When you hear that someone has a brain injury, do you hold them accountable for what they can’t understand and joke about their stupidity? Hopefully you are compassionate and would never think to do such a thing as it pokes fun at a serious life changing circumstance. Yet many people delegitimize the neurodiverse — those whose brain function differs — and use it as a hurtful tactic to explain their own perceived inadequacies as a justifiable medical condition.
We need to stop telling those who are neurodiverse that their struggles and mental shortcomings are not real by passing off perfectly average skill sets as a disability.
According to neurodiversity psychologist Nancy Doyle, 41% of the population have some form of neurologic differences in their brain that change the way the brain thinks, perceives information and creates memories. There can also be physical differences, which in my case is due to brain damage from a stroke at birth that caused my brain’s neural pathways to form in new places around the damaged tissue. Technically speaking, I use a different 10% of my brain consciously than a neurotypical person, making me a neurodiverse individual.
Johanna Hamilton has conducted research on the impact of neurodiversity and explains how neurodiverse people have “a cognitive profile of extreme strengths and weaknesses, whereas neurotypical people tend to score about the same on all measures.” This means that neurodiverse individuals like myself tend to highly specialize in certain areas but lack the ability to perform to an average standard on basic tasks.
So no, you being “bad at chemistry” or “having a hard time doing your math homework” does not give you the right to pass it off as there being something physiologically wrong with your brain. Your brain works just fine. You just can’t be the best at everything you do.
Although I may be gifted in a variety of subjects, and do not fit the stereotypical profile of a “disabled” individual, my neural pathways are not where they were intended to be — many of which are twice the length. Twice the length means I need double the amount of time to process simple tasks and still struggle to count backwards from 10 without using my fingers.
It is perfectly reasonable for everyone to feel that they are not the best in a subject area or feel that they cannot grasp a complicated topic, but don’t claim that your academic hardships are comparable to the physical trauma in my brain.
Some have argued that due to my gifted abilities, I am searching for excuses to explain the things I cannot excel at. Others have cited my IQ or the fact that I do still use 10% of my brain consciously just like everyone else. What they fail to remember is that my gifted abilities come with a dramatically sliding scale. Either I excel at a task and operate at a genius level, or I find myself unable to complete basic life skills without help from others. Intelligence is not universal, and the 10% of my brain I do use every day struggles to function in ways it was not biologically designed to.
The denial from the neurotypical masks the depth of the hardships I as well as others in the neurodiverse population face everyday. The complexity and variation of severity in each individual, coupled with constant invalidation that what you experience is real, often delays diagnosis and creates poor self esteem as those suffering feel as though it must be “all in their head.”
I don’t think people tend to hurt others. We want to be socially accepted and feel that our concerns and difficulties are validated by those around us. We as a society have just fallen into a pattern of brushing off our struggles as “not our fault” rather than admitting we are not good at everything we do. Instead of blaming your chemistry grade on your “dysfunctional brain,” own up to the lack of studying you did this week and visit your teacher for extra help.
In the end, do not pass blame on what you can control. Don’t make me explain why my brain is not yours. It’s not your business anyway.
Morgan Brownhill is a third-year Media and Culture major in the Accelerated Masters Program with a minor in Digital Marketing. MB906376@wcupa.edu
References Doyle, N. (2020, February 13). Making the invisible visible – supporting neurodiversity in the —–workplace. Retrieved October 13, 2020, from —–https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/making-the-invisible-visible/ Hamilton, Johanna, How Neurodiversity is Changing Work, ITNOW, Volume 62, Issue 1, March —–2020, Pages 56–57, https://doi.org/10.1093/itnow/bwaa026