Any mental illness could be regarded as a type of diversity. Or even literally everybody since all of our brains are unique.
It absolutely doesn’t.
It doesn’t.
But to answer a question of “why does it seem to be?”, they seem to be the most visible both in percentage of the population and having visible effects on someone’s personality.
I wouldn’t be surprised if bipolar becomes bigger over time as it becomes more recognized outside of severe cases.
It doesn’t. I’m neurodivergent. I am bi-polar.
Depending on the context, it doesn’t.
In my area there’s a contrast between neurophysiological handicap (meaning loss of function due to brain structure) and neurodiversity (meaning differing function due to brain structure), with the former including dyslexia, ocd, schizophrenia, asd, adhd, etc, and the latter also giftedness and non-pathological/on-the-spectrum type of differences.
As to why not everyone falls into neurodiversity, that’s because we choose the meaning to give to words, and having another word for “everyone” is currently less useful than for “people with slight brain variations that have a lot more trouble in society than they did just a generation ago”.
It literally means the opposite of neurotypical and covers way more than autism and ADHD. Such as:
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Bipolar Disorder
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Borderline Personality Disorder
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Schizophrenia
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Major Depression
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Anxiety disorders
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Etc
almost:
Neurodivergences include autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, developmental prosopagnosia, developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, intellectual disability, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), sensory processing disorder, synesthesia, Tourette syndrome, and more.[3][4]
part of the point of the classification is that neurodivergent individuals often have depressive or anxiety disorders only as a result of pressure from neuronormative society to fit in, and that care should focus on being resilient against such pressure instead of trying to eliminate the neurodivergence, e.g. trying to “cure autism”. things like depression and anxiety are not considered neurodiversity in themselves and are in fact what should be treated.
the inclusion of personality disorders is controversial (partly for similar reasons), but the inclusion of schizophrenia is unchallenged.
Just FYI to your FYI: Major Depressive Disorder is when your depression is not a symptom of something else. Same with GAD.
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Wiki:
Neurodivergences include autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, developmental prosopagnosia, developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, intellectual disability, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), sensory processing disorder, synesthesia, Tourette syndrome, and more.
It doesn’t…
It doesn’t? People with any mental illness can use the term and are probably not going to specify that neurodivergent can include other mental illnesses.
Any mental illness could be regarded as a type of diversity.
Yes, that’s the purpose of the term “neurodivergent”, to destigmatize mental illness. Many mental illnesses can be lived with, in a relatively normal way, and could also benefit from societal awareness, accommodation and integration. Also, they could incur a risk of discrimination. They also have no cure, just like a physical disability e.g. a leg amputation, is simply a different body condition that will not change. Much like “person with disability”, the correct term should be “neurodivergent person” or “person with neurodivergency”, to avoid the misappropriation of the word as a derogatory term.
The “all brains are unique” side, doesn’t actually work. It’s a slippery slope that runs the risk of rendering oppressed minorities invisible. See the, “we are all sexually diverse”, dog whistle that was used in right wing rhetoric as an attempt to erase LGBTQ+ pride.
It doesn’t.
You want the official answer or the somewhat more “woke” answer?
Technically, it doesn’t. Neurodivergent is a broad umbrella that means a number of different disorders. Including, but not limited to, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, developmental prosopagnosia, developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, intellectual disability, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder (FASD), obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), sensory processing disorder, synesthesia, Tourette syndrome, and more.
Why do most people THINK it only means Autism and ADHD? They tend to get more media attention.
The “woke” bit is Autism and ADHD have been historically “male coded” disorders, while things like Bipolar, OCD, etc. were either female coded or gender neutral in popular culture. For a long time they didn’t even think women could have Autism or ADHD.
I for one don’t want to pretend I didn’t benefit from more pearl clutching over people’s “perfect baby boys” being a little atypical neurologically. I did, and it’s silly to pretend I didn’t. Also as one of the “Flagship” neurodivergences, I’m also more likely to end up in a MAHA gas chamber to “Purify the Gene Pool”, so there’s both upsides and downsides to penis-privilage, but at least people care which is more than some other spectra get.
It doesn’t? It includes things like cptsd
Everybody has already mentioned that, actually, neurodivergence isn’t exclusive to ASD and ADHD!
As for your point about it being for everybody, that is definitely a heated argument. You could argue that neurodivergent conditions were created, in part, to separate them from the “normal” people (especially in earlier times), but you could also say that having a good classification means you can better help people who have these sorts of conditions (especially in modern times! We are in a golden age of accessibility!)
Speaking as somebody who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome as a kid, now part of ASD :D
It doesn’t.
it doesn’t, but that’s how internet weirdos use it almost exclusively because they are circle jerking about their self-diagnoses mostly.
