Using “Neurodivergent” Without Losing Specificity
Sometimes people use neurodivergent when they are actually talking specifically about Autism or ADHD. That is obviously a problem when neurodivergent includes so much more than Autism and ADHD.
But the solution to people who misuse neurodivergent when they actually mean Autism or ADHD isn't to suggest that we can only use neurodivergent when it applies universally to every neurodivergent person.
Neurodivergent doesn’t have to mean every neurodivergent person every time we use it.
At the same time, we do need to use the term thoughtfully so that we don't reinforce the idea that neurodivergent is simply another word for Autistic or ADHD.
Neurodivergent is an umbrella term that includes people with many different experiences and ways of functioning that diverge from neuronormativity, so we need to be able to talk about shared experiences without turning those experiences into universal experiences.
We can use neurodivergent to talk about experiences that are relevant to some neurodivergent people without implying that they are experienced by all neurodivergent people.
We do this with other broad categories all the time.We talk about disabled people who use mobility aids without suggesting all disabled people use mobility aids. We talk about queer people who experience discrimination in healthcare without claiming every queer person has had that experience. We can apply this to neurodivergent people.
So, how do we do this? We can say neurodivergent and use specific language when specificity is needed.
For example:
“Neurodivergent people who experience sensory differences…”
This tells us that we are talking about a group of neurodivergent people who experience sensory differences. It doesn't suggest that every neurodivergent person experiences sensory differences.
“Some neurodivergent people experience altered states...”
Again, the specificity matters. We are talking about neurodivergent people who have this particular experience rather than presenting altered states as something inherently experienced by everyone who is neurodivergent.
We can also say:
“Neurodivergent people who experience challenges with attention…”
This allows us to talk about challenges with attention across neurodivergent people without assuming that every neurodivergent person struggles with attention.
Or:
“Neurodivergent people who hear voices…”
This refers to neurodivergent people who have that particular experience without implying that hearing voices is a universal feature of neurodivergence.
We can also say:
“Neurodivergent people who experience emotional regulation difficulties…”
Again, the qualifier tells us which experience we are discussing.
But sometimes we need to be more specific.
If what we're talking about is specifically relevant to Autism and ADHD, then we should say:
“Autistic and ADHD people…”
If we're talking specifically about autistic people, we should say:
“Autistic people…”
And if we're talking specifically about people with ADHD, we should say:
"ADHDers..."
The more specific the claim, the more specific our language should be. Our language should accurately communicates who we are talking about and what we are talking about.
What if we're referring to a group of neurodivergent people but not a particular diagnosis?
We can absolutely still use neurodivergent.
For example:
“This group is for neurodivergent people.”
That means the group is open to anyone who identifies as neurodivergent.
But:
“This group is for neurodivergent people with emotional regulation difficulties.”
Now we're referring to any neurodivergent person who experiences emotional regulation difficulties without limiting the group to a particular diagnosis.
Neurodivergent being a broad umbrella term isn't a bad thing nor does mean it can't be useful. Instead of abandoning the word neurodivergent, I think we just need to become more thoughtful and intentional about how we use it.
“Neurodivergent” tells people who we're talking about.
Specific language tells people which experiences we're talking about.
We can talk about neurodivergent people collectively while still recognising the variety of ways that neurodivergent diverge from neuronormativity.
The fact that neurodivergent is an umbrella term doesn't make it useless. It just means we need to be thoughtful about when we're making a claim about neurodivergent people collectively and when we're talking about a particular group or experience.