10/04/2025
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ง๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐๐ต โ๐ฆ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐โ: ๐ช๐ต๐ฒ๐ป ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ธ
Thereโs a subtle shift happening in how people talk about neurodivergence.
For decades, the dominant narrative focused on what we lacked. Autism, ADHD, and other forms of neurodivergence were framed in terms of delay, deficiency, and dysfunction. In response, some people, understandably, have started telling a different story. One that offers pride in place of shame, and reframes difference as something to be valued.
Weโre starting to hear phrases like:
โAutistic people notice details others miss.โ
โBeing an ADHDer makes you a creative thinker.โ
โNeurodivergent people are brilliant problem-solvers.โ
Thereโs truth in some of this. Many of us experience the world in vivid, lateral, deeply attuned ways. Some of us make connections others donโt. Some of us think and create and move through the world in ways that offer new insight.
There is relief in being seen differently. But relief can quietly become pressure when the lens shifts from deficit to performance.
Because different doesnโt need to mean extraordinary in order to be respected.
When neurodivergence is valued only through innovation or achievement, we simply trade one form of judgement for another. The deficit model may be fading, but a new kind of pressure emerges. We may no longer be asked to hide who we are, but weโre still expected to justify our place.
And for many of us, that expectation is exhausting.
Weโre not all pattern-recognition savants, magnetic creatives, or visionary thinkers.
Some of us are just tired. Not from being neurodivergent, but from constantly navigating systems that expect us to compensate for their inflexibility.
Itโs not our neurology that wears us down. Itโs the relentless demand to adapt to a world that rarely adapts back.
Society values insight more than support. Thatโs why we struggle, not because we lack insight, but because weโre asked to carry too much, too often, alone.
That pressure quietly sidelines those who donโt or canโt fit the narrative. The non-speaking Autistic person who is ignored because communication requires effort from others. The ADHDer whose need for flexibility is framed as laziness. The plural system whose capacity to hold multiple, sometimes conflicting perspectives, is misunderstood as instability, rather than recognised as a valid and coherent way of being.
And it overlooks the reality that so much of our experience is invisible. Sensory overwhelm. Disrupted sleep. Motor planning difficulties. The constant mental load of self-monitoring. These things are often unseen, yet they shape our lives in fundamental ways.
The movement to โcelebrateโ neurodivergence starts to ring hollow when it depends on us being likeable, successful, or useful. Itโs a framing that sells easily, especially to those who benefit from surface-level inclusion without committing to real structural change.
Neurodivergence isnโt a pitch. Itโs not a niche to be monetised. And itโs not a problem to be reframed into something palatable. Itโs a natural part of human variation. For some, it includes traits that are valued in certain contexts. For others, it brings access barriers that are exhausting to explain and even harder to live with. Often, it brings both.
For those whose neurodivergence intersects with other forms of marginalisation, including race, gender, or economic disadvantage, the pressure to perform can be even more intense.
We donโt need a story that says we are more than people thought.
We need a world that accepts us even when weโre not.
That means affirming the worth of every neurodivergent personโnot just those who meet expectations in a different way, but those who donโt meet them at all. Those who are quiet, or overwhelmed, or excluded. Those who need care before they can create. Those whose value is in their being, not in their output.
So yes, letโs move away from deficit-based narratives.
But letโs not replace it with pressure to perform brilliance.
Letโs hold space for nuance. For the full range of experience. For the reality that being neurodivergent isnโt always something to celebrate, and it isnโt something to fix either.
Itโs something to understand. To support. To respect.
And to stop ranking.
๐ก๐ผ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ ๐๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ.
๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐.
๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐โ๐ ๐บ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฒ๐ป๐ผ๐๐ด๐ต.
~ Kathy Cleland, MindScope www.mindscope.com.au
