It’s another ND one

Autistic traits need to have a significant impact on life , it’s not useful for those that have it and wasn’t 50 or even 100 years ago. It has worked its way through generations of my family,Many mask and hide the huge difficulties autism comes with.

Yet another ignorant, dismissive and unpleasant thread on the subject.

Which bit? (I work in this field)

How ignorant, autism has 3 particular areas that need to have a significant impact on life.

ND diagnostic criteria has become more broad and inclusive, (if you look hard enough and you want to find symptoms you can, many criteria are fairly subjective) which will make it increasingly meaningless. I suspect we will see a move back towards categorisation in order to differentiate within that huge spectrum, because as OP you rightly point out, we all vary neurodevelopmentally to a lesser or greater degree.

I do think autism is a normal variant and considering most mathematicians, inventors, software engineers etc, are autistic it's a useful variant for society. The problem is that we've engineered a life that we find incredibly damaging.

Oh I see @weareallcats has said what I was planning to say!

You've summed this up so well 👏🏻

What do you mean? The OP says that some of them do have a diagnosis.

This is fundamentally not the case though is it? People dont suddenly BECOME ND the day hey get their diagnosis! They have - by definition- been affected since childhood

I agree OP, I think we are far too quick to pathologise what is a normal spectrum of behaviour. Seems you can't sneeze these days without someone giving you an armchair diagnosis of neurodiversity. I think it's unhelpful and actually stigmatises normal differences rather than encouraging acceptance.

Well you are not in the minority in that group as none of you have a diagnosis have you? No diagnosis, no ND.

The problem here is assuming you know what is going on inside someone’s head - you have no idea how hard some nd people are working just to get through the day as they mask their difficulties.

Yes, some people are more profoundly affected in some areas - it is a spiky spectrum and all nd people are on it. I have a lot of sensory issues for example, which isn’t even covered on the AQ50 and therefore I only score 17. I’m still autistic. My adhd ‘spikes’ are huge however, and often overpower my autistic traits (they are still there cowering in the background while I fuck myself up to the point of burnout over and over again though). No one would look at me and see any of this.

I SO agree with this. I am not designed to commute on a busy train, sit still in a desk chair, move numbers from one cell to another. I am designed to be a craft person in a quiter space, with all the focus, deep knowledge and moving around that this entails. I would have been a weaver, making something beautiful and functional while operating a large loom.

Both adhd and autism are under diagnosed in this country and rates for both are low.

Hope that helps.

It’s birds of a feather. I am nd (audhd), so are my dh and our 3 dc - dh and I didn’t know until our dc started struggling (and 2 of them didn’t struggle too much until secondary school, although looking back the signs were there). My sister and her dc are also nd and our parents almost certainly are/were. So it runs in families. Then the majority of our friends have dc with diagnoses and some are perusing diagnoses themselves. Friends from school are now getting diagnosed too. There is a reason hardly any of my friends are nt - nt people don’t tend to like me (nor I them).

I do also agree that it’s more a case of natural human variation, but modern life is set up for NTs, which is the cause of many of our struggles. Even just 100 years ago life would have been easier for many and certainly the further back you go, the easier it is to see that many of the anxieties we suffer would not be so continually exacerbated. Eg - I am from a farming background and dh’s family were fishermen - both of these lifestyles would have suited us better.

the thing is if, say, 1 in 4 people are actually ND that is going to look like a huge explosion of people suddenly being ND, will feel like every other person and their children are all ND and that there’s been a huge increase compared to previous times… but it still means 75% of the population are NOT neurodivergent.

I'm dyslexic but I don't consider myself ND. Because, in every other way, my brain is pretty NT so it just seems silly to me to to claim to be something I don't feel like I am.

Maybe it's just my friendship group or my DDs school, but the amount of ND adults and children I know is very high. But I think there has always been a high percentage of ND people, people are just being open about it now and talking about it, which is wonderful. But there is a difference between having several traits and literally struggling to function.

I think some hobbies do attract more ND people, I am in a hobby group where I suspect many are ND.

I do wonder where the boundary lies between certain things just being your personality vs actually being ND. Like some people just don’t like loud places, struggle socially etc but that’s just personality. Doesn’t mean they need a diagnosis.

I do know some ND people closely who aren’t able to lead a normal life and struggle in many many ways, and they are in a very different situation to the people I know who identify as ND because they don’t like itchy clothes or going to busy places and like a slower pace of life.

Crafting (particularly fibre arts of any kind) is an overwhelmingly ND pursuit. See also rock climbing.

Regardless of NT or ND, it is useful to know how your brain processes information and work arounds for areas you struggle with. Wouldn't it be wonderful to get to a situation where everyone understands their strengths and needs?

A sample size of 8 isn't representative at a population level.

I agree somewhat with both your statements. I do think ND can be over diagnosed (especially in a case of self diagnosis), but I also think that if 8 people were chosen randomly from the population it would be very unlikely for them to all be ND. So I also agree with your "birds of a feather" comment. Most of the people I know are NT.

What a pointless response on a thread.