Neurodivergent/neuroatypical people on board?

[xSANTAxDURSTx]

I forgot about this thread somehow

I have ADHD, does that count?

When I grew up … there was no such thing (or most people were not aware of such things) you were either “normal” or clearly “disabled.” When I was old enough to have children the “ADD” fad took hold and a close friend had a son that was “diagnosed.” I was outraged because the diagnosis was based on adults claiming that “he can’t focus.” Bullshit! The boy was a genius and would focus like a laser on anything he was interested in… and conversely would relentlessly reject any attempts to distract him from his focus. That relentless focused rejection of adults attempts to get him to focus on what they wanted got him a diagnosis and a drug regimen. He turned out alright… but some of that spark was lost.

This is actually pretty interesting that you guys both mention ADHD. I apparently have both, and there’s some huge overlap / interplay between the two for a lot of people.

My point is we are more alike than different, so when we get hung up on our differences it is not healthy or useful… it causes pain and confusion… best to go run around outside for 30 minutes or so… and don’t blame it on the sugar! That energy just means you are ALIVE! and reveling in that miracle without self conscious doubt imposed by others.

Although I think your point is valid, NT’s definitely tend to believe this more than ND’s. There comes a point in every ND’s life where they kind of have to depart from this mode of thinking out of necessity. We are all human though, so you’re not wrong

[1roomstudio]

Although I think your point is valid, NT’s definitely tend to believe this more than ND’s. There comes a point in every ND’s life where they kind of have to depart from this mode of thinking out of necessity. We are all human though, so you’re not wrong

I appreciate your take… well said.

I have no intention whatsoever of dismissing the broader condition or any individual’s self evaluation … only saying be careful of being put in a box (or putting others in a box) based on other peoples opinions and the current Fads (which come and go).

Agreed… there comes a point (hopefully!) in everyone’s life where one must depart from the milieu of other peoples diagnosis imposed on you … and decide for yourself who you are and what real conditions you need to address.

Nothing wrong with being part of the wide spectrum called Humanity.

[Dollhead]

I have Dispraxia, which is a lesser seen type. It’s often grouped in as a little brother in the Aspergers, ADHD and Autism group, and is difficult to diagnose (especially in adults). It very often goes undiagnosed, and equally often misdiagnosed as dislexia, ADD, or high functioning Autism. In the old days it was sometimes called ‘Clumsy child syndrome’.

What makes it unique is ‘how it presents’ versus ‘what it is’.

What it is: Disfunction of the brain’s praxis center, which is the part of the brain that turns ‘thinking an action/motor function’ into ‘performing the action/motor function’.

How it presents: People growing up with dispraxia learn to concentrate on every single manual action and everything they are learning to do; nothing is automatic. It’s like “always being clumsy or drunk, unless you focus”.

Living with this level of concentrate-or-you’ll-fuck-up-a-basic-manual-task, has secondary effects that are widespread but the most well known ones are:

Slow learners: children take noticeably longer to learn to crawl, talk, walk, cycle a bike, tie shoelaces, handwriting, typing, then their peers.
Clumsiness. Forgetfulness. out-of-character stupidity at weird times, out of character intelligence at weird times, forgetting names and words for things, missing appointments, missing bus stops, Hatred/discomfort of certain fabrics/ clothes, hypersensitivity of water temperature (like having a shower that’s not literally within 0.5% the perfect temperature) .

Two people with dyspraxia might exhibit two completely different sets of secondary problems, but my strongest ones are forgetting appointments, names and words, train stops (medium term memory tasks) and poor linguistic skills.