I have several disorders which are located inside of the brain (which obviously includes autism, hence me posting here). I dislike calling myself “neurodivergent” for many reasons. For one, people use this term as a replacement word for autism, and I have many conditions besides autism.
For example, I’ll see posts saying, “neurodivergent people sre more likely to do XYZ.” There are so many disorders which fall under the neurodivergent umbrella that it isn’t humanly possible for neurodivergent people to be more likely to say or do something than other folks; just say autistic in this context.
I also find that my personal experience gets watered down by calling myself neurodivergent; it feels like a modern version of being called special. I have several conditions which fall under different categories; psychiatric, neurological, and neurodevelopmental. To call all of that just neurodivergent is not very specific and doesn’t tell a person what my needs are (plus, they’ll just assume I’m autistic).
I don’t call myself neurodivergent, but I do call myself a wizard. Everyone else can just deal with that.
Damn, I am manifesting this energy for myself in 2026
I love this energy.
Yeah, it’s just the best word I have currently, but it really is a big catch-all for a lot of disabilities/conditions. Neurodiverse is a little better as it doesn’t necessarily specify that some state of being is more “normal” and we diverge from that “normal”. But it’s not any more accurate really and not a medical term. Even Autism and ADHD are both catch-alls for several conditions and aren’t very specific at all. Just not good terminology that isn’t a stand-in for “defective” or steeped in Nazi blood like “Asperger’s Syndrome”.
Agree. I also don’t like the othering and divisiveness. As if an all encompassing lable can define individual experience. Not that it isn’t useful in certain contexts. But once it enters the lexicon, especially online, these defining terms always turn toxic. This goes for neurotypical, too. I see a lot of bigotry surrounding both terms and it seems utterly ridiculous to paint with such a broad brush upon an even broader canvas.
I’m autistic, mildly dyslexic, ADHD, with a helping of CPTSD. I just refer to myself as a hot mess lol. call yourself whatever you want.
I get it. I’m not autistic, but I do have a brain tumor and some spinal problems that causes similar symptoms, and people love to get shitty about it. It makes some neurodivergent spaces really hard for me.
I’ve had to cut “friends” loose because they make “jokes” about how I can’t be trusted because we saw what happened with Fetterman.
I’ve stopped talking to people who insisted that I’m autistic and me denying it means I’m a hateful bigot.
I’ve stopped talking to people who think I’m cosplaying as autistic, because I could just do chemo and brain surgery and be normal again, and “real” neurodivergencies like theirs can’t be cured.
It’s lonely.
I like neurodivergent because it centers the issue that peoples’ brains function differently. It’s not a choice. It’s not stupidity. I’m not just weird for no reason. My brain cells send signals differently from other peoples’. The issue is that regular people don’t understand regardless of which word you use.
My problem with this, is it sort of divides people into “normal” brains, and “not normal” brains. But there is no such thing as “normal” brains. Everyone’s brains work differently. I think labels / diagnosis are important in cases where a person’s brain is different enough in a particular way that it becomes a problem (for them, or for interacting in society, or whatever), but in these cases I think the value of the label is to communicate in which way the person suffers a problem, so that people can be aware of it. It seems strange to me, to have a label which essentially means “I suffer from some kind of problem related to how my brain works, but I’m not going to tell you which problem”.
Edit: after reading other comments, I’ve realised that one place that neurodivergent makes sense as a label, is for building a community of people who share the experience of facing problems in life due to how their brain works. That’s of course, very valid.
The term and idea of neurodivergency originated within the autism community but its not true that its a replacement word for autism as it also includes adhd, ocd, bipolar, dislexia… Anyone with some atypical neurological configuration.
But i get you, and your case shows why its important that the classical medical terminology stays separate from the neurodivergent ones. The way i see it one has a more socio-cultural purpose, the other an instructive medial one.
Under neurodivergence we who are different celebrate how similar we all actually are in contrast to the dominant neurotypical masses, it does not differ between our actual challenges on purpose and it can be a great way to explain ourselves to neurotypicals without having to go into the details of the diagnostic labels they may not understand or only know bias about. So in may ways it is a “i am different/special” label used in a positive “but that shouldn’t matter” kind of way.
When the context is about getting the right help, the term does nothing. But what does carry weight are the right diagnostic criteria which professionals help has experience with and knows what set of tools are relevant.
It is known that technically speaking, adhd is part of the autism spectrum, but the good reason on why its kept distinct is because giving people with mild adhd the same access to help as an autism diagnosis might get you would exhaust the system and make it harder for those on the spectrum with severe challenges to find any help at all.
My psychologist suggested nerodiverse with characteristics of autism.
Neurodiverse isn’t an actual medical term
I prefer calling myself a mutant. Like, as in an x-man. 😤
The thing is, our brain is the most complex thing of the human body.
People often prefer to use the “neurodivergent” word because you might have way more things than just autism, you might even have some undocumented disorders, it’s just hard to be specific when come to this.
It’s like trying to give a unique name to a mix of vegetables and etc… So people just came up with the world “salad”.
I personally prefer neurodivergent because I admit, not even myself, and maybe not even an specialist would be able to diagnose everything that happens in my brain. But we all know it must be something related to neurons.
I can relate, a bit. Personally i dont care nor mind. I always come in from a “im like this” angle, never from a “i have x” angle, which means labels like autism or adhd dont do much for me. I am how i am, and i know how to deal with it to make it easier for me, or others, and if i cant or dont want to and you cant? Thats a you issue, bugger off.
Also, how do you feel about being called neurospicy? :')
Not the OP but me personally I despise the term neurospicy. Reeks of TikTokers trying to quirkify their bio and downplays the often crippling nature of the very real problems people with these diagnoses suffer from every day.
I’m personally not a fan of being called neurospicy. As a joke, it’s okay tho; I usually call myself disabled or neurodisabled.
