Browse 96 quotes about Neurodiversity.
“These other people have diverged from our expectations of neurological development, and from this we get the term neurodivergent. But this is a broad label that is not synonymous with autistic, the way that rectangle is descriptive of but not synonymous with square.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“People used to think the brain’s primary function was to take in the world around us and perceive stimuli. While that’s something it does, the brain spends a lot more energy filtering stimuli out, allowing us to discern the important ones from the unimportant ones.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“It’s a common quality of autistic thinking that we aren’t sure which details are considered necessary by others when making a point or telling a story. What’s funny about that — and we will dig into this later — is the certainty that the reader or listener has a better idea of what these details are than the person doing the explaining and that it just so happens that the correlation between the included details and the patience of the listener is one to one. This raises no red flags at all. It just “is what it is.” This makes sense because their attention has to be engaged — but it also seems unfair.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“My ears work. My brain understands. Can't you see I am a REAL PERSON?”
Source: Real
“Divergent Dynamite
(The Sonnet)
You only know my infinite radiance,
you got no clue to my innate hurricane.
Day in and day out I struggle autistic,
Genius is outcome of a mind broken.
There are cracks across my heart,
nothing can bar the pouring rays.
Light is but suffering harnessed,
Genius is brokenness harnessed.
There is no end to my exuberance,
limits of typicals don't apply to me.
I am but an enigma of unbending tenacity,
every breath is testament to impossibility.
Divergence is nature's way to expansion.
Divergent dynamite I, am living evolution.”
Source: The Divine Refugee
“When feelings go on overload,
I pause and breathe
and all is . . . slowed.”
Source: Too Much!: An Overwhelming Day
“Actually, the more I think about it, the more I figure that a lot of the cons of autism are not really caused by autism, but by how other people react to it.”
Source: Can You See Me?
“Genius is outcome of a mind broken.”
Source: The Divine Refugee
“That curtain never came. The end credits should have run, but the days kept on happening, my alarm kept going off, and new challenges kept popping up. Furthermore, I had a sense that this “I finally did all the things, give me my American Dream award” moment wasn’t the final, dramatic crescendo of an orchestrated symphony. I knew this because I was a fake.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“Now in my forties, often I look around a room of adults and wonder how many others are faking it. If so, who are we playacting for? Who would be offended if we didn’t wear the right clothes? Which person sees themselves as an actual grown-up, would judge our handshake, comment sincerely on a wine, and expect a sense of achievement and pride to blossom within them for proving their adulthood? Who is motivated by power, believes that money is real, and insists the social structure is a meritocracy that
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The Autistic’s Guide to Self-Discovery
sprouted from the ground when George Washington chopped down a cherry tree to ratify the New Deal at Gettysburg, accom- panied by his Rough Riders? Which people are we trying to fit in for? In any given room, it could be everyone but me, or it could be no one.”
Source: The Autistic's Guide to Self-Discovery: Flourishing as a Neurodivergent Adult
“One of the cruelest tricks our culture plays on autistic people is that it makes us strangers to ourselves. We grow up knowing we're different, but that difference is defined for us in terms of an absence of neurotypicality, not as the presence of another equally valid way of being.”
Source: Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking
“By the time I entered education in the late 1980s, schools were about as well adapted for my neurotype as a set of stairs is adapted for the use by a Dalek.”
Source: Untypical: How the World Isn’t Built for Autistic People and What We Should All Do About it
“A diagnosis is not a prediction. It doesn’t tell you what’s possible. It doesn’t change you, your colleague, your child, or your friend. It just opens up tricks and tools to thrive.”
Source: Notes for Neuro Navigators: The Allies' Quick-Start Guide to Championing Neurodivergent Brains
“It's meaningless to question whether a trans Autistic person would have "still" been trans had they not been born neurodiverse, because Autism is such a core part of who we are. Without our disability (or our gender identity) we'd be entirely different people. There is no separating these aspects of ourselves from our personhood or personality. They're both core parts.”
Source: Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity
“But deficits and disabilities only exist in relation to an environment where some other way of functioning has been chosen as the yardstick. An autistic person - or one with any form of otherness - only becomes an anomaly when she tries to fit in. Beyond any and all contexts, she is complete in herself.”
Source: Autisterna: om kvinnor på spektrat
“Yet the autistic woman is not masking with the intention of being deceitful. Her true self is invisible even to her own person. She is masking to fit in, and doing so unconsciously. Often, she doesn't even understand that she has been camouflaging herself until she gets her diagnosis. Before that, she thinks her struggle is everyone else's, too. At least, that's what it was like for me.”
Source: Autisterna: om kvinnor på spektrat
“Mi ritroverò accerchiato da persone che si chiedono a vicenda perché me ne stia in un angolo senza rivolgere parola a nessuno. Io mi sto divertendo ad ascoltare musica, anche se non è la stessa che sento quando sono solo; non è male stare accanto a persone nuove, è solo stancante. Ma il mio viso non si piega per dimostrarlo e le persone non mi credono quando dico la verità.”
Source: La costellazione del cane
“My alphabet hates itself. Like ... imagine someone says, ‘Think outside the box.’ My hyperactive mind creates a sphere and laughs at the box and researches for hours on end how much better spheres are. Then my Autism freaks out that I broke the rules without realising there were any, and wonders why we are supposed to think
inside cardboard boxes in the first place. Surely being inside cardboard boxes isn’t comfortable.”
“He didn’t need to be ‘fixed.’ He needed to be understood.”
Source: Spectrum of Love: My Journey Through Autism: A Mother's Story of Love, Advocacy, and Awareness
“Autism didn’t change my love—it deepened it.”
Source: Spectrum of Love: My Journey Through Autism: A Mother's Story of Love, Advocacy, and Awareness
“Representation matters. Our stories matter. Black families deserve to be seen in every conversation about autism.”
Source: Spectrum of Love: My Journey Through Autism: A Mother's Story of Love, Advocacy, and Awareness
“The hardest part of parenting through autism isn’t the diagnosis—it’s the silence that follows when support doesn’t come.”
Source: Spectrum of Love: My Journey Through Autism: A Mother's Story of Love, Advocacy, and Awareness
“There is no single spectrum. Every child colors their world in their own way—and every hue is worthy of love.”
Source: Spectrum of Love: My Journey Through Autism: A Mother's Story of Love, Advocacy, and Awareness
“Many women latch onto language from popular psychology, such as "panic attack," when often they are instead experiencing sensory overwhelm.”
Source: Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You
“You’re not defective, Ewan,’ she continued. ‘You’re not broken. You’re not the wrong kind of person. And don’t let anyone in this world tell you otherwise. You and your friends are exactly who they’re meant to be.”
Source: Underdogs
“The dominant medicalised narrative suggested that being autistic made me somehow tragic, broken, and in need of fixing (…) indicating that there was something inherently wrong with me”
Source: Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism
“My room is the safest place my body has. My mind doesn’t really have a safe place.”
“As soon as I gave up caring, everything got easier.”
Source: Show Us Who You Are
“If you see anyone trying to narrow the definition of neuroqueer and trying to police who gets to use the tern, feel free to tell them that I said to stop acting like a fucking cop. The world needs more queering and fewer cops.”
Source: Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities
“A various set of symptoms which are all part of the human condition.”
Source: Hurricane to a Rainbow: Anxiety, PTSD, BPD, Autistic Spectrum, and Schizophrenia
“For anyone who was ever told they were too much or not enough, who tried to fit into boxes that were never made for them, who was told to quiet their spark or dim their light to make others comfortable, and who has been waiting their whole lives to hear: You are exactly right as you are. It is your time to thrive.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“AI scales operations, let humans scale compassion.”
“High stimulation is both exciting and confusing for people with ADHD, because they can get overwhelmed and overstimulated easily without realizing they are approaching that point.”
Source: Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You
“E si rimane per sempre quello che, a un dato momento, si è deciso che dovevi essere. Non c'è rielaborazione possibile: le persone devono essere ben catalogate, marchiate a vita.
Almeno, però, fatemi un favore: non venitemi a dire che non è possibile; perché il dolore, la solitudine, la difficoltà nel sentirmi diverso da voi, li ho portati dentro da solo, quasi sempre in silenzio. La fatica di sembrare normale in modo che voi poteste stare tranquilli, l'ho fatta da solo.
Adesso sono stanco, mi sono reso conto che non c'è bisogno di vergognarsi, nel sentirsi diverso. Ora ho deciso che io, tutto sommato, a questa normalità che distrugge il pianeta in cui vive, che odia chiunque manifesti delle differenze; a questa normalità che tenta di annientare il pensiero critico e aspira a una beata mediocrità, non voglio più assomigliarci.”
Source: Eccentrico: Autismo e Asperger in un saggio autobiografico
“Out of this came the idea of Neurodiversity, first documented by a sociology student called Judy Singer. The basic point was that we should reject the very idea of a ‘normal’ brain and the ‘neurotypical’ as an ideal. Instead, it implied viewing mental functioning more in the way we view biodiversity.”
Source: Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism
“Identifying as neurodivergent isn't just another label; it's also an identity, it's a reclamation, it's a song. When we call ourselves neurodivergent, we are reclaiming our differences that society calls abnormal or wrong. When we call ourselves neurodivergent, we are challenging you to consider what 'normal' actually means and perhaps even realize that maybe our normal isn't your normal. When we call ourselves neurodivergent, we are rejecting the concept of disorders.”
Source: We're All Neurodiverse
“E' un meccanismo di sopravvivenza che chi è come me conosce anche troppo bene: quando si comincia a comprendere che la maggior parte dei problemi e degli ostacoli percepiti come insormontabili sono il risultato di una dissonanza tra sé e il resto del mondo, nella maggior parte dei casi si comincia a imitare gli altri, a conformarsi.
Nell'autismo questo tentativo frequente di conformità al gruppo di appartenenza viene definito masking, indossare una maschera che copre interamente il volto. Col tempo ne crei una per il lavoro, un'altra per le uscite con gli amici, una per le relazioni affettive. Osservi quello che fanno gli altri, cerchi di imitarne i comportamenti, quel modo di ridere a battute che a te sembrano insignificanti, oppure l'andatura, la prosodia. Ma il discorso vale anche se da adolescente scopri che invece delle ragazze ti piacciono i compagni di scuola, quegli stessi ragazzi che invece manifestano la loro eterosessualità con esuberanza spesso facendo in tua presenza commenti terribili contro chiunque abbia un orientamento differente dal loro.
Indossi la maschera se percepisci il tuo genere diverso da quel lo che la società si aspetta tu debba sentire, oppure se non se felice della vita che hai. Quando sei con gli altri, sei gli altri.
Poi torni nella solitudine della tua camera e a volte quella maschera si è talmente appiccicata sul tuo volto che non viene via del tutto; col tempo nemmeno ricordi più chi sei, cosa ti faceva emozionare.”
Source: In altre parole. Dizionario minimo di diversità
“Quando ho capito che le differenze che vedevo nascere in me rappresentavano (incomprensibilmente) solo problemi, ho deciso che forse sarebbe stato più saggio non mostrarle al mondo. Con grande dolore, perché erano parte di me.
È proprio lì che è nata l'ambivalenza del mio sentimento verso l'idea di diversità: da un lato l'ho sempre considerata come la cosa più naturale del mondo, siamo tuttə diversə, le differenze sono quello che rendono il mondo un posto in cui valga la pena vivere e per questo vanno tutelate e rispettate. D'altra parte ho cominciato a soffrire al pensiero che proprio questa varietà, questa idea così complessa e quasi indefinibile, dovesse essere a sua volta infilata in una categoria e, secondo i metodi utilizzati per definire la normalità, suddivisa in tante altre piccole categorie.
Oggi so che questa mia insofferenza verso la tassonomizzazione della diversità nelle sue molteplici espressioni ha a che fare con la convinzione - che fino a poco tempo fa era un'idea senza nome - che la diversità sia intersezionale; non mi è mai piaciuto dover definire la diversità solo in quanto opposta alla normalità, perché utilizzando questo sistema sarà sempre qualcosa di inferiore. Se non siamo in grado di definire la diversità come un concetto autonomo e non necessariamente come contrario di normalità, non riusciremo a liberarla dallo stigma sociale. Altrimenti l'inclusione resterà sempre un processo che parte dalla normalità - percepita come la cosa giusta - e investe una diversità tutto sommato passiva, desiderosa di entrare a far parte del club delle persone sane, normali, di quelle che non vengono additate come difettose o strane. È questa l'idea di diversità che non mi piace, una diversità dipendente dall'idea di una normalità che, paradossalmente, è inesistente in natura.”
Source: In altre parole. Dizionario minimo di diversità
“To understand the autistic brain is to enter a world shaped by depth, precision, and sensitivity.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“At its core, neurodivergence simply means your brain works differently than what's considered typical. Think of it like this: if neurotypical brains run on one operating system, yours runs on another. Neither is better or worse. They're just different. And that difference? It's not a bug in your code. It's a feature.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“NeuroFlex ACT is grounded in the belief that: Your brain’s operating system is not broken; it’s different, and that difference is a source of strength.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“NeuroFlex ACT is built on a deep understanding that neurodivergent brains process the world in unique ways. It's not about trying to make your brain fit into a neurotypical mold. It's about providing a framework that works with your specific wiring.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“NeuroFlex ACT is rooted in the neurodiversity paradigm. It sees your brain not as a problem to be solved, but as a unique ecosystem to be understood, respected, and supported.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“The ADHD brain is built for responsiveness, for novelty, for meaningful stimulation. It is attuned to cues of interest and urgency, rather than arbitrary deadlines or routines.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“OCD is not simply a disorder; it is a way the nervous system organizes around fear, uncertainty, and the search for safety.”
Source: The Therapist's Handbook for Neurodivergent People: A NeuroFlex ACT Guide for Living Fully with ADHD, Autism, OCD, and a Neurodivergent Life
“Neuroscientists have observed that Autistic brains continue to develop in areas associated with social skills for far longer than neurotypical brains are believed to. One study, conducted by Bastiaansen and colleagues (2011), observed that though young Autistic people experienced far less activity than allistics in the inferior frontal gyrus (an area of the frontal lobe involved in interpreting facial expressions), by age thirty no differences between non-Autistics and Autistic people were evident. In other words, Autistic brains eventually “caught up” to neurotypical brains, in terms of how actively they processed and interpreted facial expressions as social data. Other studies have found that Autistic people over the age of fifty are comparable to allistic people, in terms of their ability to make sense of the motivations and emotions of others.
Researchers aren’t sure why these findings occur, only that they help to justify conceiving of Autism as a developmental disability or delay. For my part, I suspect that Autistic people get better at reading faces and understanding human behavior over time because we eventually develop our own systems and tricks for making sense of the world. We might have developed at the same pace as neurotypicals if we’d been given accessible tools earlier on. The social scripts and shortcuts that work for neurotypical people do not work for us, so we have to teach ourselves to develop social instincts.”