Neurodiversity Acceptance Month 2

Something from this weeks themes that stood out to me was “Explain how mental illness is neurodivergence and why that’s important to acknowledge.”

Neurodivergence is a purposefully non-pathologising, non-medical model term for any brain that differs from the typical. This can be neurodevelopmentally (Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia etc), it can be acquired (traumatic brain injury), and it can be through mental illness. It isn’t about why we’re different, or how we came to be, what matters is that for some reason our brain diverges.

From the creator of the term: https://twitter.com/UVGKassi/status/1306062363305615360

A lot of the time I see the time used it’s in a neurodiversity-lite way, where the terms have been repurposed for the medical model, and then it’s limited to the neurodevelopmental. Unfortunately this seems to becoming the widely understood version.This sucks the power from the word, which should stand in opposition to models based around disorder and deficit.

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