Neurodivergent

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellows,

"Neurodivergent" is a word I hear a lot these days. I expect you do too. 

Ellie waves it like a flag. She refuses to be stigmatised by the plethora of acronyms that describe her, including PTSD, OCD and ADHD.

And I'm proud of her for feeling that way. And anyway, "disorder" is the last word I would use to describe her. She is smart, strong, funny and perceptive. She knows her own brain and how it works, and she makes it work for her. 

Shenée is equally upfront about her mental health. And it's one of the things I love about these two women. Just how fearless they are in how they portray themselves.

Caro and I were talking on this in the car, and another of my friends came up. I haven't discussed this person's issues on blip because they are a lot more circumspect about them. Suffice to say they have severe problems. Not only does this not stop me being friends with them, it may even encourage it. Unexpected thought patterns and sensitivity to the point of ESP are like superpowers to me. 

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I seem to like unusual, neurodiverging people. I may even be one myself. I mean. It's not like I'm without issues and in fact, looking back at my childhood and teen years I was actually a complete wreck. 

I think it is just a case of that as you get older, you give less of a flying eff about diverging from normality. 

One could portray this as giving up, I suppose. However, I prefer to think of it as taking off the mental corset at the age of about 40, letting the mental gut hang out and saying, "Oh thank eff, finally I don't have to pretend to be normal anymore."

Maybe that's why I've been able to make such wonderful friends in my 40s and 50s. Maybe people look at me and say, "Well he seems fairly happy for an effing weirdo."

Maybe.

I DO know that during our car conversation, Caro revealed that she believes that she too is neurodivergent. She reeled off a variety of complexes that she feels she has. 

I mean. Maybe. I wouldn't dismiss the idea and she knows better than I do. I suppose the thing is that I'd be wary of hanging any specific label on any specific person. Maybe it's just true to say we are all a little bit broken and bent. Weird and warped. Maybe neurodivergence is the new normal.

And let's face it, if you or I were to meet an ACTUAL "normal" person. I think we'd think, "What an effing freak." And then run far away to find the nearest effed-up, warm, funny, broken, bonkers person we could. 

Punky here is our weird little cat. He's terrible at being a kitty, really. He's scared of nearly everything and he wants to kill nearly everything else. He loves affection but he hates receiving it. He wants to defend his territory but he's too scared. 

It feels only right that he is our cat. Punky loves us and we love him. We are a fully neurodivergent abnormal freakyweird household. Just like everyone else. 

S.