Is neurodivergent, a social and political term, being co-opted by medicine, psychiatry and psychology?

If you would like to understand this further, I wrote about it on my website here:

www.livedexperienceeducator.com/blog/is-psyc...

Why I will never reclaim disorder:

I refuse to reclaim a word that is rooted in supremacy; that is weaponised against Black & Indigenous people; that perpetuates the idea of normal and “other”; that reinforces whiteness; that tells us our differences, altered states and existence is a pathology.

Aurora Levins Morales in her book, Kindling said "there is no neutral body from which our bodies deviate" and I would like to apply this to our minds.

There is no neutral mind from which we deviate.

If you use neurodiverse over neurodivergent because you see diverging as something negative, have you asked yourself how you may be reinforcing the pathology paradigm that labels our minds and differences as an illness or disorder because they, too, see diverging as a negative thing?

When the ND gatekeepers try to tell you Personality Disorders aren’t neurodivergent because “their brains are fine it’s their personality that’s the problem” - making bio essentialist arguments about a non hierarchical idea. Sweetie I don’t think that term means what you think it means.

Excluding mental health conditions from the neurodivergent umbrella because you don't agree is the same as excluding asexual and intersex people from the queer umbrella because you don't agree.

Repeat after me:

Personality disorders are trauma responses and personality disorders count as forms of neurodivergence.

it's so surreal seeing my book feature in someone's book club 😍

How can we talk about neurodivergence or neurodiversity without relying on medical diagnostic labels?

We deserve to understand ourselves beyond the DSM.

We deserve to assign our own meanings to our differences instead of relying on the single narrative that they’re a deficit, disorder or illness.