Post #1466129

Replies (2)

• @Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 2026-04-20 23:04

  I’m pretty sure my dad is on the spectrum, as are 2 out of 3 of my siblings (as well as myself.) The one I don’t suspect of being on the spectrum is diagnosed ADHD. I know for a fact that my nephew, son of one of the ones I suspect, is autistic. This kid was a lot like me when he was little, my god. He couldn’t understand why he couldn’t just do things to help his little brother, and when I explained that there are some things people just have to learn on their own the hard way, he got sad and lamented about how upsetting that is. As someone who got kicked out of the Girl Scouts for “being bossy” because I regularly tried to help the other kids who struggled to do their crafts, I felt his pain immensely. He’s a teenager now, and last time I saw him I spent an hour driving with him and he would. not. stop. talking about the latest F-Zero. Oh wait, he did stop sometimes, to then go on about physics. I love him to bits and I’m glad to support his interests, but I was glad when we arrived at our destination. Is that how other people felt when I talked about astronomy as a kid? 😅 His father, and my own father, both ramble on about topics despite other people lacking an interest. My dad will talk to you the same way whether you show signs of active listening or are clearly glued to the TV. He has a wicked intelligence for the natural world and enjoys camping alone. Meanwhile, my siblings and I all had our own special interests, with a shared penchant for creativity. One or more of us was always making some kind of project, from popsicle-stick roller coaster ramps, to cardstock Wheel of Fortune wheels that spun on K’nex pieces, to making dolls out of homemade clay, to designing our own board games. Growing up in a majority neuro-diverse household shorted us on some social skills, but damn did we create some cool things.

  Open ##1468035

• @gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2026-04-21 00:25

  They don’t disagree that the pattern isn’t there, they are all just massively biased/stigmatized against any concepts of mental illness or neurodiversity, choosing to view atypical, consistent behavioral patterns as simply indicative of the underlying, quality of moral character of a person. i think for historical context you have to understand that a hundred years ago people were literally put into prison (“mental asylum”) for being “mentally ill” and they were never seen again. that stuff scares people. science (“science”) has done incredible harm to a lot of people in the name of “curing” them. they didn’t just give electroshocks to “mad” people or sterilize the gays (btw, what’s that for if they already don’t make children!?!) but many of the “mental hospitals” were outright torture chambers, intending to scare the large masses of population into “correct” behavior. people have these horror stories passed down for generations, it’s grave stuff and people don’t forget that even if they don’t speak about it consciously. that’s why it is so difficult to remove that stigma around “mentally ill” people because deep down people are still scared about how they’d be treated if they were declared as such. that’s why there’s so many people just insisting that they’re mentally well, even when it’s gravely obvious that they are not.

  Open ##1473206