Neurodivergence

This little nugget of wisdom appeared on my Facebook page this morning and made my day, shared from someone who I’m almost certain their real name is not ‘bogleech’ but, anyway, a big Thank You to Christi Brooks for sharing it and here it is: “The neurodivergent experience is thinking you’re sharing fun, interesting or helpful information in a normal, human, conversational fashion while they think you’re an asshole looking down at them like they’re stupid and also that no matter how many times you have this experience you always think you’re doing it the right way this time.”
That sounded profound and right on to me, but before dedicating a blog to it I decided to look up the term. Psychologists and psychiatrists actually use neurodivergence more to talk about autism, and Asperger’s, and ADD and stuff like that, but both are true and I like Bogleeches definition better, so I’m focusing on that.
Like so many great thoughts, it’s just plain obvious when you think about it. We are individuals, so it’s obvious that no two of us experience the universe in exactly the same way. If you say you like ‘The Simpsons,’ for instance, we are in rough agreement, although we may have different favorite episodes, different favorite characters, and might have laughed loudest at entirely different moments.
We are individuals, and that’s a good thing. It’s one of our strengths, and we should embrace it. But how, then, can we communicate? Well, imperfectly perhaps, there is always going to be a bit of friction, as there is whenever two surfaces meet.
But, if we take our neural divergences into account, listen to all sides, speak (or type – ‘speak’ at this point is often a verb used metaphorically) politely, and examine evidence as needed, we can move forward into a brighter future together, even if it’s not exactly the same future for all of us.