What is Neurodiversity? A Super Power?

What is neurodiversity?  To me, being neurodiverse means that my brain is wired differently.  What a lot of people do not know, is that disorders such as: ADHD, dyslexia, Autism Spectrum Disorder, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, and Tourette's Syndrome are part of an umbrella term of neurodiversity.  Many people associate these "disabilities" as struggles, but that's not how I see it.  

Person #1 has ADHD and has challenges with focusing on daily tasks.  Where as person #2 who was diagnosed with autism, struggles with communicating their thoughts and feelings with others.  The people who know person #1, share that person #1 has a lot of energy whenever they are with person #1.  The people who know person #2, share that person #2 knows a lot of information about the history of art.  While person 1 & 2 have challenges and struggles that prevent them from living "normal" lives, they have strengths that others that they know have seen in them.  These are like their superpowers.  Take Spider-Man for example (very common example, I know).  Spider-Man has strengths such as climbing up walls, swinging from building-to-building, and using his spidey sense.  He also struggles with losing people he loves, which can be considered as a weakness.

Autism in Neurodiversity: The Super Power

Most of the time, people who are neurodiverse don't "look" the way that their "disability" is perceived by others.  Up until I was diagnosed with autism, I was told that I didn't present the standard autism behavior.  I can make eye contact, I can interact with people and hold decent conversations, and my interests were considered to be "normal".  The term "autism" hasn't been around for long.  The first time the word "autism" was recognized in 1943, but was not mentioned as a diagnosis in the first two versions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).  The DSM-III defined "autism" as a "pervasive developmental disorder".  The DSM-IV (1994) designated 3 domains of autism: social interaction, communication, and restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and/or activities.  The DSM-5, which was published in 2013, changed the domains from three to two.  It combined social interaction and communication with one another.  

 

The DSM-5 also stated that there are 3 levels of autism.  The graphic below discusses the three levels.

If you are reading this and you are either on the Autism Spectrum OR have yet to be diagnosed, I encourage you to take action.  Learn more about yourself AND how being diagnosed can benefit you as well as the interactions you have with those around you!

Until next time, bye!