Navigating the terminology of mental health can seem endless and frustrating especially if you’re not part of the demographic affected by a particular mental illness. But inevitable if we want to be more well-rounded human beings with a stronger sense of humanity we need to make the effort to understand the world outside of ourselves and understand others’ stories.
The terms neurodivergence and neurodiversity are often used interchangeably meaning that many people think that these two terms mean the same thing. But to put it simply it’s like saying people of color and black people are the same things. Oftentimes people of color is used to describe black people but it’s a term that encompasses all non-white people and not just black people meaning that in certain instances it’s not appropriate to use people of color in issues pertaining to black people. The same thing goes for neurodivergence and neurodiversity.
The key to understanding their differences lies in the wording. Neurodivergent when broken down is neuro+divergent. Someone who diverges( moves away from) normal neurological functioning. That means people with ADHD, autism, schizophrenia, etc while the word neurodiversity can be broken down into neuro+diversity. Meaning the diversity(wind range of) neuro functions meaning that it also includes neurotypical people because normal brain function is still an aspect of the diversity of brain functions. Essentially, neurodivergence addresses those with abnormal mental functions (I hate how rude the word abnormal sounds but it’s just to get the point across) and neurodiversity means anyone with a brain basically no matter how it functions.
These terms may seem intimidating to understand at first but when things are done with an open mind then almost anything becomes easy to understand.
