Blogger: meroceank8921

The subject of neurodiversity has been a very touchy subject because people criticize neurodiversity as being only for mentally higher people. Yet, all the same, it does teach us that it's a different way of thinking for those who are not neurotypical–in other words, thinking the same as everyone else–like some other people are.

So, what does neurodiversity really mean for those who are not neurotypical? Well, the process of thinking is different for everyone else, and for those who have autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, or even dyslexia, it means that people tend to see the world in a very different way than some people do. People are different from each other, and the same could be true for their brains and their worldview.

Still, there are some people who don't really think for themselves in terms of mentally "following the leader", to put it in a different way. And those sheep-thinking people tend to outcast those who think differently from other people who tend to follow the leader mentally in a sheep-like manner. And this leads to a very delicate subject called discrimination, where the sheep-thinkers, or people who tend to follow the leader in a mental manner similar to sheep, refuse to better understand those who are different in a mental manner.

In times when different neurodiversities were not that well known, people thought that those who thought differently from the main flock were not welcome in their group at all. And those people were discriminated against because other people didn't know what was wrong with them at all. But they were just thinking in a different way, and there are those who bully others because they can't seem to understand the person who thought differently from them.

Some of the best people in the world who thought differently from others in the flock were celebrated as heroes or leaders. One such person who was thought to have neurodiversity was known as Hans Christian Andersen. He was thought to possess a higher level of autism spectrum disorder, due to his difficulty to relate to his age-related peers at the time when he was younger. But we can't really confirm that for sure, due to the times he grew up in, and autism and other neurodiversities were practically unknown at the time.

And there are plenty of people who are thought to have had some type of neurodiversity during their time period, like Albert Einstein, for example, who changed the world with his scientific theories about light-relativity. Temple Grandin, the most famous scientist, academic and animal behaviorist in the United States, speaks out for autism and neurodiversity rights, due to her having grown up with autism ever since she was born. And the movement for equality rights for the neurodiverse still goes on, thanks to Temple Grandin's speeches about equality rights for the neurodiverse and autistic people.

For me, neurodiversity means that I tend to think differently from what other people have done before me. I have autism spectrum disorder, and I believe that, without neurodiversity, we would all be very boring like sheep grazing in the fields without a single thought in our minds.

References

https://www.healthline.com/health/autism

https://exposure.org.uk/2019/12/was-famous-fairy-tale-author-on-the-autistic-spectrum/

https://www.appliedbehavioranalysisedu.org/was-albert-einstein-autistic/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin