Neurodiversity

A cat, I suppose.

"Nobody realizes that some people expend 
 tremendous energy merely to be normal."

    - Blanche Balain, recorded in Albert Camus' notebooks

The core idea behind neurodiversity is to recognize that there's wide variation in the way brains operate, and that specific forms of operation aren't inherently good or bad, but rather better or worse at working towards particular goals within particular contexts.

When aspects of society are arranged around inaccurate assumptions about how people's minds work, we shouldn't require that neuroatypical people change to be included, but instead change society to include neuroatypical people.

(Edited from the original)

Links

Autism

'The autism creature, staring in your direction.'

TVTropes: Asperger's Syndrome
Reddit: Inside the Aspie Brain
Coping
Is ABA dog training for children?
Youtube: Darius McCollum
Stimming
Defining Autistic Burnout
neurodiversity.com
Autistic Self Advocacy Network

Lexicon

neurodiversity: variation in the human brain regarding sociability, learning, attention, mood and other mental functions in a non-pathological sense
neurotypical: having a brain which operates in a way that works well within the current societal context one is in
takiwātanga: in their own time and space, autistic/autism

Memories

2020-11-05: "For some reason, today I spent a disproportianate amount of time watching clips from horror movies I've never seen and reading about serial killers, despite avoiding all this type of shit up until now. It was an interesting natural outgrowth of my autism-rooted interest in other humans' minds." (from my journal)

???: I was first diagnosed with autism when I was 12. My mom first sent me after my older sister was diagnosed, saying that I acted similar to her. All I really remember about the diagnosis process was that the person asked plenty of mildly amusing questions about how potty-trained I was. (from my memory)

Neurodiversity

Links

Autism

ADHD

Schizophrenia

Other

Lexicon

Memories