I used the word 'neurodivergent' in a story I'm working on (sorry, don't hold your breath). I wasn't sure when/where I'd seen it from, so I g**gled it. The sites earning G**gle the most money seemed adamant that it's not a pukka medical term. Is it a 'woke' term that I should avoid, in case readers fear it will precede politically correct preachery?
SOL has zero stories containing the word 'neurodivergent'.
AJ
Neurodivergent is the couter to nurotypical. It is primarily used to refer to those on the autisim spectrum but IIRC it can cover others.
It is not Woke or anything it is a bonafide medical term out of psychology and well established. Think of it as having a similar tone to Gay as an owned term by that community as a matter of pride. people who identify as neurodiverse see it as a badge of honour and pride. It is frequently touted as a point of positive differentiation.
I myself am neurodivergent and can claim this as easily as my hair or eye colour. Do not worry about negative feedback except perhaps by those who do not understand the root and purpose of the term.
I wouldn't call it "woke" or even place it anywhere near that area. Though, the term did go through a similar development. So, there IS a sizable part of the population that hears the term and basically understands it as "I'm not like all the other girls, you know?".
AFAIK, it was first coined by a journalist referring to autistic people, who then picked it up and tried to use it to tell the general population that "autistic" doesn't mean "defective". But, since then, it's been cultivated by a bunch of internet communities.
Consequently, by now, it encompasses basically every person who's brain doesn't work like the brains of the majority do. If, today, someone tells you they're neurodivergent, it can mean basically everything ranging from being dyslexic all the way to being a psychopath.
Which means that the term basically doesn't tell you anything anymore, so I would discourage people from using it.
Go to Pubmed, it is a common term in published medical papers. People with autism are considered neurodivergent, among others.
Neurodivergent is simply a general term for any brain difference that leads an individual to process information differently that the so-called norm. Although some people use it primarily as an umbrella term for conditions on the autism spectrum, it can also include a variety of other conditions.
PTSD is a neurodivergent condition. So is dyslexia. Also schizophrenia, OCD, and even epilepsy. All of these conditions and others involve the brain processing information differently than the expected norm.
One of the reasons that psychologists and other medical professionals are shifting towards neurodivergence as a general term is because not all brain differences are necessarily a problem, even if they do cause the individual to experience the world in a vastly different way.
An example of this is Synesthesia (or synaesthesia in UK English), which is a condition in which the part of the brain which is associated with one sense is being used to process input provided by another sense. Most people can experience this to some extent, especially if one sense is being overloaded (such as seeing colour flashes when in a very loud environment). There are all sort of variations for synesthesia, some relatively common (like associating sounds with colours) and some quite rare (like feeling a physical touch when seeing someone else being touched).
There are a number of situations where having synesthesia can be very useful to the individual. Composers with synesthesia and perfect pitch have described how they can "see" a wrong note being played even when the auditory difference is very small.
Some psychologists even think there might be a link between synesthesia and written language. After all, you see a written thing and "hear" the sound of it in your mind. This might indicate that a very low level of synesthesia is actually the norm and the condition is just what happens when a person is more sensitive to the effect than others, similar to the way that some people have eyesight that is better than 20/20 or the ability to separate distinct tastes (supertasters).
And for reference, the term isn't that new. Neurodivergent started being used in psychology back in the 1990s.
Neurodivergent is simply a general term for any brain difference that leads an individual to process information differently that the so-called norm. Although some people use it primarily as an umbrella term for conditions on the autism spectrum, it can also include a variety of other conditions.
That's the problem: it is now a meaningless term that can literally be applied to anyone.
Not in psychology.
And while the distinctions between normative and variation may be becoming blurred in some social discourse, that's true of a lot of language, especially when words from scientific disciplines become common outside their discipline.
You could say that the term "depression" could be applied to anyone because it covers so many different situations and you'd be right, as the word is used in the mainstream. That doesn't mean the depression as a psychological condition is a meaningless term, though.
I used the phrase "a variety of other conditions" because I doubt that anyone here actually cares about the full list, but there is a list. You can't just throw out neurodivergent to mean any difference you want, at least not in a scientific context.
How about we start using the word "narrowdivergent" for overweight people?
I prefer gravitationally challenged. :)
Since mass doesn't change gravitational attraction (Galileo's experiment of dropping objects off the Tower of Pisa), does it matter?
In real life, I (and my kids) just say, "Yeah, ADHD."
We don't say "On the spectrum", 'neurodivergent', or the A-word ('Autism').
FWIW, I didn't know/realize *how* I was different for a very, very long time, well after having kids. If I'd known, I very well might not have had kids at all...
I knew I was different somehow, but not how. No need to go further into this, and yes, I'm extremely good at first-person twitch-shooter games. And posting on reddit.
In real life, I (and my kids) just say, "Yeah, ADHD."
ADHD seems to be tainted by wokeness these days. This year, there has been a rash of celebrities suddenly 'discovering' they have it. It's this year's version of 'designer depression'.
AJ
Isn't it like, ADHD like, the opposite of how some, um, neurodivergent people "on the spectrum" are? I mean, some of us have rather abundance of attention instead of a deficit the way I think that letter combination is supposed to refer to. Or I'm mixing something up, or are the terms so expanded nowadays it all overlaps somehow?
ADHD is much more complicated than just 'a deficit of attention.' One of the common characteristics associated with people with ADHD is the ability to hyperfocus on things that interest them.
It's really more properly an executive functioning problem; the name is somewhat of a 'legacy' name. People with ADHD have a great deal of trouble maintaining focus on what they 'should' focus on, which is why it's a disorder.
Think about the stereotypical ADHD gamer. They can't focus on studies, maybe not on life in general, but they can focus for ten hours straight on a video game - to the exclusion of, say, eating and self-care in general.
One of the UK's spymasters said they specifically target 'neurodivergent' recruits because they're tightly focused and can analyse intelligent data better.
Given how woke the UK's public service sector has become, that suggests 'neurodivergent' passes wokeliness tests.
AJ
