Hey Neurodivergent Pandas, What Is One Thing You Wish More Neurotypical People Knew? (Closed)
Thanks for participating, I would love to learn everything I can.
This post may include affiliate links.
I tried to type this out twice with a complicated metaphor involving video games, paint, and clipping under the map, but you would have had to be either an overzealous English teacher or have an eye for unusual analogies to read the thing without getting confused. So, uh, I'm going to sum it up as "Neurodivergence is an experience on a very varied spectrum and while specific conditions that impart aspects of neurodivergence are rigidly defined by the DSM-5, the experience itself is not."
And now I'm going to stop because I almost wrote another paragraph and you'll never guess if there was another analogy in there...
ADHD is not just hyperactivity. Sure, sometimes we get uncontrollable amounts of energy, and we’re fidgety, but that’s not all ADHD is. We can’t focus on stuff, but sometimes when we do, we focus HARD on it and can’t think of anything else. That’s called hyperfixating. People with ADHD are prone to anger and aggression (though not everyone, of course), and mood swings. We do have very short attention spans and sometimes have multiple trains of thought at once, and often switch abruptly between topics. We are prone to forgetfulness and suffer from executive dysfunction. Our prefrontal cortexes never fully develop.
OCD is not just being neat and orderly. People with OCD will get intrusive thoughts that cause them extreme distress. For instance, my brain will tell me that I have to do certain things or else someone I love will die. And we constantly obsess over fears. People who just like to be organized probably don’t have OCD, unless they fear not doing so will have a very negative outcome. Don’t say you have OCD if you just like to be organized. It’s quite offensive.
Autistic =/= dumb. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Some people with autism have learning disabilities, but not everyone. You also can’t be more or less autistic, people just have different symptoms.
NEVER use the r slur. That s**t’s offensive as f**k. Don’t do that, ever. Not even as a “joke.”
I never heard someone say that autistic people are dumb. Thats horrible because its so not true. Some of the smartest people in this world are on the autistic spectrum and some other autistic people have special intrests and talents which is kinda cool. I knew a kid who was really into space and knew some pretty cool stuff about planets and nasa technology
