This has been the source of so much inner strife. I know I’m neurodivergent - most directly linked to TBI. https://twitter.com/ashleighjmills/status/1311683919595667457

Presentation seems a lot like ADHD at face value, but that’s not how acquired injury works lol. I also reject what I feel is “quirkiness” about neuro experiences from ADHD-ers. Like even the name seems to distance from the greater ND movement and disability rights.

Flip over to the TBI world where everything is about surviving, overcoming, recovering, etc. Gross.

Autistic people really made this whole movement to celebrate neurodiversity but ADHD/TBI crowds are too saturated with ableism to join in full.

What really kills me is how ADHD/TBI crowds benefit off of the work of autistics yet jump at every opportunity to other them. ASD accommodations and visibility benefits ANYONE with a brain injury or executive dysfunction.

Here’s what I’m saying. Disability accommodations, culture, and community are here for disabled folks. Not parents. Not allies. Not therapists/teachers/doctors.

The distance you put between your diagnosis and “disabled” makes it clear what you think about everyone else.

Identify how you want as an individual. When these broad themes emerge from respective camps, harmful bias is perpetuated. New self-advocates will take even longer to unpack their own ableism and the MH impacts will continue to stack and ripple.

I’ll continue this thread sometime to talk about how whack it is to say I should “overcome” neuroplastic responses to physical trauma but that’s it I guess.