I’m somewhat new to learning about autism and neurodiversity, but even before that I was of the opinion that some of what is called “mental illness” wasn’t really, but just seemed that way because of how society is optimized for certain personality types. Now I’m trying to figure out if autism and any other ND types fit this idea.
So I wanted to gauge the community and find out how popular/accepted this idea is. Do you see these as inherent handicaps, like being blind, or just circumstantial, like say being 8 feet tall (side effects of gigantism notwithstanding)? Or, now that I think of it, perhaps like being 8 feet tall with the side effects: are they not inherent handicaps themselves, but often or always come with inherent side effects?
That’s a good point, and is I think the reason why I never saw myself as anything like “neurodivergent” for most of my life. I just assumed that my “not fitting into society” was because of how badly designed it is in general, and I was just one of the unlucky ones. It took a friend of mine who is autistic and knew about this stuff to point out that for me it was likely more than that. So yeah, there is this issue too, and I wonder how many other people it has caused confusion for other than me.
Yeah. Our society is distorted against all our well-being we, the Neurodivergent, are just especially affected by this malady. For the sake of a vanishingly small proportion of the population to be absurdly wealthy we all suffer.
“just assumed that my “not fitting into society” was because of how badly designed it is in general” I don’t think this is an assumption, personally.