neurotypical mental health advocates sometimes get me kinda annoyed when they try to explain neurodiversity.

i just saw a post on instagram advocating about ADHD.

except it wasn't.

it just listed a bunch of ways that people with ADHD inconvenience neurotypicals - trouble with organisation, interrupting, being late, not listening etc etc..

very rarely do neurotypicals try to explain/understand what it's like to actually have it.

it's great that people are trying to help but i just wish that instead of copying and pasting the first article they find, they'd consume and share content of actual neurodivergents who are already trying to get neurotypicals to understand.

as much as i love ADHD twitter, it often feels like we're preaching to the choir. most of my TL has ADHD and most of my followers have ADHD - we already have understanding and acceptance here, but do we elsewhere?

we need neurotypicals with big platforms to help but we need them to help in a way that's actually productive, not just sharing outdated and unhelpful symptom lists they found on webMD

i know their intentions are good, but at the moment it feels patronising and misguided to see people with massive platforms ignore the work we're already doing and continue to share resources the actual neurodivergent community have said aren't helpful.

if you are neurotypical and have a platform you use to raise awareness for mental health: please engage with existing neurodigervent advocates. talk to us, share our work - you have the voice and the ability to get people to listen. we often don't.