The new one is this. Newer than the book one.

Is neurodivergent, a social and political term, being co-opted by medicine, psychiatry and psychology?

If you would like to understand this further, I wrote about it on my website here:

www.livedexperienceeducator.com/blog/is-psyc...

Why I will never reclaim disorder:

I refuse to reclaim a word that is rooted in supremacy; that is weaponised against Black & Indigenous people; that perpetuates the idea of normal and “other”; that reinforces whiteness; that tells us our differences, altered states and existence is a pathology.

Appreciate your support and commitment a lot.

And not block the creator when they request to be credited.

When we say neurodivergent, we aren't saying our minds diverge from a neutral or normal mind.

We are saying that our minds, our existence, how we experience the world diverges from neuronormativity; a set of standards, ideals and expectations that dictate how we should function.

Aurora Levins Morales in her book, Kindling said "there is no neutral body from which our bodies deviate" and I would like to apply this to our minds.

There is no neutral mind from which we deviate.

Yup, I was blocked too. I wasn't even rude or mean. I was direct. And they call themselves an advocate.

It's really easy to find the source of images. If you google neurodiversity smorgasbord, my name and website comes up. Here's the image without my name covered up.

Yeah, that's so offensive intentionally covering my name and who created this image.

That and we need to remember that people's use of neurodiverse and diverse to refer to an individual is heavily coded for "other", contributes to erasure and situates neurotypical, cisgender and white people as the norm whenever you use diverse or neurodiverse when you mean something else.

If you use neurodiverse over neurodivergent because you see diverging as something negative, have you asked yourself how you may be reinforcing the pathology paradigm that labels our minds and differences as an illness or disorder because they, too, see diverging as a negative thing?

When the ND gatekeepers try to tell you Personality Disorders aren’t neurodivergent because “their brains are fine it’s their personality that’s the problem” - making bio essentialist arguments about a non hierarchical idea. Sweetie I don’t think that term means what you think it means.

Excluding mental health conditions from the neurodivergent umbrella because you don't agree is the same as excluding asexual and intersex people from the queer umbrella because you don't agree.

Repeat after me:

Personality disorders are trauma responses and personality disorders count as forms of neurodivergence.

it's so surreal seeing my book feature in someone's book club 😍

Oh my goodness thank you!

Thanks so much!

because a) people assume disability and disorder mean the same thing and b) people have been taught to view disorder as a scientific reality rather than a colonial social construct rooted in neuronormativity and c) people haven't unpacked the pathology paradigm yet

I'd love to be added!

How can we talk about neurodivergence or neurodiversity without relying on medical diagnostic labels?

We deserve to understand ourselves beyond the DSM.

We deserve to assign our own meanings to our differences instead of relying on the single narrative that they’re a deficit, disorder or illness.