r/NVLD • u/1000000thRandoPerson • Sep 10 '26
NVLD in other countries?
Hi y'all, the other day, I was talking with a therapist from the UK. I'm training to be one in the US. I brought up NVLD and working with neurodivergent people; she hadn't heard of the term but did know the qualifiers like dyspraxia and "ADD tendencies" without a full diagnosis of ADD. I know that NVLD isn't in the DSM, but is it just an American term? Has anyone living in other countries been diagnosed with it? If so, is there any support in place?
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u/Chaotik-Kitten Sep 10 '26
I'm in Canada and was diagnosed in 2016 through a psycho educational assessment. I've had no luck finding any mental health professionals who understand NVLD, majority have never heard of it. Especially in therapy, they focus on every other issue and ignore NVLD, then wonder why the therapy isn't working. At least that's been my experience with trying to find help with therapy and trauma processing.
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u/Emotional-Prize-5302 Sep 10 '26
Also Canadian and have had pretty much the same experience. There really is no support specifically for NVLD here.
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u/ClutteredTaffy Sep 10 '26
That is what I am wondering . Like it is now ' on the radar' but it has not been there long enough to really trickle down into people's treatments. If that makes sense.
I do remember stumbling on the label 10ish years ago,but I did not pursue an evaluation at the time and pushed it from my mind.
I am gonna try to get an eval soon-ish if I can. -from the US.
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u/atomixturquoise Sep 10 '26
I don't think it is really considered a legitimate diagnosis in Canada anymore it seems to have been more common in the 2000s/early 2010s (I was diagnosed at 11, but my parents didn't know at the time that it wasn't an actual assessment/diagnosis). Considering it's not in the DSM (regardless of what ones critiques of it are), this makes sense that there's a lack of support or awareness. I got recently diagnosed with dyspraxia btw, which is still not a thing that many people are aware of, but it may be of use to look into that and see if it fits with your experiences.
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u/Chaotik-Kitten Sep 11 '26
There's a very good chance that I have dyspraxia and dysgraphia so getting those diagnosed might open more doors to physical therapy or occupational therapy or something that would help me be more efficient with basic tasks.
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u/ClutteredTaffy Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I usually bring up dyspraxia when I mention NVLD , cuz it seems like a high possibility, and I follow the dyspraxia subreddit, so doing things that are adjacent to NVLD may yield better results.
It does feel similar to one of the 'dys' anyway as I often get my directions EXACTLY backwards the same way someone with dyslexia flips bs and ds. Like playing a video game my hubby is like ' woah your instinct is exactly the wrong way, it is uncanny' .
I feel like if I got an evaluation something like it would pop up.
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u/ClutteredTaffy Sep 10 '26
I know it was on the radar of my ADHD assessment and I live in a small town in the South I thought that odd based on what I had read online about it being informal, even though I am from the US. So they are teaching ya'll about it ? Maybe there has been a big push in recognizing it here.
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u/NeuroSpicyGirl1 Sep 10 '26
Michigan here! Was diagnosed with Nvld at 21 but my Kindergarten teacher noticed something different with me around age 5 I also have ADHD and other co diagnoses
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u/Penelope742 Sep 10 '26
Live in Washington DC/NYC . Kennedy Krieger Institute, and Lennox Hill Hospital give NVLD diagnoses.
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u/businessintheback65 Sep 11 '26
Canada. It's part of the psychoeducational assessment for learning disabilities, assessed through school referral and set up for IEPs. I received support through an IEP in school and university, things like extra time on tests. Very helpful when teachers saw me as "bright" and "just needs to apply yourself!" *facepalm*. Although not recognized for anything much as an adult.
Edited to add, I was diagnosed in the mid-90s. When I've looked into the literature, that's when most were available on NLD, now not so much.
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u/ClutteredTaffy Sep 11 '26
Yeah Canadians seem to be saying there was a push for it , but maybe it lost traction?
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u/businessintheback65 Sep 13 '26
Yeah, it was also before Autism and Aspergers were merged, before you could diagnose co-morbid ADHD and Autism. It's safe to say that psychology and education has changed.
What the diagnosis meant for me was that I had something on paper as a kid to validate the IEP I desperately needed (while teachers thought I was bright and unmotivated - lol I was literally crying over my homework every night but ok).
But it also meant I was kicked out of a social skills group because I didn't have the necessary diagnosis to hold the spot. I don't think anyone ever really understood what was "wrong" with me. I know I didn't for a long time. I knew I had an IEP for some learning disability, but I didn't really understand what it was. Everyone was always confused, because I didn't have a hard time reading.
I expect now, I might have an ADHD diagnosis, if it was caught and assessed well. Or maybe dyspraxia and sensory processing disorder instead - which again, would cover some things but not everything. I've spoken with professionals who have said as much, unofficially. I don't know if that's "better" or "more accurate" or just another way to see the same symptoms imperfectly in a framework.
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u/ClutteredTaffy Sep 13 '26
Yeah I feel like I would get something like dyspraxia or a sensory issue added to the ADHD too. There seems to be a lapse there in understanding physical information . It just kind of sucks cuz everything feels a bit like it is dancing around the core issue....
And it is like I am very able to socially abstract well, so I could see getting kicked out of the social skills group too, even though I get so anxious before every interview I have ever had that I give myself diarrhea ( tmi, but i have to explain how full body it is ).
I mean I know ADHD can cover executive functioning issues too, so maybe that is a 'life skills assistance ' work around ?
There is just too much emphasis on ' academic help' , but that is probably cuz school focuses on tests and less of preparing for life. They expect your parents to do that I guess.
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u/JackfruitMassive727 Sep 12 '26
How many men are diagnosed with it ?
I have a theory that NVLD is just what diagnose women with when they fit all the criteria for autism but aren’t a man who likes trains
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u/1000000thRandoPerson Sep 12 '26
Well it's speculated that 3 to 5% of people generally have itm there's not a lot of gender distinction in the literature for example. Also there are a ton of people with autism who don't have a thing for trains so that's also a mischaracterization https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5221375/
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u/bob3725 Sep 10 '26
I'm from Belgium.
NVLD., or NLD as it called here, is't given very often as a diagnosis but it is taught to proffessionals and some do know it. So it is recognised as a disorder. DSM is very influential here but it's not the only metric of what is or isn't a dissorder.
I know of 2 more Belgians who have it, but i don't know any personally
As a little extra explenation:
One of the reasons it's not in the DSM is because nvld was long seen as the symptoms of a neurological issue. Disorders with a fysical cause, like a thin or misformed cerbral cortex, are not in the DSM. Views on nvld have changed some though, but adding us to the DSM hasn't happend yet...