this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
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Autism

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I personally dislike calling myself neurodivergent (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 day ago by floralmortal@lemmy.ca to c/autism@lemmy.world
35 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I have several disorders which are located inside of the brain (which obviously includes autism, hence me posting here). I dislike calling myself "neurodivergent" for many reasons. For one, people use this term as a replacement word for autism, and I have many conditions besides autism.

For example, I'll see posts saying, "neurodivergent people sre more likely to do XYZ." There are so many disorders which fall under the neurodivergent umbrella that it isn't humanly possible for neurodivergent people to be more likely to say or do something than other folks; just say autistic in this context.

I also find that my personal experience gets watered down by calling myself neurodivergent; it feels like a modern version of being called special. I have several conditions which fall under different categories; psychiatric, neurological, and neurodevelopmental. To call all of that just neurodivergent is not very specific and doesn't tell a person what my needs are (plus, they'll just assume I'm autistic).

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[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 15 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

I get it. I'm not autistic, but I do have a brain tumor and some spinal problems that causes similar symptoms, and people love to get shitty about it. It makes some neurodivergent spaces really hard for me.

I've had to cut "friends" loose because they make "jokes" about how I can't be trusted because we saw what happened with Fetterman.

I've stopped talking to people who insisted that I'm autistic and me denying it means I'm a hateful bigot.

I've stopped talking to people who think I'm cosplaying as autistic, because I could just do chemo and brain surgery and be normal again, and "real" neurodivergencies like theirs can't be cured.

It's lonely.

[–] Mondez@lemdro.id 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Not to downplay your situation, but isn't autism entirely about the symptoms when it comes to diagnosis? If you meet the diagnostic criteria then you are autistic regardless of the underlying mechanism? There is also no guarantee that dealing with the tumor would fully restore your brain to the way it was before.

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 hours ago

Not to downplay your situation, but isn’t autism entirely about the symptoms when it comes to diagnosis?

It's a touchy subject. I personally think it should be, but people love to misinterpret talk about what's causing symptoms as wanting to get rid of autistic people.

Regardless, I don't hit enough criteria to be diagnosed, and got "sensory processing disorder" instead. The overlap in symptoms is because the tumor is in my thalamus, which is the sensorimotor processing station of the brain and has strong implications for autism as well. Furthermore, I have bone spurs in my neck that are compressing my spine, another tumor on my T9 vertebra, and a history of TBI that has left me with memory problems. Altogether, I deffo ping as neurodivergent, it's just that people think the only neurotypes available are "autistic/adhd", or "neurotypical".

There is also no guarantee that dealing with the tumor would fully restore your brain to the way it was before.

Yeah, and mine's inoperable because it's too deep in the brain. They can't even do a biopsy without potentially doing more harm. Same goes for the one on my vertabra, it can't be removed because it's through the bone itself. I think some people are adamant that there's an easy fix, because they're confronting their own internalized Just World fallacy and are struggling to come to terms with the fact that this shit can just happen, to anybody for any reason, and that scares them.

[–] ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Really sorry to hear about your tumour. But how does one make it to Lemmy without any autistic powers

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 hours ago

It's the knee-high socks and thinkbook with linux. Turns out just anybody can buy them!