You. This space is just allotted for anyone who wants to share their neurodivergent experience on whatever level that looks like. Take as many five minute segments as you would like to process what it feels like trying to relate in this world as someone who feels like they fit into that neurodivergent designation. Experience, perspective, there's not necessarily anything that I want to share as far as expertiseism or research, et cetera
And so instead of there being a divide between a neurodivergent mind and neurotypical minds, there was this coming together, this not just acceptance, but embracing of our humanity, regardless of neurowiring. And again, it was just really beautiful. And then I engaged in an asynchronous chat on clubhouse and asked a question of somebody who asked a question. And apparently asking the question was offensive in itself. Asking the question in a public space was offensive. And for the life of me, I don't understand why
Connections that may or may not apply with respect to this second interaction because the topic of neurodivergence did not come up. However, these are patterns of behaviors I have seen repeatedly in interactions with people who are neurotypical. So it's anecdotal. Of course, it's my experience. It's not anything definitive or anything like that. And I also think that some of what I experienced here was not necessarily the differences between neurowiring, but more to do with the individual themselves
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Um, however, I haven't figured out how to express a personal story without it becoming the center of the conversation. And that's something that I want to be able to figure out because I still want to be able to include them without it being me at the center of whatever it is we're talking about
Janel B
@Braver_Love · 5:00
And it's not typically like engaging emotion or processing emotion integrated with our thoughts. And there might not be shared assumption with what I guess you would describe as a neurotypical. So there's almost kind of what I hear you processing, and I can somewhat relate to as like this aside, and for whatever reason, it's been so long. But I think of the show, Ali McBeal. A lot of that show just shows how she's like, in her head a lot
Janel B
@Braver_Love · 5:00
And just comforting what it feels like to process the world differently and stand out and be awkward, or when someone feels so, so self authorized as to correct or react in a negative way, comfort that emotion, and then kind of go to the strategy of like, wow, what happened. Why did that go that way?
An area and swell will shorten it. Sometimes it'll even put like the photo that's associated with the link on that particular web page will display as a photo below your audio. Sometimes, not always. Okay, so from a sort of case study perspective, what was actually said? I can't share a link to the chat here because it's a friends only chat, which I didn't realize at the time. However, there's only one thing to hear. There was one sentence
And again, I may have said this before, and so apologies that I think that when the quote unquote experts talk about autism, it's from this pathologized perspective and not from an anthropological approach to how we do things differently. And so I'm trying to recognize what is and isn't quote unquote wrong and what's different. I mean, for example, I've heard experts say that neurotypical communication is more intuitive and that we have to do, autistics have to do a lot of scripting
And as much as I think that is true, I don't think that's the entire story, because I do think that there's these three different words that I think are very different. There's deep thinking, overthinking and ruminating. From a neurotypical perspective, what they perceive as deep thinking is often described as overthinking. However, deep thinking is like almost the default state for someone who is autistic. We don't think of it as overthinking, it just is
Maybe I'm not equipped for it, or I don't have a response. Sometimes I'm asking myself, why are they telling me this? What is the expectation? What kind of reply do they want here? And I don't have a reply. And so scripting sometimes happens organically because it's just something I've done for so long, and sometimes it's done very intentionally. Sometimes I'll script and I kick myself because I don't like what I've communicated
Having grown up in an environment where anger was not an acceptable emotion, I internalized a lot of that. I couldn't even tell you when I was angry. And so a lot of the times it came out as tears. I know that I feel things deeply, whether that's the euphoric highs or the deep lows. I also know that some will describe me as being a sponge and soaking up other people's feelings
You mentioned trauma and wondering how much of that is involved in some of these things. I think that's difficult, too, because sometimes you'll hear people talk about certain responses being a trait of autism or ADHD, et cetera, when I think they are a ripple out symptom of if society was more embracing of not just aware and understanding, but embracing of differences, then trauma wouldn't come about because of our differences. Right
Janel B
@Braver_Love · 4:19
So there's a lot of diversity, and I think that not assuming can be a little slow and clunky. There's a lot that gets assumed within messaging and cultural context that can make communication really fast. That is kind of a known observation. With media, for example, like relying on stereotypes can just make for quick and easy lines, but in the heart or interest of really clinging to what's being said, then there's a lot to absorb and take in