I have several disorders which are located inside of the brain (which obviously includes autism, hence me posting here). I dislike calling myself “neurodivergent” for many reasons. For one, people use this term as a replacement word for autism, and I have many conditions besides autism.
For example, I’ll see posts saying, “neurodivergent people sre more likely to do XYZ.” There are so many disorders which fall under the neurodivergent umbrella that it isn’t humanly possible for neurodivergent people to be more likely to say or do something than other folks; just say autistic in this context.
I also find that my personal experience gets watered down by calling myself neurodivergent; it feels like a modern version of being called special. I have several conditions which fall under different categories; psychiatric, neurological, and neurodevelopmental. To call all of that just neurodivergent is not very specific and doesn’t tell a person what my needs are (plus, they’ll just assume I’m autistic).
Agree. I also don’t like the othering and divisiveness. As if an all encompassing lable can define individual experience. Not that it isn’t useful in certain contexts. But once it enters the lexicon, especially online, these defining terms always turn toxic. This goes for neurotypical, too. I see a lot of bigotry surrounding both terms and it seems utterly ridiculous to paint with such a broad brush upon an even broader canvas.