To think “neurodivergent” is being used too casually and too often?

[MauveOrca]

Every quirk or preference doesn’t mean you’re ND. I know diagnoses help some people but it feels like it’s now shorthand for anything outside the mainstream. Can we not just have variation without a label?

MN have confirmed in the past there's an autism troll.

They get deleted quite often for it.

But they do help show what people really think about people with autism etc. Shows we're nowhere close to genuine understanding and acceptance .

ND is becoming the mainstream

Society can't afford to accommodate meeting everyone's needs. It can barely meet so called NT needs.

Oh wow, I didn’t know that. Yeah, these threads amongst others are real eye openers.

Ridiculous, do you know how few people
are diagnosed with autism and adhd?🙄

Well thankfully we live in a society where disability is protected and needs very much have to be met.

"Barely meet nt needs"?

You talk as though meeting nt (neurotypical) needs is the priority here and so there's just not enough left over to then meet the needs of disabled people.

I would argue that the people with the highest needs should be the priority and if there are needs left unmet it should be the needs of those who are best able to function without additional help.

Yeah, no. Children don’t get labelled nd because they are shy. And no - there are not going to be more nd than nt people. Grow up.

Tell me you know nothing about what it’s like to not fit in the world without telling me you don’t know what it’s like 🙄

Couple of examples of what people consider as covered by ND.

ok they dont need to hide their quirky, individual behaviour, but do they really need to embrace it so much, and mention it - it feels like, who ISNT neurodivergent to me

that phrase to me is so annoying and passive aggressive.

What are you basing that on? It's quite a claim. I'm assuming by "mainstream" you are trying to say that neuro divergence is becoming more common than being "neuro typical".

do you know how many neurodivergent children there are in the average primary school and that is purely the one's who are diagnosed, plenty going missed.

But so true 🤷‍♀️

but no its not helpful,
Tell me you know nothing about what it’s like to not fit in the world without telling me you don’t know what it’s like

i beg your pardon for those of us who are not fully and totally immersed in neurodiversity.

and actually isnt the saying, once you know one autistic person, you know one autistic person.

Yes not many. 1% of children are diagnosed with autism and 5% adhd. Many are the same children as it’s common to have both.

You've said it right there - it helps some people (actually millions of people) to reconcile and validate their experience of living with a ND condition.

so that being the case, anyone who gets fed up of people talking about Neurodiversity need to remind themselves that it isn't about them, they aren't the centre of the story and need to empathise with the struggles of other rather than doing an eyeroll.

unless i am mistaken, this is mumsnet.
not some autistic channel - please allow for ignorance

pretty sure it is more

Not helpful to who? Helping the ignorant isn’t high on my priority list.

Disclosure - I am awaiting an ADHD diagnosis. When I look back at my childhood and time at school, I can pinpoint quite a few people who were just thought to be odd or 'off' in some way and bullied horribly for it. I suspect ND would be diagnosed in at least a couple of those cases nowadays. Can you not see how valuable it would have been for those children to have a better understanding of why their brains work in a particular way, and why they might need additional help connecting with their peers? In some cases, understanding is literally life-changing, as it removes the shame and the need to constantly mask and life becomes far easier when you just accept yourself (and your difficulties and limitations).

In my case, it would have been helpful to understand how my brain works at an earlier age, as it might have led to me making different decisions in life. For instance, as a child and teenager, I was quite immature compared to my peers which led to some social difficulties (and exhaustion caused by masking quite a lot of the time). I've since learned that actually this is quite common in children with ADHD - it's not unusual for them to be a few years behind their peers socially. My first career choice was somewhat of a disaster as it was an office-based job that didn't provide a sufficient level of sensory input and required too much in the way of executive function. I spent years over-compensating by working all hours to keep on top of things and driving myself to exhaustion and burnout. The anxiety almost led to a burnout. If I had known how my brain worked (and that it wasn't just some issue with me that could be solved by trying harder), I would never have chosen to pursue a career like that and would have gone into a quite different field of work.

perhaps it should be @L1ghyn1ngBug , instead of slamming people down with phrases like the one above.

Nope those are the stats. You can make your own up if you like.

adhd is not even considered until after the age of 6 also