Could you be Neurodivergent, too? #AskSwell
And because an admission of fault within the system is seen as betrayal, we find fault and disorder with those who cannot or will not step into the middle and march. And yet, even those that do march are still carrying the heavy load of mental burnout with them, particularly our working mothers
And I think the importance too, of understanding these things sooner, particularly for AFAB individuals, is without knowing, not only do we internalize a lot of what we're experiencing, but there's also more room for potential assault. Let's just leave it at that
And that's not to disparage the psychological community, but what isn't brought to the surface cannot even begin to be addressed. And so this isn't common banter, not even in the mental health fields yet. And that's unfortunate because despite what the perception of prevalence is in the community, these people are still marginalized, abused, discriminated against, misunderstood
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
But I almost think that that would be a helpful piece of information and maybe that's just my perspective of being neurodivergent versus neurotypicals. It may not matter to them or it may matter in a detrimental way. Oh my goodness. You know what would be interesting? And I don't know if I like this idea, but you know how there there are some people who, for their faith, they'll put a little IXUS it's a kind of fish symbol on
I wish I could slap all sorts of emojis on your reply. I love this. And your dad's story is so powerful, not only for anyone who is neurodivergent, but for anybody who's looking from the outside. You know, I mean, I grew up thinking that I was stupid for a variety of reasons, but specifically around learning things audibly. And then I found out that because of the way that I'm wired, it's not that
And while it's frustrating, at least I don't like in the past I worked so hard on communicating, from learning different methods of communication to language to just how to deliver tone and inflection and pausing and everything in order to communicate in a way that was understood, let alone fit the quote unquote norms. And it was never good enough. And then when I finally learned about my neuro wiring, then there was some freedom there of like, okay, this isn't a failing on my part
And all of the women were like and they all got hyped up and stuff and we're here for it, we're here for it. And that gets you excited, right? Because then you're like, okay, well, they're really interested in my topic. And they are, but you have to remember that they're as excited as they appear to you
And being able to discover social audio a number of years ago now and then finding out about my neural wiring only a few years ago has allowed me to find more people where I can have these kinds of conversations with. And it feeds me. It really, really feeds me. It's back to some of your comments. I don't know if it was in this conversation or the other one that we're also having about finding my tribe
You? Yeah. You know, there's a woman, Jordan Zimmerman, who's an autistic woman who's nonverbal and she's like the head of, like she's got some designation in Washington or whatever. She's one of the, like, leaders in autism advocacy and like, she's at the forefront of like, make and sharing. Assisted technologies are put into the school system
And then when one of my questions seems odd to them, I'm trying to offer a different perspective and naively. This was soon after I had learned mentioned that I am autistic. And it was like I had flipped the switch. And it didn't matter how intelligent my questions had been, it didn't matter anything that had happened up until that point. And the conversation had been going on for at least 45 minutes. It may have been longer, I don't remember
Best case scenario, parents put out the money for this stuff and it's marginally effective, if not effective at all. But worst case scenario is you have kids that are really putting their best trying and these are methods that are suspect. And if it doesn't work, then what is the emotional toll and the mental health consequences of it not working? And it goes the same with parenting techniques. When you have counselors out there giving parenting advice, who are you giving it to?
But at the same time, it's something that seems to be like if I run into somebody who is a therapist or I hear about someone talking about somebody who's a therapist, they are amazing with the information that they know and helping other people. But in their own behavior, it's like they can't see to be able to use the tools that they have in order to help other people. And there's sort of this disconnect
Of wow, awe or whatever, or they're telling you you're thinking too much about this or too deeply about it, or just let it go. Or a dismissiveness rather than like, this is the way my brain operates. This isn't me turning a switch on and off. This is what is. And so to tell me not to be that is to tell me not to be me