Terminology

others have answered well

I'd like to ask you please B  why "Autism is under the umbrella of neurodiversity but so is Tourettes" bothers you?

Neurodiversity emphasises brain diversity contributes strengths as part of the differences.

"Relatedly, TS may be associated with verbal strengths in children; there may be a connection between TS and creativity; and children with TS may demonstrate higher cognitive control compared with neurotypical peers."

On this basis does it bother you less perhaps?

ArchaeC said:

The medical people use ‘Low functioning’ and ‘High Functioning’ to describe autistic people

I've read actually that it's not a medical term but just one that's been used on and off over the years.

I do like the idea though of a distinction between an autistic person such as myself and one who struggles hugely with everyday life and maybe is very 'disabled' (high support needs), out of respect for them, as I don't want to undervalue their life challenges.

I think this example of yours highlights some of the issues with terminology which is pre-loaded with assumptions.

I use NT and ND because I don't want to exclude anyone and because if I were to describe myself using other terms it woud be an alphabet like it is with LBGTQI+ and woe betide you if you miss someone out.

I often wonder why so many things are being reclassified as ND, like dyslexia or Bi-Polar, I wonder if this is overstretching neurodiversity? 

I get annoyed when peope say we're all on the spectrum too, even though I used the term as the title of a recent thread, to me a spectrum has ends and a middle and various points along it, which was why I asked if someone could be profoundly NT?

I'm not a big fan of these wheel things, I find them confusing and not informative enough. So much has changed since I was diagnosed 13 years ago I can't keep up. Maybe it's a sign of me getting older? 

Rather than allowing autistic people to be pushed out of society, I prefer to put autistic people first and to refer to the rest of the world as ‘non-autistic’.

The medical people use ‘Low functioning’ and ‘High Functioning’ to describe autistic people. I’ve yet to hear anybody described as ‘middle functioning’ or ‘medium functioning’, so it feels like this terminology isn’t accurate, no matter that our traits are variable and dependent on many factors such as environment, noise, location etc.  Moreover, labelling someone as ‘low functioning’ feels like the person is written off—it’s a dreadful label. 

I probably have ADHD (on a waiting list for assessment). I haven’t decided whether to identify as autistic and ADHD, or AuDHD. Perhaps that doesn’t matter as I won’t be telling many people. At the moment the medical terminology uses two separate conditions. I also have dyspraxia like traits which mainly affect my fine motor skills.

The medical classification of autism as a deficit is far from satisfactory. People have made imaginative suggestions (on this forum and elsewhere) on how to overcome the problematic classification and language, but none have provided a fully satisfactory resolution.

I think that people use 'neurodivergent' over 'autistic' when they want to be inclusive of all neurodevelopmental conditions.Also, 'neurotypical' as a term is more widely understood than 'allistic'.

Sometimes neurodivergent is a more accurate term to use than autistic. Although I am only clinically diagnosed with ASD, I also have a 'niche' form of dyscalculia - I cannot do mental arithmetic. Though my fine motor skills are very good, my gross motor skills are very poor. Me run and interact with a football and kick it somewhere accurately? That's not happening! So, in addition to autism, I also have forms of two other neurodevelopmental conditions, viz dyscalculia and dyspraxia.

For this, at the moment being trans is heavily under attack, so perhaps by banding together they make their minority a little bigger to protect each other, as they can relate to each other as persecuted for their inclination. Just offering a perspective, I'm not arguing with your own preference of referring to yourself.

The only thing is allistic means not autistic, where as NT is just short for neurotypical. So if you just have ADHD you are allistic. There is a lot of overlap in conditions, so sometimes saying NT is more appropriate than saying allistic? 

Often a lot of people have multiple conditions, so they use ND, i.e. Neurodiverse to indicate all their conditions -some diagnosed but maybe they feel not all. There is a lot of comorbities? 

I can see you desire exact phrasing, but it can be a tricky subject for exactness. I have one child on a waiting list and one who I tried to get referred but couldn't even get on the waiting list , so saying they are ND is more specific to me than saying they are autistic when they aren't diagnosed.

And here's another one before I must go away and shut up ... a lot of things I grew up believing were just a normal part of being human have names and are actually now labelled a 'condition' or 'disorder'.

I think I must now have about 20 conditions and disorders I wasn't aware of until recently.

It feels as though everything is being neatly put into boxes.

As an addendum, I have a similar problem with sexuality.

There used to be LGBT and now there are many pluses.

I'm OK with this although I feel for those people who have no idea what their sexuality is or (like me) see the whole thing as fluid.

However, if I want to talk about my sexuality, I would use the actual term for it (if I understood what it is) and not the umbrella term which incorporates rather a lot now.