Meet the Execs.
These ten tenacious friends live and work upstairs in Cammy’s brain. Sometimes they work together and other times they fly solo. Their job is to ensure that Cammy gets through the day, managing all the demands and expectations such as getting out of bed, getting dressed, getting to school on time, having the right equipment, managing playtime, keeping their bedroom tidy, doing homework, the list goes on and on and on. It’s never ending, and it is exhausting.
The thing is, these execs are not adults, they are kids, which means they are living in a brain house that isn’t fully built yet. The roof can get a bit leaky, the wiring isn’t finished and that’s before we even mention the panic button downstairs and Fight, Flight and Freeze who live in the basement!
To make things more complicated, Cammy is neurodivergent which means the execs are living in a brain house that is different to that of most other children in Cammy’s class. It can be tough sometimes, as the world doesn’t always make sense, people don’t seem to understand them, be interested in the same stuff or even give them the help that they need. Sometimes the execs feel like they are aliens, transported from a different universe. They feel like they have to work twice as hard as other execs in neurotypical brains, just to get through the day.
When the execs are faced with a big deal situation, one that feels like life and death, like having to switch the TV off, before they can pull together a team meeting to figure out a solution, the panic button downstairs automatically goes off. This means that the execs have to evacuate their brain house immediately and Fight, Flight and Freeze take over in the basement. This is an emergency situation which can sometimes get messy and seems to throw other brain houses into chaos. When Fight, Flight and Freeze are in charge, anything can happen. Some days the panic button goes off more than others, it’s really hard for the execs to predict. This means that the brain house can be a really stressful place to live.
The good news is that Cammy’s is not the only brain house in the family. Mum and dad also have brain houses, which are fully built. The execs that live in their brain houses are adults and always seem to know the right things to do or say when Cammy’s execs get a bit panicked or muddled. Cammy’s execs feel safe when they when the parent execs are around. Teachers and assistants at Cammy’s school also have grown up brain houses that help the execs to get stronger and better at their jobs. The problem is that all the grown ups also have a panic button, it is much smaller that Cammy’s, and doesn’t go off very often, but when it does, it feels like nobody is in control, and that’s scary.
No matter what, the execs never give up. They work hard every day practising their specialist skill as well as participating in team building activities. Stick around, they would like to introduce themselves and give you an inside look at what happens in a neurodivergent brain and what they need to grow powerful and strong.