Neurodivergent also recognizes the overlap of a lot of these conditions, and the fact that the scientific community hasn’t finished researching and disambiguating these things.
I think ADHD is absolutely only a mental illness because of the way society is set up. But that doesn't mean society is set up wrong, there simply is no longer an evolutionary need for anyone to have ADHD. I don't need medication and therapy, I just need it to be a modern civilized person. If society required me to go hunt for food then I wouldn't bother taking my medication.
I prefer VAST, variable attention stimulus trait.
I think your analogy of autism “being bad” because society discourages autistic traits applies better to ADHD.
We would have been the ones to survive in a hunter-gatherer society. Our brains are wired to pay attention to more stuff simultaneously, which would have kept us alive when predators were a threat to us. Society discourages distraction now, which is why we feel forced to conform to that.
I’m not sure if there is a “official” definition of neurodivergence, but everyone differs in the way they brain works. It’s not a great term since on the face of it, it could apply to nearly everyone. But I think of it as anything that makes your brain diverge from the commonly accepted average.
I hope my point makes sense.
Neurodivergence
All things neurodivergent and relating to the broader neurodivergent community (and communities).
See also this community's sister subs Feminism, LGBTQ+, Disability, and POC
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