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?

bullying can still occur

Exactly this. Given that the world is built for the 75% of NT people, not the 25% of ND people...

I think there was a need with industrialisation to build the world around NT folk - everything had to be standardised from car production to management.

But now we have a different post industrial world, other skills like empathy and creativity (which will be increasingly valuable in an AI led world) are going to be more valued.

So we need a different system.

Well, Labour are talking about cutting back on financial support for SEND in schools, so I expect there’ll have to be a lot of reassessments.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/06/government-faces-battle-over-send-overhaul-as-campaigners-voice-fears

What are you talking about. Schools don’t assess autism, adhd and other send conditions. Provision is based on need not diagnoses.You can’t just take diagnoses away to save money either. Aside from that the wait lists for autism and adhd diagnoses are huge, as are those for Ed psychs. Doubling them by reassessing everybody which will never happen in a million years is ludicrous to even suggest.🙄

As always, the ablists are out in force.

I had to prove it was affecting my life before I got put on the waiting list. If I wasn't disabled by it I wouldn't have asked for an assessment. I don't know anyone who has asked for an assessment for shits and giggles or to clog up the system

There is an official medical list of what is considered ND bad yes some personality disorders are on the list because they absolutely fit the definition.

Arent they just.

Some people won't be happy until disabled people are back in institutions where they dont have to be aware they exist and they can stop talking about it costing too much money to support disabled people and arguing some disabilities aren't real because "there never used to be so many".

Yeah. That's because disabled people were out of sight out of mind in the institutions where their existence didn't trouble others and they didnt need to pretend to care.

When a society turns on its most vulnerable members, you know it's really screwed.

I've always said that, generally, people care about others right up to the point it costs them to care, then they turn on those they see as costing them.

Its just weird they see the vulnerable as the problem and not the rich and powerful companies and individuals snatching everything they can and using every loophole available to hoard their wealth..

Or successive governments who do nothing to close those loopholes because they too benefit from them.

Divide and rule in action.

And they get really angry when you say this and come back with denials, insults and outrage. Demands you tell them where the money will come from to meet the needs of disabled people while not questioning where the money came from for all the bollocks governments waste shit on such as fucking happiness surveys and tunnels that have cost millions before so much as a shovel has hit the ground.

Don't want to be seen as ablist? Don't be ablist. 🤷‍♀️. Don't get mad because you are recognised.

We are all on a spectrum in relation to every aspect of ourselves. At what point is "normal" breached? Who knows?

Disabled people know.

I agree with your point that where money is available it should be targeted at those that need the most support, rather than spread too thinly.

For context I am diagnosed as Autistic and ADHD, I am absolutely one of the people who has found my own coping strategies, I have a full time job, I don't get any support, and I don't think that any of the scarce resources should come to me.

However I am significantly impacted by the differences in the way that my brain works. I use unhealthy options (alcohol and unprescribed drugs) to self medicate. I break myself over and over trying to fit the norms of society. The extra effort that it takes me to meet the standards of my employment (e.g writing long scripts the night before meetings, and regularly working from 0800-midnight, for the reason that I am expected to be at my desk 0900-1800, but I can only start to get work done when I'm not being distracted by emails, meetings, comms. All of this happens quietly, hidden away, without bothering anyone else, and it severely impacts the time I can spend with my family and my health.

Over the past few years I tentatively started to come out of the closet as neurodivergent and have met all sorts of kick back from people who see my full-time job as evidence that I'm making up my differences, or that I am looking for 'attention' (I never want attention, I hate attention).

So save the term 'neurodiverse/neurodivergent' for people who are 'well away from the average', what do I call myself? How do me and people like me even being to try to explain our situation?

This is happening anyway. You don’t get anything for a diagnosis.

Why can't you call yourself neurodivergent?

When it has a significant impact on life as decided by those who diagnose.

I do call myself nuerodivergent.

My reply is to the OP who is claiming that people are using this terminology too casually.

And I'm also replying to post that I quoted - claiming that if we saved this terminology for the most extreme cases, it would make it easier to appropriate funds fairly.

Ah sorry - my adhd brain latched onto your last paragraph and i was replying to that - sorry! 😂

LOL - no worries - I very much understand and fully relate!😂