Autism Spectrum Disorder or Austism Spectrum Condition?

I don't like the term disorder, I'm not disordered I'm autistic, maybe neurodiverse is better, but then everyone diverse, maybe we can move towards something that recognises people being people rather than boxes to be slotted in?

TheCatWoman said:

I don't like the term disorder, I'm not disordered I'm autistic, maybe neurodiverse is better, but then everyone diverse, maybe we can move towards something that recognises people being people rather than boxes to be slotted in?

Thanks to the growing understanding of the neurodiversity movement and paradigm autistics like us can now identify as neurodivergent. 

Anyone whose brain diverges from neuronormativity can identify as neurodivergent.

Do we actually know what a neurotypical brain looks like compared to a neurodiverse one?

Are there differences between neurodiverse brains? I was thinking high and low functioning autism, although thats a term I'm uncomfortable with, as I think I'm a bit of both, there are somethings I do really well at and others I'm complete rubbish at and don't function.

Are there brains that are neurodiverse but not autistic?

Do we actually know what a neurotypical brain looks like compared to a neurodiverse one?

Are there differences between neurodiverse brains? I was thinking high and low functioning autism, although thats a term I'm uncomfortable with, as I think I'm a bit of both, there are somethings I do really well at and others I'm complete rubbish at and don't function.

Are there brains that are neurodiverse but not autistic?

TheCatWoman said:

Thanks for that, I must admit to finding it all very confusing, especially as the terms vary from country to country and people can get very upset if you use the wrong term.

You are welcome! I understand that, learning the language of a new paradigm can take quite a while.

TheCatWoman said:

I'm starting to think that diversity is becoming an over used word, everybody seems to diverge somewhere along the line, leading to such things as "everybodies on the spectrum somewhere", which is usally used as a term to shut people up.

Such phrases are incredibly dismissive of our autistic experience and show that the person who thinks that doesn’t really know what being autistic means. I understand your point, diversity is after all a natural part of all human experiences.

TheCatWoman said:

I was aware that autistics have more brain connectivity and that we experience things more intensely. What I'm particularly interested in is the sample sizes used. So many studies use tiny samples of people and draw massive conclusions from them that effect policy making in both health and government.

I am not sure about sample sizes for such studies.

Thanks for that, I must admit to finding it all very confusing, especially as the terms vary from country to country and people can get very upset if you use the wrong term.

I'm starting to think that diversity is becoming an over used word, everybody seems to diverge somewhere along the line, leading to such things as "everybodies on the spectrum somewhere", which is usally used as a term to shut people up.

I was aware that autistics have more brain connectivity and that we experience things more intensely. What I'm particularly interested in is the sample sizes used. So many studies use tiny samples of people and draw massive conclusions from them that effect policy making in both health and government.

TheCatWoman said:

Are there brains that are neurodiverse but not autistic?

Neurodivergent is an identity that anyone who diverges from neuronormativity can adopt and embrace. Yes absolutely, this is why it’s so important to not use the word neurodivergent as a synonym for autistic/ADHD people which is unfortunately quite common.

Neurodivergent people include us (and others such as dyslexic, dyspraxic, Tourette’s, tic, sensory processing differences, learning disabilities, synaesthesia, misophonia etc we are innately neurodivergent and also neurodivergent people who have acquired their neurodivergence so for example, people with mental health needs including OCD, depression, anxiety, bipolar etc and also people with dementia, Parkinson’s and acquired brain injury as the brain structure has quite literally changed and therefore they diverge from neuronormativity. 

I think you are using the word neurodiverse to mean neurodivergent, am I right? Neurodiverse is used to describe a group of people where multiple neurotypes are represented for example dyslexic, dyspraxic, OCD and neurotypical. So, for example a classroom of students is neurodiverse. Neurodivergent is in contrast used to describe individuals who diverge from neuronormativity.

Here is a link to a graphic which explains my point:

TheCatWoman said:

Do we actually know what a neurotypical brain looks like compared to a neurodiverse one?

No, but we do know specifically for us autistic people that there is some hyper connectivity in certain brain regions which is a very plausible explanation for why we often experience the world very intensely. Also, us autistic people process 42% more information than non autistic people at resting rate.

For more information on language related to neurodiversity, you may be interested in this link below:

neuroqueer.com/.../