Current Events > Is Neurodivergent the new "I'm totally OCD"?

(+) Yeah! (+)

COVxy posted...

It's called an analogy. Do you understand analogical reasoning?

People might say my statement was silly, because while you may be the only person with direct access to your body, you may not be aware of everything that's happening in your body, and the things you are aware of you can easily misinterpret. The same exact thing is true of your brain. This doesn't change simply because you've moved organ systems.

It was a bad analogy

AnsestralRecall posted...

It was a bad analogy

For...reasons. That will obviously remain unstated lol.

So surprised that Conflict and COVxy are in lock step here.

Two people that routinely pretend to be allies to the disenfranchised, but always show they are not.

I hear more using "autistic" as a replacement for the r-word than I do anyone calling themselves "neurodivergent" who isn't.

If we lived in a world where every person had comprehensive equal access to mental healthcare with providers not being part of the current capital driven system then maybe the statement, "you don't know what you have until you're diagnosed," would hold more weight.

As it is, self-diagnosis is a SURVIVAL TACTIC for the poor, for racial and gender minorities, etc.

I think it's pretty embarrassing to have strong opinions about something you don't understand tc

Just make something up, convince yourself it's true and repeat the fantasy you invented to people with confidence. It's weird how common this is.

No. It's not attention seeking. It's terminology changing to feel less insulting. It used to be normal and abnormal, but one of the definitions of abnormal is: unusual in an unwelcome or problematic way.

So "normal people" became "neurotypical people" and "abnormal people" became "neurodivergent people".

And you're seeing it often because it includes a lot of different things. The autistic spectrum condition (ASC), dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), trauma, tourette's, etc., all fall under neurodivergent.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Stop acting like the enemy and you might have some ground to stand on here.

It does seem like a lot of people are using it as the new buzzword. Neurodivergence is a real thing but if you haven't been diagnosed with anything maybe hold back on labeling yourself

NoxObscuras posted...

No. It's not attention seeking. It's terminology changing to feel less insulting. It used to be normal and abnormal, but one of the definitions of abnormal is: unusual in an unwelcome or problematic way.

So "normal people" became "neurotypical people" and "abnormal people" became "neurodivergent people".

And you're seeing it often because it includes a lot of different things. The spectrum condition (ASC), dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), trauma, tourette's, etc., all fall under neurodivergent.

I think wed be better off just treating everyone as an individual rather than feeling the need to divide people into us and them and needing to label everything and everyone.

Whose alt is Ansestawhatever?

He certainly sounds extremely pleased with himself for correctly self-diagnosing himself. He must be an amazing human specimen.

RetsuZaiZen posted...

Like "I'm so sensory overloaded"

Fuck off and fuck you.

It's a better alternative than raw dogging life without taking care of mental health at all when access to proper care is often out of reach for people - be it a lack financial resources or lack of actual facilities to obtain care at

It's certainly not ideal, but as I said - survival tactic for many

I'm very fortunate to have gotten a formal autism diagnosis. As others have said, not everyone has the privilege to get formal diagnoses. Heck, it's gonna become literally impossible for some people as America continues to crumble.

Yes, but that's because the "totally ocd" people had real problems and issues too, that continue to be dismissed and mocked to this day. Maybe not necessarily OCD itself, but there's plenty of other anxiety related disorders they could have/had.

I'm not sure there's value in self diagnosis outside formal treatment even if you actually manage to hit the right nail. Most psychological treatment, in the hands of trained therapists and in combination with medicine, takes extensive time and has limited effectiveness.

I think mostly people are just looking to stick themselves into something they percieve as an in-group, which can be good or bad depending.

But the idea that self-diagnosis is just as valid (bordering on an argument that it is more valid) than getting assessed is just silly.

I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD (ADD at the time) until I was about 25 or so. As a teen I wasn't ALLOWED a diagnoses. Anytime a teacher suggested to my family that i should see a specialist for my attention issues, they just screamed and swore and threw a giant fit "our boy ain't some <r-word> for your doctors to pump full of zombie drugs!"

If any symptoms manifested at home? Obviously something they could just scream / threaten / beat out of me!

So like, i dunno maybe yall need to stop giving so much of a fuck about kids who self diagnose like them doing that is somehow "wrong".

Gremlynn posted...

I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD (ADD at the time) until I was about 25 or so. As a teen I wasn't ALLOWED a diagnoses. Anytime a teacher suggested to my family that i should see a specialist for my attention issues, they just screamed and swore and threw a giant fit "our boy ain't some <r-word> for your doctors to pump full of zombie drugs!"

If any symptoms manifested at home? Obviously something they could just scream / threaten / beat out of me!

So like, i dunno maybe yall need to stop giving so much of a fuck about kids who self diagnose like them doing that is somehow "wrong".

Its wrong when the waters are muddied by people who dont have anything but feel like they need to belong to something for the sake of it.

Some people in this topic, including you, seem to assume I dont think neurodivergence exists at all. Getting real mad at demons that arent there.

Gremlynn posted...

I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD (ADD at the time) until I was about 25 or so. As a teen I wasn't ALLOWED a diagnoses. Anytime a teacher suggested to my family that i should see a specialist for my attention issues, they just screamed and swore and threw a giant fit "our boy ain't some <r-word> for your doctors to pump full of zombie drugs!"

If any symptoms manifested at home? Obviously something they could just scream / threaten / beat out of me!

So like, i dunno maybe yall need to stop giving so much of a fuck about kids who self diagnose like them doing that is somehow "wrong".

My parents didn't beat me for it, but they did throw tantrums at teachers

When I was a kid I remember lying about having an allergy to honey, because all the other kids had allergies and sharing it made them feel like they were a part of something I wasnt, and for some reason I needed to lie to be a part of it.

If yall dont think this doesnt happen with mental health diagnoses, cmon. I think its becoming more and more common, personally.

Feel free to attack me about that but youre not gonna change my mind with insults btw.

Well every one of your opinions is garbage so this tracks.

Do you think it's reasonable to compare your extremely weird pretension of having an allergy, something benign that many people openly deal with and is viewied in much the same way as having glasses is viewed, with the supposed concept of pretending to have some sort of neurological disorder that will cause kids to think of you disparingingly, possibly labelling you with the r-word, in order to "fit in"?

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Its about being defined by the label Vs the label being a description.

SwayM posted...

Its wrong when the waters are muddied by people who dont have anything but feel like they need to belong to something for the sake of it.

Some people in this topic, including you, seem to assume I dont think neurodivergence exists at all. Getting real mad at demons that arent there.

So, things like that first paragraph are exactly why people are reacting negatively to your topic. People aren't just doing it to feel like they belong. They genuinely have something that puts them in the neurodivergent umbrella, but are just recently able to positively acknowledge it.

As some other posts in this topic have shown, mental illness has been treated really negatively for a long time. Rather than get kids diagnosed and properly assisted, parents would just live in denial.

Because somehow it reflected on them as a parent to have your child be "different". Some would just handwave it away, saying things like "we didn't do that when I was a kid and I turned out fine." And some even resorted to abuse, as with Gremlynn. Now we're finally starting to move past some of the stigma.

SwayM posted...

Its wrong when the waters are muddied by people who dont have anything but feel like they need to belong to something for the sake of it.

Getting real mad at demons that arent there.

the absolute irony of these two statements next to each other.

And no, i'm not saying you think it doesn't exist at all. I'm saying you act like it doesn't exist until a proper diagnoses, which can be nearly impossible for some people to get depending on their circumstances. I didn't magically become ADHD when a doctor recognized it and named it, it was ALWAYS there and I was lost and suffering because trusted adults told me it wasn't and any symptoms were my own fault for not trying hard enough to be normal.

The reality is that between it being more acceptable to be neurodiverse, and information and resources to help understand these disorders being publicaly available, it is easier than ever for someone to have an informed opinion of their mental condition without seeking treatment.

If sites like ADHD Alien had existed when I was a teenager, i would have been able to easily recognize my symptoms because they were GLARING

Mods need to get in this topic asap.

SHRlKE posted...

Its about being defined by the label Vs the label being a description.

Yeah, so what Conflict said.

We ARE our brains. the way our brains function or don't function does indeed define who we are.

The actual problem is talking to someone with an actual diagnosis, especially for something like ADHD, and being all "sounds like you're just lazy TBQH" or something like "Just mind over matter. Stop worrying about it".

The problem with "I'm so OCD" people is not only were they never diagnosed, all they were was excessively tidy. People with severe OCD think they have FOXDIE or something. People with severe paranoid, delusional OCD think the tree outside is stealing their energy and that everyone in their house will DIE if they don't point the bible and cross on their nightstand at each other so they intersect over the front door.

wanderingshade posted...

The actual problem is talking to someone with an actual diagnosis, especially for something like ADHD, and being all "sounds like you're just lazy TBQH" or something like "Just mind over matter. Stop worrying about it".

The problem with "I'm so OCD" people is not only were they never diagnosed, all they were was excessively tidy. People with severe OCD think they have FOXDIE or something. People with severe paranoid, delusional OCD think the tree outside is stealing their energy and that everyone in their house will DIE if they don't point the bible and cross on their nightstand at each other so they intersect over the front door.

Yeah that's kinda how my friend's parents acted. They genuinely scared me at times

BurmesePenguin posted...

Do you think it's reasonable to compare your extremely weird pretension of having an allergy, something benign that many people openly deal with and is viewied in much the same way as having glasses is viewed, with the supposed concept of pretending to have some sort of neurological disorder that will cause kids to think of you disparingingly, possibly labelling you with the r-word, in order to "fit in"?

Yes. I see how easily someone can want to fit into a group they dont belong.

Your reaction to this idea is possibly being labeled with offensive words isnt the reality being presented to people, and you know as well as I do were far more understanding than that these days.

They see it being framed as simply I think differently and thats what they latch on to. Also its an umbrella term so it can mean any number of things.

Including:

Dyscalculia
Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) is a specific learning disorder that is characterised by impairments in learning basic arithmetic facts, processing numbers and performing accurate and fluent calculations.

Which I just learned about recently. As someone whos absolutely dog shit at math how nice is it now theres a diagnosis now I can fall back on instead of the reality that I didnt apply myself more in school. I dont have to take ownership of my shortcomings, my brain was just wired differently from the start

I chose this example specifically because I can relate to it and I think its easy to poke holes into imho. Dont extrapolate it to say Im saying the same thing about other diagnoses. I know how yall like to throw anyone under the bus for shit that isnt said.

Things can be said even if they're not spoken (or typed in this case)

SwayM posted...

If yall dont think this doesnt happen with mental health diagnoses, cmon. I think its becoming more and more common, personally.

Good thing no one really cares what you think.

Gremlynn posted...

I didn't magically become ADHD when a doctor recognized it and named it, it was ALWAYS there and I was lost and suffering because trusted adults told me it wasn't and any symptoms were my own fault for not trying hard enough to be normal.

This was me with my autism diagnosis and I still can't be help but be a little resentful about it even many years removed from being a kid. Going undiagnosed fucked my entire childhood

AnsestralRecall posted...

Nice strawman, buddy

I swear for someone so educated you sure know jack shit a lot

you didnt even spell ancestral right

ArsGoetia posted...

you didnt even spell ancestral right

No shit

I didn't intend to

Name combined MtG (Ancestral Recall) and Orphan Black (Sestra) related names

hockeybub89 posted...

Good thing no one really cares what you think.

lol

Stop being so antagonistic

SwayM posted...

Which I just learned about recently. As someone whos absolutely dog shit at math how nice is it now theres a diagnosis now I can fall back on instead of the reality that I didnt apply myself more in school. I dont have to take ownership of my shortcomings, my brain was just wired differently from the start

imagine you're playing a video game. The video game is secretly set to the highest difficulty for you, while everybody else is playing on normal. Everybody insists the game is set to normal, and you believe them. You see how much easier it is for them and they see how much more you are struggling and the only logical explanation is that you are either just fucking terrible at the game, or just aren't trying hard enough to be as good as them. Now you have an idea of what it's like growing up with an undiagnosed neurodivergance AND a good lead in to why there seems to be heavy overlap between these disorders and various depression / mood disorders.

SwayM posted...

Which I just learned about recently. As someone whos absolutely dog shit at math how nice is it now theres a diagnosis now I can fall back on instead of the reality that I didnt apply myself more in school. I dont have to take ownership of my shortcomings, my brain was just wired differently from the start

I chose this example specifically because I can relate to it and I think its easy to poke holes into imho. Dont extrapolate it to say Im saying the same thing about other diagnoses. I know how yall like to throw anyone under the bus for shit that isnt said.

So... You don't see a problem with what you just said? At all? You're basically doing the same thing that parents do to their kids to avoid the stigma of mental illness. "You don't have a disorder, you just need to apply yourself more"

You're digging yourself deeper and deeper into that hole. Maybe you should stop?

Ive only seen this neurodivergent term mentioned online and mostly by obnoxious people on Twitter or Tik Tok who make their mental illness or their supposed mental Illness a central part of their identity.

iPhone_7 posted...

Ive only seen this neurodivergent term mentioned online and mostly by obnoxious people on Twitter or Tik Tok who make their mental illness or their supposed mental Illness a central part of their identity.

It's almost as if our disorders influence a vast majority of things in our lives.

People who fake these things definitely exist (and it's not always the person themself; especially in children it's often the parents / caregivers), but they're the minority compared to those who legitimately have such conditions, and "they're faking it" should never be the default assumption.

I didnt have autsm in mind when posting that, I thought neurodivergent was like a general term for mental illness/disorder. Sorry I myself am neurodivergent and a

Trumble posted...

People who fake these things definitely exist (and it's not always the person themself; especially in children it's often the parents / caregivers), but they're the minority compared to those who legitimately have such conditions, and "they're faking it" should never be the default assumption.

I had an interesting discussion with a friend regarding plurality not that long ago.

I mentioned feeling concerned about the people that would "fake it" and bring negative attention to people that don't, and they said "Why does it even matter?"

They're possibly using it as a coping mechanism for some other issues in their life and there's nothing wrong with it.

I've since come to notice that it seems to mostly ever be people without a given diaorder that have criticisms about "fakers."