If someone uses the term there is a 100% chance their opinion will make you dumber.

inb4: I am only speaking of people who use the term neurodivergent, not people who are autistic or have ADHD.

@freemo Disagree. It's a perfectly valid word.

Now, that said, people who *overuse* that word, on the other hand...

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@louis

As a word to mean "someone who thinks differently"I have no objection. It is when people try to hijack it to mean "autistic and/or ADHD" specifically. usually anytime someone is running full speed on the euphemism treadmill its a good indication you dont want to hear a word they have to say.

@freemo Yeah, that would be a strange way to use it. Autism and ADHD are both under the neurodivergent umbrella, but they're just a small part of it.

@louis That is how the term is used by the bulk of liberals these days, as a term to refer to the autism spectrum specifically.

When someone asks you "Are you neurodivergent?" If you answered with "Yea I think I have thought patterns that are atypical"... they would respond "no no no, I mean are you autistic"...

As of the last year or two almost everyone using that word now uses it to mean autistic.

@freemo Hmm, strange, maybe that's just in certain circles. I'm a neurodivergent liberal and I'm not sure I've ever heard it used that way.

@louis I think its more to do witht he adoption of this use of the term is recent, so maybe you just havent heard it yet. But using neurodivergent to mean “autistic spectrum exclusively” has been the norm and fairly widespread for about 2 years now.

As of the last year or two you will find medical sources definition neurodiverse as “someone with autism, or more generally…” as in even the scientific literature seems to be giving it special preference to autism as of late.

See: washington.edu/doit/what-do-%E

A “neurodivergent” person refers to a person on the autism spectrum or, more generally, to someone whose brain processes information in a way that is not typical of most individuals.

@louis @freemo Truth. In my household, there are people with ADHD, Autism, Tourette's, OCD, and Apraxia. Neuro Divergent* is also the term medical professionals have generally used to categorically group those things (eg, "a neurodivergent family history"). I guess the distinction here is that this isn't a meme, but trying to navigate life together.

*Sometimes Neuro "Diverse" and to a much lesser but more recent extent Neuro "Spicy".

@vwbusguy

Neurodiverse prior to the last year or two used to simply mean "atypical way of thinking".. I certainly have no issue when the word is used the way it was meant. But recently it has been hijacked to refer to only autistic and adhd people (adhd now being considered part of the autistic spectrum)... This is my exact objection, the word already means something and the current meaning makes sense. Hijacking it is a bastardization of the actual definition of the term, especially since it is now being used "exclusively" for autism spectrum among most people.

@louis

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