#neurodevelopment

Miss Butterfly #1, created by Iranian photographer Shadi Ghadirian in 2011. 

* * * *

Healing the nervous system isn’t about doing more or adding another routine to fix yourself. It’s about being still. Laying in the sun. Being present while you eat your food. Listening to the sounds of nature. Letting your imagination run wild without an outcome. The body doesn’t need more structure when it’s overwhelmed, it needs less. Less noise, less urgency, less pressure to perform. When safety is felt, the nervous system calms on its own, and healing happens quietly, without force.

Changes to the microbiome, the community of microorganisms inside the body, were correlated with future neurodevelopmental disorder diagnoses, as well as environmental factors and even common treatments for young childhood ear infections. The researchers conducted the study using data collected over 20 years from 16,440 Swedish children participating in the All Babies in Southeast Sweden (ABIS) cohort. Of these children, 1,197, or 7.28%, developed a neurodevelopmental disorder.

Oh wow — you actually read the whole thing and checked the sources. That alone already puts you above 90% of Tumblr discourse. Respect for the effort.

That said — you’ve accidentally demonstrated exactly why the “under-25” boundary exists in the first place.

My post never mentioned “dumb people”. It never targeted you personally. It was about well-documented neurodevelopment facts used in medicine, education and behavioural research for decades.

If someone reads:

“executive functions mature around 25”

as:

“you are stupid”

…that’s not on me. That is the very pattern the research describes: heightened emotional interpretation + reduced inhibition = misreading neutral statements as personal attacks.

And this is precisely why the age guideline exists.

Now, the second part.

To have meaningful debate, I prefer speaking to people who have actually lived independently. Not theoretically, not in essays, but in real life.

Because “life experience” isn’t a poetic concept — it’s:

separating from parents,

making your own decisions,

carrying the real-world consequences,

paying your own bills,

failing, rebuilding, adapting.

Without that, conversations tend to drift into idealistic fantasy worlds — beautiful, but completely detached from how grown-up life actually works.

It’s the same energy as people preaching “pure art ethics” while never having worked as a freelance artist or dealt with clients, deadlines, bills, revisions, or handling productivity tools that literally allow creators to earn more and stress less.

The purity arguments sound nice — until they meet reality. Reality wins every time.

So no — the “under 25” rule isn’t an insult. It’s a boundary. A filter. A way to keep conversations constructive rather than reactive.

And sure — maybe some of the sources I referenced are now considered “dated”. Science evolves, and so do interpretations of data.

But there’s also a far less charitable possibility: certain institutions have a strong incentive to lower the developmental threshold and declare people “fully mature” earlier than they actually are — for policy convenience, for industries that profit from early medical decisions, governments that promote early marriage and reproduction, labour arguments, or educational frameworks.

Because if we look at real behaviour rather than laboratory timelines, the ability to see the world clearly — to regulate emotions, think long-term and respond without spiralling — tends to stabilise far closer to 30 than to 18-20.

Limiting neurodivergences to just neurodevelopmental disorders closes off swaths of divergenciencies in neuro (the brain)

If you claim that even though aspd has genetic roots that cause it has symptoms enhanced by childhood trauma and neglect that therefore not a neurodivergence, you are claiming adhd isn't a neurodivergence.

Even neurodevelopmental disorders includes a lot more variety then just adhd and autism.

So, if you are just talking about autism. Say autism.

If you are just talking about autism and adhd, say that.

If you are just talking about neurodevelopmental disorders, say that. But make sure to include things that might make you uncomfortable like tic disorders

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