I don’t understand the usefulness of that term. It seems to me that everyone has a unique brain.
I believe it is an attempt to separate people who have neurodevelopmental or congenital neurological divergence from those who do not. If you look at someone like me, it is extremely apparent that I am not the same as the majority of our human population. I am schizo-spectrum and ADHD and OCD and it is super obvious. So there is a value and a benefit to acknowledging that, for example, I am very distinct from the average population of people.
It is helpful because in my therapy, my therapist understands that ordinary diagnostic and ordinary treatment modalities aren't going to be as effective on me, or they will not work on me in the same manner, as someone like you (if you don't have these issues - which I believe you actually have OCD - which I acknowledge I cannot actually know, but I am using a general "you"). It has less to do with having a "unique brain" because while everyone's brains are unique in a certain way, they are
structurally and anatomically similar, they work in similar ways.
Whereas a brain like mine objectively does not, which you can see based even on how medications such as amphetamines work on me. However, it is also important to understand that neurodivergent is an umbrella term - someone with OCD is different to someone with ADHD. It's a good umbrella term to have because we both
still are medically divergent from others, but then you have to specify and specialize how. So for you, having OCD, it's good to acknowledge because CBT treatment, the most common treatment for PTSD, will look different for you as a person with OCD than someone without OCD.
It's also important to know that neurodivergent is a colloquial term, it is not a scientific term. It's a term that we as the neurodivergent community have settled on to understand the ways that we are all similar - this is why therapists and doctors don't usually use such a term, even though they recognize that there are similarities between different neurodivergent people. They would use specialized terms because they are specialized in treating us.
How do you deal/cope with neurotypicals?
As for this, I'm going to be real, I don't tend to get along with people who are neurotypical. This is not to say that I have never had neurotypical friends, but because of
how divergent I am, I have always struggled with people who lack neurological divergence in some way, because they very often fail to understand me and attribute my behavior to malice instead of disease.
I have had some success though, and that usually comes from being very honest about the difficulties and divergences I have. Before I was fully open and authentic, most people did not like me and I did not like them. But now I have noted that as I've gotten older there is utility in the phrase, "just be who you are." This is why it's important to be specific, and not to generalize everything.
Because if I say "well all neurotypical people just hate me," then I am closing myself off to a potentially really strong friendship with someone else. Because human beings are often very intelligent, a neurotypical who has
exposure to neurodivergence may learn about it and may come to an understanding of a neurodivergent individual simply through education and exposure.
I think the term ‘neuro - divergent’ lost all meaning the minute it was picked up as the latest TikTok badge for self diagnosed people to over identify with.
Neurodivergent is NOT a diagnosis, it’s a buzz word.
I will also add that I think these opinions are pretty reductive when it comes to the phrase neurodivergent, because if we want to go there, then we can potentially say that every diagnosis such as BPD, ADHD, DID, PTSD etc "lose all meaning" based on TikTok and self-diagnosers and fakers. And that is simply not the case. They definitely all still have plenty of meaning, and just because people misuse it doesn't take away from their benefits.
(And sorry, I know I edited this 100000x, haha. Blame the ADHD!)
