Was discussing something tonight. ADHD is sometimes regarded as a "sister" disorder to Autism. I was curious why, if that was the case, ADHD gets often treated with medication and Autism does not. And through the discussion we arrived at what I hope may be an insightful metaphor.

Imagine the human brain is a car engine. There are innumerable variations but for the most part you've got a crankshaft, pistons, sparkplugs and fuel lines.

In ADHD, the fuel lines are messed up. Constricted, unreliable. The motor would run fine if it could draw fuel properly.

ADHD medication is a means of opening those figurative (and literal) chemical pathways to allow normal function to occur.

The autistic brain is a wankel design.

The autistic brain works fine. It spins the tires, the car goes forward. It can even have advantages over a traditional inline piston system. It just achieves this in a radically different manner.

But mechanics don't know what to make of it. Autobody shops don't have parts.

There's not really anything to "fix" because nothing is really broken. It just works very differently and the automotive world is not built to accommodate unorthodox designs very well.

This metaphor is obviously not perfect, but I hope it's thought provoking.