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Comment by kirse | Hacker News Reader

My brain is a jewel. I am in awe of the mind that I have. I and my experience of life is not inferior, and may be superior, to the NT experience of life.

Amen. Too many people try to victimize their situation by labeling themselves with a disorder rather than embrace their unique condition and work with it, especially when it comes to neurological "disorders"

Can't focus? I must be ADHD.

Lacking social abilities? I must have Aspergers.

Fear of your own thoughts? I'm OCD.

Haven't learned how to manage worry? Generalized Anxiety.

Can't manage your emotions? Bipolar or manic.

I'm not saying there aren't legitimate (serious) cases of people with neurological conditions, but in my own personal experience, things like "Generalized Anxiety" and "ADHD" are the result of years of habits and personal choices that have become automatic and subconscious behavioral tendencies. However, they can be unlearned and they can be worked around.

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The person who taught my abnormal psych course (not quite professor at the time, but very nearly at that point) said that in order to qualify to be diagnosed with any mental disorder, one must meet the qualifications laid out in the DSM and it must materially and negatively impact your life.

We're all paranoid, narcissistic, phobic, etc. to one extent or another, but it's only if it's a problem that you should be diagnosed.

News reports, being written as they are by non-psychologists and people who have not taken this class, tend to miss this.

(I'm not a psychologist either, but I feel pretty comfortable with sharing this information; it's pretty basic stuff.)

Keep in mind also, the legal drug pushers spend incredible amounts of money in order to get people to self-associate with these disorders. They define them, market them, and sell the antidote.

...and the antidote helps. That's kind of important.

Some drugs help certain symptoms, but this usually comes with side-effects, which may help sell more drugs or create other, worse problems. The drug companies sometimes even admit that they don't know how the drugs work -- how can you be so sure you're fixing the brain, if nobody yet knows exactly how the brain works?

These disorders and syndromes have some purpose that is not fully understood today ... I believe the point of the Neurotypical page is to open eyes that some atypicalities should not necessarily be seen as negative.

how can you be so sure you're fixing the brain, if nobody yet knows exactly how the brain works

Because it helps me function better, I will keep taking it. Nobody said it's going to 'fix' my brain. I'm OK with just treating the symptoms if all-said I'm doing better than without the drugs.

My brain is a jewel.

I agree with the idea that all human beings are precious and all deserve to be treated with dignity.

But is the statement here that everyone's brain is as good as everyone else's brain, or do the various jewels differ in rarity and differ in appropriateness for particular settings?

There are different qualities of jewels and brains. But there are no brains which are not totally awesome.

All brains are awesome. But not all people are any more awesome than average.

99% of people are not in the top percentile.

I think the point is that people with autistic spectrum "disorders" are often, in many ways, far more totally awesome than average.

Awesome!

Every strength is also a weakness, and (almost) every weakness is also a strength.

I couldn't agree more...

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