just neurodivergent things

"everyday little experiences that happen because of neurodivergence." submissions are always open. FAQ for mobile users.

[justndthings]

hi sorry to bother you but i'm a little unclear abt what qualifies as nd and am wondering if i can actually refer to myself as nd? i have major depressive disorder, ednos, self-diagnosed anxiety and spd. the only thing is google is very unclear about what actually falls under the umbrella of neurodivergent, and i am worried about whether i am techically allowed to refer to myself as neurodivergent if i don;t have a developemental disorder. thank you so much!!

hey, mod b here! we’ve all been inactive for quite some time, and have answered questions like this before (here’s a link to that discussion), but i wanted to get you a solid answer, and mine has actually evolved a bit more over the past couple years! so i’m gonna come at it from two points.

tl;dr: you’re neurodivergent if you identify as such. that’s it.

1) the creator of the term neurodivergent, who coined it long before it showed up on tumblr, has said repeatedly that it just means a brain that diverges. mental illness is a neurodivergence. so’s epilepsy. so are learning disabilities. they created it specifically to include as many people as possible.

2) the boundaries between different mental illnesses/symptoms/neurotypes are honestly fuzzier than you’d think. this is true in the DSM (which is on its 5th edition now!!), where different diagnoses have been shuffled around, added, and removed. but i think we can also see it in the idea of “autistic cousins:” folks who have many autistic traits, but might not meet that specific diagnosis. we overlap all over the place. a lack of social skills due to childhood trauma can look a lot like a developmental disability.  severe depression and anxiety can present with psychosis. sometimes other identities play a role in people’s official dx, like how autism and adhd are overrepresented in white boys.

i think on a practical level, it’s also important for neurodivergence to be a big umbrella term, as a movement and a concept. we can build solidarity with each other, while knowing that we’ve got different needs/histories and some of us are hurt differently by society. but like if our goal is to accept that brains diverge in all sorts of ways (some of which we treat and some of which aren’t illnesses and don’t need to be treated), that needs to include all brains. we can’t leave people in the dust.

so yeah, like i said before rambling: neurodivergent is a term of intentional inclusion. and it’s yours, if you want! <3

-mod b

[justndthings]

Hi, sorry to bother you. I know what spoons are and it's such a cool way of describing things, and I've caught myself about to use it several times, but I wanted to ask just in case. Is it kind of a thing for only autistic/neurodivergent people to use? I'm allistic and tbh the definition of neurodivergent is iffy online but everything is self diagnosed anyway so yeah basically I don't want to end up making people feel like it's just a jokey nerd-game reference.

Hi! I believe in the curb cut effect-- if it’s something you find useful, you should use it and normalize it! It started out with a lupus patient but afaik she’s been very pro-anyone using it. 

If you’re uncomfy about stepping on toes, you could always use the metaphor of your (social/focus/sensory) battery running low. 

-Mod B

[justndthings]

just neurodivergent things: when your teacher tell you you should spend less time on computer so you’ll have prettier handwriting, but you know not spending time on computer won’t change anything because you’ll still be Dyspraxic.

[justndthings]

just neurodivergent things: when you’re too anxious to respond to an important message, and notification gets your anxiety going again every time you open your phone, but if you clear it you know you’ll forget about it completely.

[justndthings]

just neurodivergent things: when you want to eat but you don’t want to eat and you feel a sensation you can’t tell apart in your stomach and you wonder whether you are feeling nauseated but want a flavor in your mouth or you’re hungry but can’t stand the thought of flavors and you give yourself anxiety over it until you cry.

[justndthings]

just neurodivergent things: when you can't tell if something is technically an ND thing or just a you-being-weird/lazy thing.

[justndthings]

just neurodivergent things: that thing you did 5 years ago.

[justndthings]

just neurodivergent things: not being able to tell if you’re dealing with your symptoms better now or if you just never actually had them in the first place.

[justndthings]

just neurodivergent things: that build up of frustrated energy when you want to stim but can’t right now.

[justndthings]

[image description: a person wandering blindly through fog with their hand outstretched. the caption in the center reads, “brain fog. just neurodivergent things”]

(old post / instagram)

photo is of an installation by Antony Gormley called “Blind Light.” it has been edited slightly.

[justndthings]

just neurodivergent things: apologizing repeatedly during a panic attack.

[byakuya-mioda]

little mental illness things: not being able to know for sure whether your actions are symptoms you can’t help, or if they’re a sign you’re a terrible person, or if you’re just a terrible person for not being able to hide or control them, or for even thinking of excusing yourself for anything you’ve done wrong because you have a mental illness

[justndthings]

just neurodivergent things: not being able to process anything going on in your life and when you try, your brain stalls out.

[justndthings]

just neurodivergent things: feeling both pleased and betrayed when your (admittedly also neurodivergent) friends call you “the stable one.” on the one hand, thank gods, the facade is working; on the other, (it feels like) if they cared, they could see through it to how bad you’re really doing.

[justndthings]

[image description: packaging for the “guess who?” board game. the caption in the middle reads, “constantly forgetting names and faces. just neurodivergent things”]

i’ve started an instagram for this blog: @just_nd_things. i’ll be remaking some old posts to fit, starting with this one.

[justndthings]

OK so I asked this nt friend of mine in a group chat to stop unsending messages they'd sent or at least warn me that they're unsending messages so that I'm aware of it because when they do it triggers my paranoia and they were just like "no, sorry but the real world isn't going to accommodate for you so get used to it!" And I just… I can't even begin to explain how much she pissed me off

.

[justndthings]

i was hoping you could help explain something about the spoon theory. i understand what it means and all, but i'm a little confused as to who it applies to. sometimes when i can barely force myself to move i find myself thinking "oh im out of spoons" but i dont know if i am allowed to say that? i read that its for people with chronic physical/mental illnesses but theres a lot of mental illnesses that are chronic but dont affect energy, so how do you know? (sorry if this is badly worded)

other mods can answer this too (maybe help with wording, since autisticbrain is very wordy today!) but i wanted to throw in my two cents: 

i’m v. big into universal design, curb-cutting, etc. basically, the idea that disability-related language should apply to whoever finds use for it, and that helps everyone in society. so i tend to just go with very expansive terms, and follow from there. 

 if you think being out of spoons is an accurate descriptor for how you’re feeling, that’s what it’s there for as far as i’m concerned? if you’re worried about stepping on toes, sometimes i avoid the spoons analogy and talk about my mental battery running low. 

as long as you respect the term and the diversity of people who use it (since it did come from christine miserandino, who has lupus, a chronic physical illness), there shouldn’t be an issue. 

-mod B

[justndthings]

to the person who sent us a fanmail: i’m not sure how you did that. you can check out our list of common terms for an explanation of spoon theory. they’re called spoons because that’s what the original coiner had on hand when she was trying to explain chronic illness to a friend.

i don’t think there’s anything wrong with even people without any sort of chronic illness or mental disorder using spoons to describe their energy level. i feel the same about allistic & neurotypical people calling certain behaviors “stimming.” imo, more people using and recognizing and respecting the spoon theory (or stims) can do nothing but good. (who can call themselves a “spoonie,” however, is an entirely different conversation, the same way an allistic person couldn’t call themselves autistic just because they stimmed.)

– mod c

(mod b i’m so glad you’re still around and answering questions, you’re so much better at that part than i am.)