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).
I don’t call myself neurodivergent, but I do call myself a wizard. Everyone else can just deal with that.
I love this energy.
Damn, I am manifesting this energy for myself in 2026
I like neurodivergent because it centers the issue that peoples’ brains function differently. It’s not a choice. It’s not stupidity. I’m not just weird for no reason. My brain cells send signals differently from other peoples’. The issue is that regular people don’t understand regardless of which word you use.
My problem with this, is it sort of divides people into “normal” brains, and “not normal” brains. But there is no such thing as “normal” brains. Everyone’s brains work differently. I think labels / diagnosis are important in cases where a person’s brain is different enough in a particular way that it becomes a problem (for them, or for interacting in society, or whatever), but in these cases I think the value of the label is to communicate in which way the person suffers a problem, so that people can be aware of it. It seems strange to me, to have a label which essentially means “I suffer from some kind of problem related to how my brain works, but I’m not going to tell you which problem”.
Edit: after reading other comments, I’ve realised that one place that neurodivergent makes sense as a label, is for building a community of people who share the experience of facing problems in life due to how their brain works. That’s of course, very valid.
I get it. I’m not autistic, but I do have a brain tumor and some spinal problems that causes similar symptoms, and people love to get shitty about it. It makes some neurodivergent spaces really hard for me.
I’ve had to cut “friends” loose because they make “jokes” about how I can’t be trusted because we saw what happened with Fetterman.
I’ve stopped talking to people who insisted that I’m autistic and me denying it means I’m a hateful bigot.
I’ve stopped talking to people who think I’m cosplaying as autistic, because I could just do chemo and brain surgery and be normal again, and “real” neurodivergencies like theirs can’t be cured.
It’s lonely.
Not to downplay your situation, but isn’t autism entirely about the symptoms when it comes to diagnosis? If you meet the diagnostic criteria then you are autistic regardless of the underlying mechanism? There is also no guarantee that dealing with the tumor would fully restore your brain to the way it was before.
Not to downplay your situation, but isn’t autism entirely about the symptoms when it comes to diagnosis?
It’s a touchy subject. I personally think it should be, but people love to misinterpret talk about what’s causing symptoms as wanting to get rid of autistic people.
Regardless, I don’t hit enough criteria to be diagnosed, and got “sensory processing disorder” instead. The overlap in symptoms is because the tumor is in my thalamus, which is the sensorimotor processing station of the brain and has strong implications for autism as well. Furthermore, I have bone spurs in my neck that are compressing my spine, another tumor on my T9 vertebra, and a history of TBI that has left me with memory problems. Altogether, I deffo ping as neurodivergent, it’s just that people think the only neurotypes available are “autistic/adhd”, or “neurotypical”.
There is also no guarantee that dealing with the tumor would fully restore your brain to the way it was before.
Yeah, and mine’s inoperable because it’s too deep in the brain. They can’t even do a biopsy without potentially doing more harm. Same goes for the one on my vertabra, it can’t be removed because it’s through the bone itself. I think some people are adamant that there’s an easy fix, because they’re confronting their own internalized Just World fallacy and are struggling to come to terms with the fact that this shit can just happen, to anybody for any reason, and that scares them.
Really sorry to hear about your tumour. But how does one make it to Lemmy without any autistic powers
It’s the knee-high socks and thinkbook with linux. Turns out just anybody can buy them!
Whilst supporting your self-representation, can we keep you anyway 💕
I can relate, a bit. Personally i dont care nor mind. I always come in from a “im like this” angle, never from a “i have x” angle, which means labels like autism or adhd dont do much for me. I am how i am, and i know how to deal with it to make it easier for me, or others, and if i cant or dont want to and you cant? Thats a you issue, bugger off.
Also, how do you feel about being called neurospicy? :')
Not the OP but me personally I despise the term neurospicy. Reeks of TikTokers trying to quirkify their bio and downplays the often crippling nature of the very real problems people with these diagnoses suffer from every day.
I’m personally not a fan of being called neurospicy. As a joke, it’s okay tho; I usually call myself disabled or neurodisabled.
The thing is, our brain is the most complex thing of the human body.
People often prefer to use the “neurodivergent” word because you might have way more things than just autism, you might even have some undocumented disorders, it’s just hard to be specific when come to this.
It’s like trying to give a unique name to a mix of vegetables and etc… So people just came up with the world “salad”.
I personally prefer neurodivergent because I admit, not even myself, and maybe not even an specialist would be able to diagnose everything that happens in my brain. But we all know it must be something related to neurons.
The term and idea of neurodivergency originated within the autism community but its not true that its a replacement word for autism as it also includes adhd, ocd, bipolar, dislexia… Anyone with some atypical neurological configuration.
But i get you, and your case shows why its important that the classical medical terminology stays separate from the neurodivergent ones. The way i see it one has a more socio-cultural purpose, the other an instructive medial one.
Under neurodivergence we who are different celebrate how similar we all actually are in contrast to the dominant neurotypical masses, it does not differ between our actual challenges on purpose and it can be a great way to explain ourselves to neurotypicals without having to go into the details of the diagnostic labels they may not understand or only know bias about. So in may ways it is a “i am different/special” label used in a positive “but that shouldn’t matter” kind of way.
When the context is about getting the right help, the term does nothing. But what does carry weight are the right diagnostic criteria which professionals help has experience with and knows what set of tools are relevant.
It is known that technically speaking, adhd is part of the autism spectrum, but the good reason on why its kept distinct is because giving people with mild adhd the same access to help as an autism diagnosis might get you would exhaust the system and make it harder for those on the spectrum with severe challenges to find any help at all.
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
Aah so you’re upset that you’re not called “extra special”, got it.
A person with cancer has an illness. Someone with autism is neurodivergent. Just how words work. Some are specific and others are broader. Water is a liquid. But not all liquids are water. Spaghetti is pasta, but not all pasta is spaghetti. Autism is part of neurodivergence, but not all neurodivergence is autism.
Also neurodevelopmental issues are part of neurology. Listing those two side by side is like saying “today I drank liquids, then I drank water, then I had pasta and some spaghetti.”
I prefer to be called disabled or neurodisabled, rather than neurodivergent. “Neurodivergent” doesn’t actually communicate jack shit because there are so many people who say they aren’t disabled but identify as neurodivergent. Also, like I said, people will also just assume I’m autistic, which isn’t what I want.
While my autism sucks, it isn’t my most severe condition. Nobody really cares about the neurodivergent movement if autism isn’t the main character in absolutely everything. Sometimes, it feels like my autism is all anybody really cares about.
If I show symptoms of my other conditions, I’m suddenly “too much.”
Neurodisabled would be a different category all together. Many forms of neurodivergency aren’t disabilities, or aren’t always disabilities. Autism is one of these. It can be a disability, but it’s a broad enough spectrum that sometimes it isn’t a disability.
It’s a disorder. A disordered thing isn’t necessarily disabled. OP is too neurodisabled to see categories properly I’m afraid.
And that’s me using the word OP literally asked people to use, before a mod removes this comment as well. Even though that’s not actually a medical term even 1% as common as neurodivergence, which OP says is “not even a medical term”.
It’s literally the title of a medical journal. Saying it is not a medical term is like saying “acceleration” isn’t a term physicists use.
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I like more specific terms instead of vague terms is my thing. Spaghetti isn’t nearly as vague as neurodivergent is. There’s also a lot of debate about what conditions even count as neurodivergent. I’ve seen someone argue that having a perfect memory is neurodivergent by itself, which tells me how very vague this term is.
It isn’t about being special; it’s about having accurate language that isn’t dreadfully vague. I’ve met other people who’ve run into similar issues as me. Saying that I’m neurodivergent would be like saying, “I’m eating dough tonight,” and it’s actually a plate of lasagna. That’s how vague this term is. Pasta is technically dough, but no one will know what the hell you mean if you tell somebody that you’re eating dough.
“I can promise you I have more illnesses, both mental and physical than you,” you sound like the one making this a “special” competition now. You’re also very aggressive, which isn’t helping your argument at all. Not once have I called you any names, yet you insist on resorting to name-calling a stranger.
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Yes, I do understand what the word “insist” means. You literally did insist on insulting me. Plus, insisting that you have more illnesses than I do without knowing my story is very much one-upping someone and trying to make yourself seem seem extra special.
I get that English isn’t your first language, but it is a normal thing to say, “You insist on doing XYZ” after you’ve done XYZ. You’re continuing to insult me, which only concludes my point that you insist on insulting me. This is literally part of normal English grammar, but I’ll give you a pass since it isn’t your first language.
“And I’d win.” You’re proving my point. You lose all credibility when you one-up someone in an argument. Sorry, you automatically lose when you one-up someone.
Also, “neurodivergent” isn’t even a real medical term. Literally anyone and their grandma could identify as neurodivergent be there is no set medical usage for it. This term was literally only invented in the 1990s by an autism activist. You know that, right? It wasn’t some professional doctor who diagnoses autism who created this term.
In terms of cars, you could technically say,
“I’m using a metallic machine,” and still be technically correct. So really, my point isn’t proven wrong about vagueness.
There are also multiple types of neurological conditions; neurodevelopmental conditions are neurological, but not all neurological conditions are neurodevelopmental. What you are doing is the equivalent of telling someone that it’s wrong to mention both squares and rectangles in the same sentence, when not all rectangles are squares.
I really think you should learn a bit more English before correcting someone else’s.
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You also used the wrong form of the word “you’re.” I have a neurological condition that isn’t neurodevelopmental, therefore mentioning both neurodevelopmental and neurological conditions in the same sentence makes perfect sense. I thought you would’ve understood the hint by now, but apparently not.
Again, using the word “insist” the way I did was correct. English isn’t your first language, yet you refuse to understand when a native English speaker is informing you of a clear language barrier. Here’s an example provided by a dictionary website,
“Why did he insist on showing up when she was alone?”
Another one would be,
“Do you want to go to the store?”
“If you insist.”
Or why did you insist on directly insulting me when I hadn’t done so to you? The way I used this word is very similar to these examples.
“I know you’re so neurodisabled that language doesn’t come easily to you.” Whoopsie daises, that’s extremely ableist of you. You’re going for extremely low blows when I’m objectively just criticising the things you’ve written. First, you call me stupid, and now you’re basically politely calling me rtrded. Nice to know how much you actually support disabled people.
Sure, it’s a term used in medical journals, but that doesn’t make it a diagnostic term. When I say medical, I mean in a diagnostic sense. The point of going to a hospital for most cases is for receiving medical care, which mostly consists of receiving medical diagnoses beforehand. Absolutely zero diagnoses require the usage of the word “neurodivergent” in their symptoms. It’s an entirely optional word and I’ve never heard someone use that word when giving me any of my diagnoses.
Yeah, yeah, coined vs created. You literally coin words by creating a new term based on old prefixes, roots, and suffixes. To say that a word is created is still accurate because you’re still creating a term that never previously existed by mashing prefixes, roots, and suffixes together.
This brings me to another point; people sometimes use the word “neurodivergent” as a dogwhistle. It has been sometimes used to indicate that someone is “one of the good ones” and not like those “disabled guys.” I’ve seen people use it in a similar manner to how people use the word “Asperger’s.”
If you qualify for a diagnosis that is categorised as a disability, you are disabled. Autism and ADHD, are by definition, disabling. People forget that it’s possible to be mildly disabled.
Yeah, it’s just the best word I have currently, but it really is a big catch-all for a lot of disabilities/conditions. Neurodiverse is a little better as it doesn’t necessarily specify that some state of being is more “normal” and we diverge from that “normal”. But it’s not any more accurate really and not a medical term. Even Autism and ADHD are both catch-alls for several conditions and aren’t very specific at all. Just not good terminology that isn’t a stand-in for “defective” or steeped in Nazi blood like “Asperger’s Syndrome”.
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.
I’m autistic, mildly dyslexic, ADHD, with a helping of CPTSD. I just refer to myself as a hot mess lol. call yourself whatever you want.
It’s unhealthy to make this a part your Identity.
I prefer calling myself a mutant. Like, as in an x-man. 😤
“neurotype”.
It’s better, but still not an ideal fit, in being “types”, as if there there are category buckets where it’s all the same in each bucket.
At least gets away from the subtextually implied “there is a normal [correct right way] and you are not it”, like “neurodivergent” does.
The world is a spectrum while language can only express categories.
My psychologist suggested nerodiverse with characteristics of autism.
Neurodiverse isn’t an actual medical term
I like saying I’m genuinely veracious, with a pervasive demand for autonomy, a scatterbrained thinker, idealistc, poly-perspectivistic, ambivert/introvert, intuitive, perceptive… and loads of other descriptors from other perspectives and paradigms more yet.
Affirms the “diversity” normal reality, the variety we each have, without so much of the othering of being “divergent”.
