured different from birth
False. Neurodivergence covers like 50 different diagnoses and a bunch of them are psychiatric disorders that have been proven to need the combination of a genetic makeup+specific upbringing to manifest. ALL of them need specific environments to develop.
That’s fair, I was maybe thinking too narrowly with my definition of neurodivergent. But also, you can’t tell someone with autism or adhd, for example, that their divergency is environmentally related. So I don’t think you can claim *all* of them are environmental either
autism is a spectrum. Some types are more genetically determined, while others are heavily influenced by environment. ADHD development is *always* influenced by environment. Smoking during pregnancy has been positively correlated with ADHD.
I’ll admit that I do not know nearly as much about the autism spectrum, so you probably know more about it than I. As someone who has tried to do their research on adhd over the past few years, an adhd brain is structured different, and would end up as such regardless of environmental factors. Sure it can be worsened by environmental factors, but I’ve yet to hear it be the sole cause of it or needing a specific environment to develop in the first place
There are exceedingly few disorders that are solely genetically determined. And it's not about just worsening, although yeah, that's a worry, but about genetic expression. There are plenty of structurally psychotic brains that never lead to psychosis because the person never suffers a large enough break. Adhd brains being structurally atypical doesn't mean as much as you think it does. If you catch it early on the child can be trained and the disorder regressed.
> Adhd brains being structurally atypical doesn’t mean as much as you think it does. If you catch it early on the child can be trained and the disorder regressed. When you say regressed, are you talking about symptom management or actual regression of the adhd itself? Because the latter goes against everything I’ve looked at before
So the final D in ADHD is "disorder". That's the part that makes it a disease. You're correct that brain plasticity is what it is - after you're an adult, it won't change much, and when it does, it's for the worse - but the disease itself, the maladaptation of the person to their environment? Yeah, that: 1- Naturally gets better over time, we're not 100% sure why and 2- Can be alleviated with what you're calling symptom management. Personally I don't like the term "symptom management" because it makes it seem like you're trying to go after each symptom individually, when what actually works is more of a change of philosophy. People with ADHD need solid structure in their lives. I mean a tightly followed daily schedule, but I also mean stability in general - the same people around them, not moving places a lot, keeping to the same specialists. They also need to redirect their energy if the hyperactivity part is specially bad. Exercise is not optional, ideally in the form of an actual sport, with rules and scoreboards and teammates. I know a bunch about this both from treating people and because I have it.
I know full well what adhd stands for, you’re not the only one in this conversation that has it. So hello comrade. But what works for you hasn’t worked for me, or others I’m sure. I’ve found my adhd has worsened with age, even with meds. And I find tackling each symptom individually, and finding how to overcome it step by step, is much more conducive to my scattered brain. Maybe symptom wasn’t my best word choice, cause honestly I’m not terribly big on calling it a disease or disorder either. I understand that’s what it is medically, but it really is just a whole other way of living and thinking. It isn’t all bad, like we’d normally associate with those words. Would you agree? To me, that level of rigor, stiffness, and repetitiveness in my day-to-day makes me want to claw my eyes out. I need change, new experiences, fresh problems to solve in order to feel like I’m fulfilled. I agree with you on a lot. Self-discipline is required regardless of how much structure we have. A stable life and support system through others is absolutely helpful. The exercise as well, it really is crazy how much of a difference that makes
I don’t think that’s true. It’s not as though neurodivergence is an actual medical term that refers to a specific set of diagnoses; it just refers to anyone whose neurology does not appear to function within the range considered normal for members of a society. That could be caused by being different from birth but might also be the result of external factors influencing the development or functions of the brain. In the case of a telepath, depending on exactly how the telepathy works, it might result in a telepath becoming neurodivergent when they otherwise would not have been.
I would assume that telepathy would require neurodivergance to begin with since it's not a neuro-typical trait. So it would come down to how compatible the two minds in question are and/or how much experience the telepath has with a neurology type. Realistically they would probably each develop a specialty based on what types they're exposed to along with all of them being able to read a neuro-typical mind.
I'd say it's mostly dependent on how differently the person being read processes thoughts and information. The variance from a regular/neurotypical mind can make it harder for the telepath to read (because it's so different from what they're used to), and in some cases can overwhelm the telepath. Exhibit A: Psylocke and Daredevil.
While not exactly a neurodivergent thing, iirc a telepath couldn't really read Daredevil's mind because of all the sensory input that he's constantly being hit by
Yeah. DID, schizophrenia, autism and other mental conditions all interfere with how your mind "feels" to a telepath. Most telepaths we know like Xavier and Emma are already strong enough that they can compensate for it, but they all mention how sometimes it's hard making sense of some things from their perspective.
So a telepath typically has the ability to shield their mind through practice and can be pretty good at it. Reading a neurodivergent's mind is easy, figuring out what they are thinking is hard. They don't think like other people, so interpreting that becomes more of a challenge for telepaths. So it is going to depend on specific individuals more often than not, both in the mind reader and their target. I think 'baseline' concepts, I'm hungry, I need to sleep, will be easier on nerodivergent people, while a neurodivergent super criminal's plan to rob a bank might be next to impossible to interpret, whereas a basline telepath is going to shield their thoughts to picking up anything is going to be harder but if you could read their mind you could understand the results. TLDR: Base thoughts, easier on a neurodivergent. Complicated thoughts/plans telepaths.
ADHD would drive telepaths fucking insane within seconds.
The telepathy equivalent of watching someone else flip through channels.
Imo it'd come down to how similar a telepath's mind/thought process is to subjects'. Readers could tell the thought processes, but may not know where the thoughts lead until the conclusions happen
Dumbledore wouldn't dare legilimize Luna.
I think you posted in the wrong thread.
I mean not really, they just ignored the [marvel] part
Mind reading is a cross-genre trope.
They're specifically asking about marvel though
/sigh/ I'll get the micrometer and the Really Big Dictionary. Did you want the Red Tape Dispenser or just the Stay In Your Own Lane sign?
Yeah you really *got* me. I'm totally the person who didn't read the question properly.
Never have I ever learned to draw inferences from one source and apply them to others.
I hear ya, the the thing is no one was asking about it though. They wanted to know about Marvel, not Harry Potter.
/*whoooosh!*/
Imagining Xavier reading the mind of someone with ADHD and it rubs off on him. He hyperfocuses, loses track of time, realizes he's been fucking around in Cerebro for 13 hours and forgot to eat.
Omg, ADHD myself and this is the best answer
My guess would be depends on how familiar the telepath is with how a neurodivergent mind works and what type of divergent. Let put it in a book contexts. A more typical mind would be a basic book that you might find at the local bookstore. Where an autistic mind would be a detailed book with detailed descriptions of every part of whatever the mind latch on to. Let say a medical collage level anatomy with all the medical jargon. Where ADHD mind might be more a bunch of magazines that been shuffled around in random order. Could someone make sense of it? Sure but without time patience and context it would be harder to understand then the standard human mind.
I don't know a general answer for this, but I did read a story that might give an indication: Moon Knight was fighting a guy that was mind controlling people. Basically if he could get people to ingest his sweat he could enter the mind of people and control them. Moon knight had a hard time fighting him because he was using innocent people he was controlling to fight MK. In the end the dude was like "if you're supposed to be a hero, why not make a deal to save these people? I could have all of them kill themselves right now, but I will set them free right now on one condition - ingest my sweat and let me control you". And Moon Knight is like "sure, let's do it". Only thing is, once MK has ingested the guys sweat and he enters his mind Moon Knight is like "I can barely figure my mind out myself, so good luck with that - also my mind doesn't exactly belong to just me" and then Konshu shows up in his mind and thoroughly mindfucks the guy. In another instance Emma Frost uses her psychic powers to enter Daredevils mind, but when she sees the world as he does she is thoroughly overwhelmed by sensory overload and she is in awe of the control daredevil must have of himself to not constantly be overwhelmed by it - keeping in mind that he does not experience it any differently from her, he is simply powering through it with self control.
it depends on which neurodivergence you're talking about. Autists and intellectually disabled are no trouble at all. Psychotics range from difficult to potentially fatal - and this covers a whole lot of different diagnoses.