Welcome to /c/AuDHD!
Hey all, this isn't going to be a polished post, I'm about out of spoons for the day lol.
One of my goals in developing this community is to try to minimize or avoid some of the issues with the Reddit subs (mostly r/ADHD, but also trying to improve on r/AutisticWithADHD, r/ADHDWomen and r/AuDHDWomen). This is not going to be a gendered community.
The main issues with r/ADHD from my perspective are censorship, a trigger-happy auto-mod, and people being invalidating or insulting others.
The last one of course depends on the people who make up this community. Limiting low-effort content is one way I hope to mitigate this, but the reddit subs already try to do that as well.
I'm open to suggestions! Tell me what you did or didn't like about these communities elsewhere, I'd love to hear it.
And let's kick it off with a poll. Help me make the first major decision about possible rules!
r/ADHD has banned the word "neurodivergent/diverse" and all related terminology. They say it is meant to be inclusive, as apparently many people find the term offensive, and it has some problematic history. I've never been able to make it through the 10-page essay and links they have in the wiki to explain this though. My view is that it is now a very common word, not used pejoratively within our community, and does not mean that the person using it agrees with the ideology from which it sprung. I see from other similar communities that
A. It is very useful shorthand when wanting to refer to the entire group of related conditions, and
B. Many people consider it part of their identity, just as valid as ADHD(-I/H/C), Autistic, AuDHD, etc.
What do you think?
Should we allow people to use "neurodivergent/diverse", "neurotypical", and "ND/NT" for the sake of efficiency and inclusivity?
And please, feel free to offer any other suggestions or insights!
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Comments
I appreciate your point of view on this :) I've been told by many doctors i am neurodivergent but not officially diagnosed so i just go with neurodivergent lol
That makes sense. I actually didn't even consider this kind of situation. For people who aren't diagnosed and don't want to add to the many people who already trivialize our conditions by saying they have it because they lose their keys sometimes and speak bluntly. 🙄 But if you know you're different somehow and the signs fit, why not use a broad word for it?
Thank you for that extra perspective!
I'm confused on the neurodivergent part since I see a lot of people refer to themselves as neurodivergent, it never ever even dawned on me it could be even remotely interpreted as an offensive term.
Everyone I know on the spectrum refers to themselves as neurodiverse. I never heard about it being an offensive term.
Yeah, before that sub I'd heard a little mild talk about whether the "divergent" version especially was divisive, were we "othering" ourselves with that word after everyone else has already alienated us?
But r/ADHD was adamantly against it. The mods claim that plenty of people find it offensive and that those people wrote to them to express gratitude for being a community that was inclusive of them.
That's what they said (very rudely) when I wrote to them to ask that they change the rule because it made it hard for some people to seek support in a community of their peers, when many of us have already been ostracized from the rest of society and thought we had found a safe space.