Neurodivergent Women

[aew83]

I am curious how many of you relate to the the characteristics mentioned in the “Females with Autism: An Unofficial List”

the-art-of-autism.com/femal...

I was shocked to find myself in most of the items listed and never even considered the possibility of autism as opposed to my diagnosis of ADHD- inattentive. Am I alone in this? I came across this list by accident when researching for a college class and immediately tried to discredit it by pulling other sources but it’s been a year since then and the only thing I am sure of is that I am definitely unsure (in a lot of ways, really)

[sophiebrodie]

Yeah okay so um...

Yeah.

Also, fyi, ADHD is on the spectrum, so criteria overlap.

[Quincie]

Nope and nope! 🤣

There are multiple categories and many are quite vague & generalized - or contradict themselves.

Eg. Section E. #4. Raised hand too much in class or didn’t participate in class

Which is it? 🤣

Ask yourself why is this (being on the spectrum) even a thing these days? Some of it are from legitimate concerns - but some self diagnosing lists do seem to stem from a desire to be labelled with a condition or disorder - just to have status in a society which has empowered victimhood & illnesses/disorders are one way to gain status. "I need special consideration because I am on the spectrum & proof of that is I overshare & raised my hand too much in class!!" A lot of the behaviors described are not exclusively neurodivergent. & honestly, whatever happened to just being quirky ?

Nothing wrong with being quirky!

[Schilddruse]

Google "AuDHD". It used to be impossible under the DSM to get diagnoses for both autism and ADHD, but now it's recognised that a large proportion of autistics also have ADHD and vice versa. I suspect that they may both in fact be part of the same "spectrum".

[Cat00]

I only know 1 person who is Autistic who doesn't have ADHD too, so in my world its common to have both.The list though is too long and too general. Surely it has to be unusual qualities that suggest a divergent diagnosis? Being a deep thinker, for example, isn't unusual.

[Lilwonder]

I don't know..... That list is very all encompassing. I sincerely hope that a lot of humans have a lot of those characteristics. And, yeah, I agree with the others who ask, "why do we need a diagnosis anyway?" True, there are many who want a label. And there are also many who really don't want to be labelled.

[PinkPanda23]

Hi! On a list that long, I'd be surprised NOT to find things that fit me. The section that is labeled co-occurring, and some individual items having to do with dropping things and balance or muscle coordination hit home. But most of the other sections only had a few items each that are known to be ADHD characteristics or symptoms for my inattentive type. If you identify strongly with all of that, you might want to see your provider with new questions.

[Lilwonder]

I totally see myself in many,many of these things listed. If that makes me autistic so be it. I hope many humans have these qualities. I deem many of them to be very good.

[Amiwrong]

I agree with a lot of the comments but to add a sideline to the views on diagnosis I think for me the importance of getting diagnosed wasn’t to have a label, but to help explain why I struggled so much. It helped to make me feel like I wasn’t just crazy, and that my quirks weren’t a negative thing. I really didn’t care what it was called, but it helps to explain so much and helps with self acceptance.

My other thought on it being on trend is that this means more acceptance in society, more open talk about it, and once the trend passes it will just simply be a new normal for us all to be different. Maybe it’s a stepping stone to getting where we need in society as a whole. Idk just a thought