The more I learn about neuroatypical people, the more I feel as if I have some sort of neurological issue. I see a lot of myself in the different people we have read about in is class and I in other classes. But just because I have similarities with people who have a neurological issue does that mean that I have a neurological issue? For example, in Neurotribe, I feel like I’m similar to Cavendish. In the very beginning of section 3 in Chapter 1 it says that “his preference for solitude was often confused with arrogance, selfishness, or disdain.” In my life this happens all the time, especially if I’m in a new environment. In a new environment I’m usually quiet and keep to myself. This is part due to the fact that I’m not comfortable and part due to the fact that I don’t know what to say to people most of the time. Once I get to know people they tell me that they thought I was mean, rude or “bougie” when they first saw me because I didn’t say anything. A major issue that I see reappearing with many of the texts we read and in class is where the line between “normal” and “not normal” is. Am I neuroatypical because I don’t like being around people all the time? Am I neuroatypical because I’m not always aware of other people’s emotions? I don’t think so, but if those are traits neuroatypical people have, then how can it be used to define people who are neuroatypical?
One question we might ask: Is anyone neurotypical? As a kid, I was diagnosed with dyslexia. Like so many neurocognitive phenomena, dyslexia comes in many forms. I’m not sure if my experienece would be diagnosed as dyslexia today, but I was lucky enough to get years of cognitive therapy in grade school, and it helped a lot, particularly with reading.
To this day, I have trouble distinguishing right from left–and with spatial relations in general. My mind works almost like the opposite of Temple Grandin’s. It’s almost impossible for me to visualize spatial relations, particularly if they take complex forms. Anything geometric is a mystery to me.
Nick Walker might say that your response is a neurocosmpolitan one–that you’re understanding yourself neurologically distinctive in a world of neurological differences that take a vast array of forms.
I think its hard to say that anybody is actually neurotypical, because to what standard exactly do we hold that to if everyone is neurologically different? I have to say I tend to feel the same way you do, like I can relate to a lot of the things we are reading and it makes me wonder whether I myself have some kind of abnormal neurological difference. Also, as a psych minor, I tend to always analyze the people around me even when I don’t want to, and now that I am reading about so many different kinds of behavior due to neurological differences, I find myself wondering if some of the people around me may have a diagnosis similar to those we are reading about.
I think this question can apply to everyone. At times everyone believes they are not normal because of a thought, feeling, or quirk they possess. I think where you mention neurotypical and neuroatypical traits coinciding just proves that there is no clear definition for one or the other. In order to have a category every single person would need to fit and they don’t. Nobody is the same in anything that they do, our qualia’s are different and the way each and every brain works is different too. So to say that people who are autistic all do ONE specific thing is inaccurate, but the problem is there are others who get excluded because they may or may not possess a single trait. I too enjoy solitude, I always feel awkward around new people but I believe that’s just a part of human experience. It wouldn’t be right to place someone with those feelings automatically in the category of autism just based on that trait. It just proves that all neurotypical and atypical people share human traits, at least that is the way I look at it. It still confuses me, and there is no solid answer which makes is more confusing. A better way to look at it is that we are all neuroatypical because we are all different.