Anonymous asked:
disability-positivity answered:
The words neurotypical and neuroatypical originated within the autistic community to mean non-autistic and autistic, respectively.
This has changed over time, as allistic people have adopted the term, and so now neuroatypical refers to anyone with an atypical neurological configuration, so I agree it’s fine for you to use it!
(For example, here’s a list of neurological disorders — anyone with any of those on this list could identify as neuroatypical.)
The term neurodivergent was then coined in it’s place to refer to people specifically with developmental disabilities.
(Developmental disabilities include things like Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, etc. Research is showing that schizophrenia, schizophrenia spectrum disorders and OCD may be developmental disabilities as well, so I feel that they should be included under this term, too.)
However, neuroatypical people are now trying to claim they have a place in the word neurodivergent and saying neurodivergent and neuroatypical are synonymous. They aren’t.
Some people use them interchangeably because neuroatypical and neurotypical can be confusing for people with certain disabilities to tell apart, and that’s fine!, but it doesn’t change the meaning of the word in all contexts.
Neurodivergent, in it’s original context, is actually really important as there are issues that affect people with developmental disabilities that do not affect people with mental illnesses and it’s necessary to have a functional word to help us talk about those things.
I hope that helps clear things up! c:
- Cap
TL; DR:
- Neuroatypical can be used by anyone with atypical neurology, i.e a developmental or mental disability.
- Neurodivergent is sometimes used synonymously with neuroatypical but actually refers only to those with developmental disabilities.
- Allistic refers to those who are non-autistic.
- Neurotypical refers to someone who falls within the range of typical neurology and is NOT synonymous with allistic.
(Please keep in mind that I am not trying to put mentally ill and developmentally disabled people against each other or say that mental illnesses are less important or anything of that nature. I am both mentally ill and developmentally disabled myself.)
Cosigned. That doesn’t make any sense. “Person with a developmental disability” or “developmentally disabled” are already perfectly good words for that.
(I don’t think that everything in the DSM ought to be described as neurodivergence, but that’s because some of what’s in the DSM is assorted stigmatized attributes that have little to do with neurology)
Well mentally ill and person with a mental illness are also already good words as well…so why do you need more for that?
Why should mentally ill people be allowed to co-opt two different words that were not made with them in mind? Why not make their own, instead of taking them from another marginalized group???
Because they’re not “taking” them.
If something that usually gets called a “mental illness” is neurologically-mediated, then it IS a neuroatypicality.
I cannot tell someone who is bipolar, or schizophrenic, or depression-prone, that they can’t say they are neuroatypical, when they are neuroatypical.
It is a word that is accurate to their conditions. Those things have neurological causes and neurological effects. They are not co-opting anything, just because autistic people came up with the word.
“Neuroatypical” did not originally mean autistic. It just, actually, didn’t.
Yes, neuroatypical and neurodivergent are synonyms. Neurodivergent is easier to read and visually distinguish in written form, so it’s more commonly preferred. But they are effective synonyms.
This is very wrong actually. Neuroatypical does not mean “autistic” and neurotypical does not mean “not autistic.” There are countless people who aren’t neurotypical and also aren’t autistic. I am one of them. Autism is a neurodivergent condition, and is just one of many that exist. People with OCD bipolar, ADHD and PTSD (etc) also exist. Neuroatypical condtions are mental illnesses, like depression or eating disorders. They are not neurotypical, but differ in a lot of ways from neurodivergent conditions, so no, they are not synonyms. We need to stay away from the myth that everyone in the world is either autistic or completely neurotypical. It causes actual harm to people like me who also need to access support.
amazingphil
