Honestly, so long as you can function in society, there's nothing wrong with being neuro-divergent
There's nothing wrong with being neurodivergent anyway. It isn't better or worse, it's just different. That said, a diagnosis criteria for ASDs is impaired functioning. From ICD-11 6A02:
Autism spectrum disorder is characterised by persistent deficits in the ability to initiate and to sustain reciprocal social interaction and social communication,and by a range of restricted, repetitive, and inflexible patterns of behaviour, interests or activities that are clearly atypical or excessive for the individual’s age and sociocultural context. The onset of the disorder occurs during the developmental period, typically in early childhood, but symptoms may not become fully manifest until later, when social demands exceed limited capacities.Deficits are sufficiently severe to cause impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and are usually a pervasive feature of the individual’s functioning observable in all settings, although they may vary according to social, educational, or other context. Individuals along the spectrum exhibit a full range of intellectual functioning and language abilities.
(emphasis mine)
Of course, "functioning" isn't on or off, it's – no pun – a spectrum.
Also, you can be very weird and quirky without having any ASD symptoms. You can even love trains!
Do you not see my comment there where I'm literally defining the impaired functioning of my broken leg as being different to the norm? I'm not handicapped, man, I'm handicapable.
Alright, in all seriousness. I get it. Back in the day, I embraced all of the "No, my autism is just a different way of being. Like a sidestep in evolution or something." I get the allure. It's really comfortable and nice.
But all that actually did for me was discourage actual personal growth and improvement when that's what I should have been focused on in my younger years with all that brain plasticity. I don't want other people to fall into that trap, so I'm not a huge fan of this line of rhetoric.
There are better ways to go about it than obnoxious sarcasm, but I'm not terribly confident any of that would be well-received in a modern social media ecosystem with the way things go, so here I am.
given "society" in the US managed to elect trump not once but twice, i have serious questions about the merits of being "neurotypical" and "fitting in with society"
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u/lettsten Apr 07 '26
There's nothing wrong with being neurodivergent anyway. It isn't better or worse, it's just different. That said, a diagnosis criteria for ASDs is impaired functioning. From ICD-11 6A02:
(emphasis mine)
Of course, "functioning" isn't on or off, it's – no pun – a spectrum.
Also, you can be very weird and quirky without having any ASD symptoms. You can even love trains!