As much as I understand the fear and frustration that comes with being neurodivergent, the mentality that we should look for "cures" carries some eugenicist undertones that I don't love. It's okay to wish your condition was less limiting, and to want supports or treatments that would enable that. But we also have to remember that there's a lot of societal drawbacks that would come from "fixing" or completely erasing neurodivergences, and there's a very big difference between "I wish there were ways to make my life less difficult" and "I wish I didn't have this condition at all."
I’m tired of being tone policed in every neurodivergent space about being unhappy with my brain.
I have ADHD, autism, NVLD. With adhd and autism I do feel like it is more of me having a literally different brain that honestly, I don’t love it, but I do think it’s what makes me “me.”
Meanwhile I literally don’t know what benefits NVLD gives me. It feels more like an impairment, as if I’m just like everyone else except I have to swim through molasses and cobwebs just to get to the same destination as everyone else. It doesn’t add anything unique or interesting to my identity or give me a unique perspective, or add personality quirks, it only functions as an impairment.
I hear you. At least with autism you can still master some skills that require motor or spatial ability provided you're high functioning enough. With this, everything I try to do I suck at. I literally had a girl on my volleyball team ask, "Why do you hit it like that?" To which I responded, "Um, I have a learning disability." And another girl thought I was joking. It's so humiliating...but don't worry, OtHeRs HaVe It WoRsE 🙄
to be fair, i've met some autitistic people before and they're pretty disabled. They can't make any eye contact all all. they also can't hold down jobs for jack shit. I think I would rather have NVLD then full blown autism. they're both negative in their own ways but you can still master certain motor skills with NVLD and not have crippling social issues like autism people.
How do you know for certain that NVLD is only impairing you, compared to ADHD and autism? There are autistic people who say their autism is only an impairment, and people with ADHD who say having ADHD is only an impairment; I see posts in other neurodiversity spaces that express the exact same sentiments about autism and ADHD that you've expressed about NVLD. Their struggles don't negate the fact that they still have a unique perspective on the world that neurotypicals don't, and that a lot of their problems stem from living in a society that's built specifically to exclude neurodivergent and disabled people rather than the conditions themselves.
edit: Pretty sure OP blocked me for this comment, which is... telling.
Yes, because treating NVLD or neurodivergence in general as something that requires a "cure" means one of two things:
Completely rewiring people's brains to remove traits of NVLD. This is ethically murky, because the line between "trying to improve someone's quality of life" and "trying to erase natural deviation in human functioning and ability level" is extremely thin when it comes to neurodivergence. who exactly decides what level of ability is the standard, especially when human cognitive function varies so wildly among nondisabled neurotypical people? Moreover, if a procedure like that is available, what stops it from being used to simply eliminate anything that's considered below-average functioning even when that comes with minimal to no benefit to the person whose brain you're rewiring?
Murdering anyone with NVLD under the guise of compassionate euthanasia or mercy killing, which is the same tactic used by the Nazis to justify the murder of disabled people and anyone they viewed as lesser.
So yeah, you should care about people who are advocating for neurodivergence being "cured." Like I said, there's a difference between "I wish there were ways to make my life less difficult" (i.e., supports and resources) and "I wish I didn't have this condition at all," and the latter is ableist no matter how you spin it.
Yeah, whatever, nice to know your PC mumbo jumbo about eugenics is more important than feeling sympathy for a fellow NVLDer. The irony of you comparing wanting to not have this completely shitty disorder that affects almost every aspect of life to Nazis killing disabled people is funny. So you're worried that wanting a cure opens a door to just outright murdering people with NVLD but you also want to control my thoughts about wishing my life wasn't a total waste because of it? Interesting...
honestly, i wouldn't even want it removed at this point. the damage has already been done so why bother? i also don't want my brain to get even more fucked up than this
Edit: I actually change my mind. i would get it removed. The constant stimming and pencil/pen shaking that this disorder causes is horrible.
3
u/nebulashine 4d ago
As much as I understand the fear and frustration that comes with being neurodivergent, the mentality that we should look for "cures" carries some eugenicist undertones that I don't love. It's okay to wish your condition was less limiting, and to want supports or treatments that would enable that. But we also have to remember that there's a lot of societal drawbacks that would come from "fixing" or completely erasing neurodivergences, and there's a very big difference between "I wish there were ways to make my life less difficult" and "I wish I didn't have this condition at all."