traumata-heart

“Traumatic events destroy the sustaining bonds between individual and community. Those who have survived learn that their sense of self, of worth, of humanity, depends upon a feeling of connection with others. The solidarity of a group provides the strongest protection against terror and despair, and the strongest antidote to traumatic experience. Trauma isolates; the group re-creates a sense of belonging. Trauma shames and stigmatizes; the group bears witness and affirms. Trauma degrades the victim; the group exalts her. Trauma dehumanizes the victim; the group restores her humanity.

Repeatedly in the testimony of survivors there comes a moment when a sense of connection is restored by another person’s unaffected display of generosity. Something in herself that the victim believes to be irretrievably destroyed—faith, decency, courage—is reawakened by an example of common altruism. Mirrored in the actions of others, the survivor recognizes and reclaims a lost part of herself.”

So sad we don't know that.

"I hate reality just as much as the next guy, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal"

Me:

She went on to say that even people who fall within that neuro average aren't the ones making the rules for what is typical, and unofficially dubbed them neuropowerful. Once people have power, they can impose their ideas as the standard regardless of whether it's the average or not. They're outliers whose experience (both internally and externally) has been allowed to set the standards by which many (even most) people fall short, even those close to the "average." The same is true for physical characteristics. If more than half the population is "overweight," who determined what the acceptable weight is? Because it definitely isn't *average* to the population. I know a lot of disabled and neurodivergent people flock to each other, but sometimes you realize everyone you know has some kind of major divergence, and nobody is in fact "neurotypical."

This isn't to say that all a "neurodivergent" person needs to be okay is a different environmental/cultural/societal structure. For some, ADHD/Autism are disabling, but for others, it isn't, even if it's the same level of deviation in the same environment. For me, personally, it's a bit of both. I would benefit greatly from shifting cultural expectations as far as being able to meet my obligations, but my ADHD would still hurt me in moments when I want to do something for personal enjoyment and executive dysfunction will not let me get off the couch. I would benefit from a world that is not so depressing all the time, but I would still have days when I struggle to get out of bed because my brain is physically not set up to do serotonin.

There are more neurodivergent people in the world (globally) than neurotypical people.

Why? Because the normative standard for neurology was determined by wealthy men in western culture. Autistic social theorists have called that normative standard neurotypical.

To codify various mental conditions, professionals sat around tables and voted on traits, classifying things as normal or abnormal, not by any actual scientific evidence but based on whether or not they personally possessed those traits.

The majority of people who exist outside of western culture would be considered neurodivergent because their neurology doesn’t match that of the men who decided what was and wasn’t normal.

Very very few humans actually have the predominant neurotype, and those humans are not guaranteed to stay that neurotype. Acquired neurodivergence from cumulative stress, trauma, injury, and aging happens all the time.

Neurotypical is the dominant or normative neurotype, not because of numbers but because of who has the power in our society.

Neurodivergent and neurotypical are actually not medical or biological terms. They are social justice terms. The purpose of these terms (according to the people who coined them) is to be able to discuss systemic power dynamics.

These words were coined for the purpose of naming who has the the power and who doesn’t. Suggestions that we should stop using these terms because they don’t describe a global minority/majority feel disrespectful to the activists who coined these terms and to the struggle for liberation that these terms represent.

Judy Singer. Kassiane Asasamasu. Nick Walker. If you want to learn more about neurodivergence look for writing from these people.