NT people don’t exist

[Montea]

I don’t think that neurotypical people exist. I think we are all on the spectrum somewhere

I have a ND child and a NT child.

It is like night and day, black and white.

Yes, there are differences amongst people but being ND goes beyond that.

It's not just having different interests or different strengths, its your brain being wired completely different to the majority.

You can have a majority brain but still have struggles and problems.

It doesn't mean you have a ND brain.

Being ND isn't being a bit quirky - my ND child struggles so much and actually, the diagnosis IS helpful in so many ways. For a start, it gives some comfort as there is an explanation for the way they are, for those who grew up feeling so out of place, behaving in a way that was so out of the ordinary.

For a child - the diagnosis gets doors open in things like education (well, in theory at least).

I think you have ADHD because I’ve never encountered someone without it speak the way you do

okay now I know you are taking the piss

No. I just have an aversion to aggressive people who can’t control themselves

so that means the poster has ADHD does it?

I can see where you're coming from. Especially around considering trauma etc and not just blaming everything on neurodiversity, which gets wearing an an autistic person. (Like you're not allowed to be upset by an actual thing, it's all pinned on "being autistic".)

However an awful lot of people (most people?) won't be empathetic, won't make accommodations, without a diagnosis.

It can be similar with other disabilities - I know someone who's seriously physically disabled and was telling me about their time at school and how they were excluded from the most basic things because of being in a wheelchair. It was absolutely not necessary to exclude them, with the most basic adjustments. But it was before the disability discrimination act, so no one bothered with the basic adjustments. People generally won't allow for any difference unless it's diagnosed and legislated for!

In case it's not clear, I am autistic (late diagnosed by NHS).

(Edited for clarity.)

the increased job prospects? Can you elaborate?

Obviously I know I can’t diagnose someone over the internet. I have lived the best of both worlds, have observed aggressive people and they usually come from impoverished backgrounds and have adhd.

Tell a prospective employer that you’re autistic and let me know how that goes.

do you know what autism is?

I think in this circumstance, as it is for myself, it's genuinely hard reading some of the comments on this post.

We still have a very long way to go before ND people are accepted (despite people on this thread saying they wish it could be like that) and people actually having any idea of what ND actually is.

People fight so hard every day coping with being ND or having a loved one be ND so to see it dismissed the way it has on this thread is incredibly hurtful and disheartening truthfully.

Yes.

It’s frankly appalling. Clearly zero monitoring tonight.

Clearly, you do not if you think it improves job prospects. In the UK, the stats sit at around 30 percent of autistic people are in employment.

You’re just goading. How lovely.

I was diagnosed as autistic a decade ago, and I don’t actually fully understand what it is either because I have seen so many different presentations. To the point where I just think how cannot everybody be on what is considered the spectrum now? Don’t we all have difficulties?

Okay, go back and reread my posts, but add a teaspoon or three of irony. Do you see how I satirised what neurotypical people say about neurodivergent people? How I took the tropes and flipped them on their head for comedic value?

It wasn't clear at all and clearly not to others either as the post has been removed

Yes, people can have difficulties. No, it does not mean you have autism.

I am not great at maths or science - it doesn't mean I am autistic.

I don't love being in social situations and prefer the company of those I know well over those I don't - that still does not make me autistic.

People can have things that autistic people struggle with too - it doesn't mean they are autistic.

People with autism have a completely different wiring of their brain - we do not all have a bit of autism.

Removing the post is a beautiful demonstration of ableism anyway, wouldn’t you agree? NT people can dismiss the lived experience of ND people all day long on this site and it’s rarely challenged or removed. Flip it around and it’s removed within 10 minutes.

Funny old world, innit.

I think you have misread what I've written. I didn't say my diagnosis was worthy. I had a diagnosis now I believe diagnosing neurodiversity is meaningless. The term neurodiversity is a misnomer.

If you and your children find it helpful, that's fine for you. I just believe pathologising normal difference is unhelpful.

I don’t think suicide attempts, clinical depression, chronic ocd, severe eating disorders , anxiety to the extent you can’t go in shops or use public transport, extreme sensory difficulties, inability to form relationships, repetitive behaviours that are so severe they impact life, not being able to focus on anything for more than 15 minutes, severe self harm, dangerous compulsive behaviours….are normal differences do you.

Okay, clearly you’re missing my point, so I’ll make it really clear for you:

I am autistic with a diagnosis. I have an autistic child with a diagnosis. I know autistic struggle, I live it every day but I try to keep a sense of humour about it instead of sinking into a pit of despair that I could — realistically — lose my kid to suicide in the future.

My original comment was a direct mirror of the bullshit usually levelled at autistic people, but turned around for neurotypical people. You didn’t get it, that’s fine, humour is subjective and I assume you’re the one that reported the comment. Are we done?