Unique Manga Book on Autism - “My Brain is Different: Stories of ADHD and Other Developmental Disorders”
Image from Otakuusamagazine.com
My Brain is Different: Stories of ADHD and Other Developmental Disorders is an anthology manga written and illustrated by Monzusu, which tells the true stories of people with developmental disorders, the difficulties they face, and how they overcome them. Originally published in Japan in 2020, it wasn’t until April of 2022 that it was published in English. Out of the nine stories, six are about ASD, sometimes in addition to other disorders.
The first story is about Monzusu herself, chronicling the events that led to her creating the book. Her son had recently been diagnosed with ADHD, and she noticed that the descriptions of the disorder she found in her research reminded her a lot of herself. Sure enough, she also has ADHD. In order to learn more about herself and people like her, she collected the stories of other people with similar diagnoses and turned them into this manga to share them with the world.
Other stories include a father and daughter who grow closer after discovering they both have autism, a depressed high school dropout whose life is changed for the better thanks to medication, and a teacher-in-training who helps special needs children get the support they need, which she never had as a child.
Most of these stories are about people who got diagnosed as adults. That kind of late diagnosis is not often talked about in the neurodivergent community, with much of the focus placed on children. What’s more, is that mental health and neurodivergency are rarely directly discussed in manga. In that way, My Brain is Different pulls double duty, promoting awareness about an under-represented facet of neurodivergency in a medium where neurodivergency is in itself under-represented.
Monzusu’s charming art, humor, and empathy really help the reader understand and identify with the struggles and triumphs of the people she writes about. Whether you’re a manga fan or not, My Brain is Different is totally worth a read.
This book is available on Amazon here.