as small as a world and as large as alone, How can I know if my brain things count as...

1:25pm July 5, 2014

Anonymous asked: How can I know if my brain things count as neurodivergence? Does anxiety count? Phobias? Executive dysfunction? OCD? I don't want to appropriate things that aren't mine...

neurodiversitysci:

yesthattoo:

All of the brain things count as neurodivergence.

The word was created by a multiply neurodivergent person (Kassiane Sibley) BECAUSE she wanted a word that could cover all the kinds of brain interesting, and while the folks who use it tend to be ones who think positively about at least one of their neurodivergences, it is at least supposed to be a neutral term)

Thanks for explaining the etymology, Alyssa. I knew Kassiane described herself as “neurodivergent” but didn’t realize she coined this term.

Having a neutral term like this is so important to me because it covers people who like their type of brain most of the time, people who dislike it most of the time, and people who see it as a mixed bag that can be good sometimes and bad at other times. Also, there are experiences people with MANY diagnoses talk about, like “lack of spoons” or having an invisible disability, and it helps to be able to talk about our common experiences and have solidarity. Kind of like the “cousins” term Mel Baggs talks about a lot, except without implying autism as a center to which other conditions must be similar.

Kassi was one of several people who all started saying ‘neurodivergent’ around the same time, I think. So she coined it, and I think I separately coined it, and so did at least two or three other people. I remember thinking the word up because I didn’t like “neurodiverse” which was what people were saying instead at the time, like “neurodiverse people”, so I thought “what about neurodivergent people instead?”. Kassi had other reasons. And I think there were other people with other reasons, too. It was one of those words that was just floating around in the air at the time. But Kassi definitely deserves the credit, just know there were more than one person thinking up the word.