i’ve wanted to talk about this for a while, but i’m not interested in any fuckass liberal takes, so i’m posting this here

also, i’m not a medical/mental health professional so feel free to call me on my bullshit. i’m genuinely interested to hear why i might be wrong

anyway

adhd and autism are social disorders

that doesn’t mean that “everyone is a little autistic”. that doesn’t mean that “labels don’t matter”. that doesn’t mean that we should all get off our meds. they’re genuinely disorders and need to be treated as such

what it means is that they’re not illnesses. these conditions are not inherently disorders, they’re socially determined to be disorders. they’re disorders because they make us misadjusted to our current class society, not because they’re inherently harmful to our health

i’m also not saying that there aren’t inherent limitations to autism or adhd, of course there are, very clearly. but limitations aren’t necessarily disorders or disabling. everyone has limitations, even neurotypicals, but not everyone has mental disorders. children and the elderly have particular limitations, but neither childhood nor old age are disorders. perfectly healthy people have numerous limitations compared to other healthy people, but those limitations don’t hinder their participation in our current society

this discussion frustrates me so much because it seems to be either the “labels don’t matter” discourse that put me off of seeking diagnosis for over a decade or the “autism/adhd is an illness and i’m broken for having it” discourse which sometimes veers very close to eugenics and puts the blame of our suffering in our “bad genes”

being autistic and having adhd sucks and we need as much treatment as we can get and i love my meds, but this suffering is not my fault. a capitalist class society that steals our lives and grinds us to a pulp is to blame. neurotypicals just happen to be better at surviving this hell (which is exactly why they’re typical). in a society designed for our wellbeing, those diagnoses would look very different

what do you think?

  • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5·
    10 days ago

    you seem to share a popularly held misunderstanding of what neurodiversity is; it’s neither an illness nor a label, it’s a testable and measurable variation of how your brian processes and analyzes information compared to how the mainstream of people do the same thing in a more-or-less typical/expected way. it’s akin to measuring your spatial capabilities or testing your IQ.

    there can be medications involved (because it’s helpful), but a vast majority of treatment is done via some sort of therapy where you learn how to bridge the social gaps between yourself and the expectations of our neurotypical dominated society.

    it’s debilitating for some; which is why it’s called it a disorder; and this group is the most visible among us, so (i think) it’s the biggest reason why most people see it as an illness or a label.