Finding the Middle Ground: A Neurodivergent Musician’s Lived Experience, by Jon Hart
Neurodiversity Celebration Week is a moment to recognise different ways of thinking, creating, and experiencing the world. For many neurodivergent musicians, that difference shows up not just in creativity, but in how we build a life around music.
After speaking with Rebecca from SupaJam Foundation, it felt clear how important this work is at every stage. Supporting young people with SEND to find confidence and direction through music creates something many of us did not have early on. What I am building sits further along that path, grounded in lived experience of navigating the music business as a neurodivergent musician, mentor, and founder.
I have been in the music business for 20 years. For most of that time I was functioning, working, creating, and building. It was not until the past 5 years that everything shifted. Parenting, a struggling business, the pandemic, financial pressure, my marriage breaking down, and losing loved ones all stacked at once. That became the catalyst for a spiraling into severe mental health crises.
This was not burnout. It was a survival environment. Disabling, overwhelming, and at times feeling dangerous.
That period led to my AuDHD being identified. I had known about my dyslexia since 2004, but this was different. It triggered unmasking and forced me to confront how I had been living. I went on to experience multiple crises, each one pushing me to stop, strip things back, and question what I was carrying and why.
It was not until the fourth crisis, in August 2025, that something shifted. I stopped trying to meet expectations, mine and everyone else’s, and started removing pressure instead of adding more. I began to understand my actual capacity, my internal bandwidth, rather than forcing myself to fit external demands. That meant letting go of people pleasing, overextending, and trying to fit into environments that did not work for me.
What became clear is that there are two environments that neurodivergent musicians move between. A survival environment, where everything narrows, pressure builds, and your system starts to shut down. And a thriving environment, where there is space, creativity flows, and being neurodivergent feels like a strength rather than a constant strain.
Creativity plays a central role in this. In wider society, creativity is often treated as a luxury or a hobby, something optional. But for many of us, it is not optional. It is how we process, express, and regulate. We feel, think, and experience things intensely. That can be powerful in the right environment, but overwhelming in the wrong one. We absorb what is around us.
When the environment is misaligned, coping mechanisms start to take over. We push harder, chase stimulation, or try to suppress what we are feeling. Over time, this can lead to unhealthy patterns, strained relationships, and eventually collapse. That is the cycle I found myself in, and it is the same pattern I now see in many other neurodivergent musicians.
What I have also seen is that many of us move between two practical extremes in how we build our careers. Doing everything ourselves, or handing everything over. Doing everything yourself builds understanding and keeps you close to your work, but it can lead to pressure, blind spots, and burnout. Handing everything over can create space, but without understanding, it can lead to disconnection and a loss of control.
The middle ground is where things begin to work. Taking individual action while being supported by others. Staying involved while also receiving input, accountability, and collaboration. Not isolating, but not offloading everything either.
This is where Neurodivergent Musicians has been growing from. The website, podcast, research form, and Support Hub are all being built from lived experience, not from assumptions. Not what I think neurodivergent musicians need, but what they are actually telling me, including myself.
That process matters. It allows people to unmask, to feel seen, heard, and validated, and to begin trusting others who are going through similar experiences.
Through the research form, neurodivergent musicians are sharing what is actually happening in their lives and work, and that is directly shaping what gets built next. The Support Hub is part of that. A space designed not just for conversation, but for action with support.
Right now, it includes shared resources built from those responses and weekly Friday feedback. It is intentionally a small paid space to keep things focused, safe, and free from spam or bots, with direct access to me. Over time, it will grow into clearer support, check ins, and guidance based on what people actually need.
There are many neurodivergent musicians with strong creative ability who struggle to build something sustainable around it. Not because they lack talent, but because the structures around them do not reflect how they think and work. The work SupaJam Foundation is doing is an important part of that wider picture, especially in the early stages of confidence, identity, and access.
What comes next also matters. How those individuals continue, build, and sustain a life in music over time.
This is still evolving. It is not finished, and it is not meant to be. It is something being shaped by neurodivergent musicians, not just for them.
If you would like to explore or contribute, you can find everything here:
https://neurodivergentmusicians.com
https://neurodivergentmusicians.com/research
https://neurodivergentmusicians.com/support
The aim is simple. To build a way of creating and living through music that actually holds.