What is Neurodiversity?

By Brooklynn Smith

Language around mental health can change drastically as more people learn about themselves and terms are defined, redefined, or reexamined. As such, terms like “neurodiversity” can be hard to understand, especially as it’s becoming a more popular and widely used identity category. 

So, let's break down what neurodiversity means and some common misconceptions. 

According to Baumer & Frueh (2021), neurodiversity is a frame of thinking about people and their experiences that emphasizes that there is no “right” way of thinking or a biologically “normal” brain. Coined in the 1990s, neurodiversity has grown into an identity category that encompasses people with all sorts of mental differences, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, OCD, and others. Importantly, neurodiversity--and the neurodiversity movement--highlight the importance of inclusion, acceptance, and understanding of neurological realities, and part of the movement’s aim is to decrease the stigma and medicalizing of many disabilities or neurological conditions. 

While neurodiversity has been a term used for decades, it’s still relatively misunderstood by mainstream media and culture. Because of this, there are many misconceptions about neurodiversity and neurodivergent people. I’ve listed and explained some of these misconceptions below. 

1.Being neurodivergent means you can’t succeed.

The idea that failure and neurodivergence are linked is a function of stigma and systemic prejudice against neurodivergent and disabled people. Plenty of neurodivergent people succeed in traditional pathways—whether that’s education, career, or family life—but, success and neurodiversity have very little to do with each other. Being neurodivergent does not dictate your capabilities to succeed in traditional paths nor does it dictate the value of succeeding or meeting expectations. 

2. Neurodivergent is just another word for autistic.

Neurodiversity encompasses a broad range of neurological realities. The point of neurodiversity and the label of neurodivergent is to broaden access, accommodations, and acceptance for as many people as possible. While autistic people do fall under the category of neurodiversity, they aren’t the only people in mind when we speak about the community. Neurodiversity is an intentionally diverse community, and there is no one neurological reality that makes up the community. 

3. All neurodivergent people are the same. 

This links back to the previous misconception that common myths try to minimize the true diversity within neurodiversity. People’s experiences, neurological realities, identities, bodily realities, and lives are all incredibly different, and there is the same amount of difference and variety in neurodiversity as there is in neurotypicality (that is, being not neurodiverse). Furthermore, while many neurodiverse people can relate to one another and share similar experiences, the very foundation of neurodiversity is that people are inherently different and those differences have no bearing on their value. 

4. Being neurodivergent means that there’s something wrong with you. 

The last and possibly most mainstream misconception is that to be neurodivergent means that there’s something wrong with you. Shame is a common form of stigma that neurodivergent people feel because of how systemic ableism dictates what bodies are right or “wrong.” But the truth is that your physical body has no bearing on your value, and the goal of the neurodiversity movement is to highlight differences in people's bodies, minds, and experiences and recognize the reality of living with certain conditions or realities without assuming that being different is inherently negative. There should be no shame or judgment in being neurodivergent. Everyone’s brain exists differently and operates differently and the stigma that demonizes some brains and not others is not a reflection of value or worth, it’s a reflection of bias and prejudice. 

References

Baumer, N. & Frueh, J. (2021, November 23). What is neurodiversity? Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-neurodiversity-202111232645