The neurodiversity movement

 I became aware of the neurodiversity movement about five years ago, right after my stepdaughter from my previous relationship was diagnosed with autism. About 3 years later, I was late- diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 43. 

The neurodiversity movement argues that conditions such as ADHD and autism are natural and valuable differences in human variation, rather than disorders to be stigmatized. 

I feel as if autism was especially stigmatized. The YouTuber Illuminaughtea made a wonderful video about how negatively autistic children were viewed. The organization Autism Speaks largely contributed to the stigma, especially with their awful ad .

I remember the terrible stigma in every day life as well. I worked with autistic children in every single role I played in my entire career helping children. I also remember it coming into play with family planning. In the early 2000’s, the incidence of autism was rising drastically, and I remember being told one of the reasons I shouldn’t have a child was the increasing chance that that child could be autistic. Having an autistic child was seen as one of the worst things that could happen. It would devastate my marriage, my finances, my future, and it wouldn’t be fair to the child to exist with autism just because I chose to have a child. When I had my daughter and enough time went by to see that she’s not autistic, the idea of having a possible second baby came up. I was told at that time that I should “quit while I was ahead.” Having a kid that wasn’t autistic was “lucky” and I shouldn’t try my luck twice because if the potential second child was autistic, then it would mean I shouldn’t have had them. People really thought this way. 

Now that it’s the 2020’s, the individuals that were young children back then are now young adults and the neurodiversity movement is in full force. I can say that I’m extremely proud of this generation for fighting back against the ableism and the anti autistic sentiment. I’m proud of them for raising awareness of Autism Speaks. Autism Speaks was actually looking for a genetic link to autism so that people could abort if autism was found prenatally. I firmly remember being warned that autism couldn’t be found prenatally, so there would be “nothing I could do about it” until it was “too late”. (because you cant abort a toddler.) 

After my diagnosis of ADHD at age 43, I listened to an audiobook called The Power of Neurodiversity. Learning about neurodiversity made me so proud of Gen Z and proud of myself for having such a heavy hand in raising them. My stepdaughter from my previous relationship has come such a long way since she was a tot, and I am a proud of her as well. She and her dad and brother strongly defy the belief that one’s life is ruined if they have an autistic child. My ex boyfriend, her dad, is amazing at creating Niche construction for both of his kids all over the house. I admire them, and I admire every young person that has fought back against the stigma that was heavy back when I was starting a family.

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