I always enjoy your contributions to the Forum! Although we have never met, and likely never will (it’s complicated - everything in my life seems to be!) I consider you a friend. Along with many others I have met on this Forum.
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I would just like to remind folks about something I said earlier - Every one here appears to be functioning just fine. A diagnosis is not essential as long as our ‘conditions’ are not getting in the way of our lives (too much). I’ve worked with severely schizophrenic people who have had command voices - one fellow I got to know and like actually killed 5 people. Most of these people had extremely disordered thinking, and the ability to get on a forum like this and form coherent thoughts was beyond them. And most of them were afraid. The fellow I mentioned struggled all the time to keep his fragmented, negative thoughts in control. I’ve seen people with severe OCD who, again, could not function.
So the fact that we are all here and observing, identifying and talking about non-human life is a great sign!
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I do think it’s important to be careful with ‘function labels’. Obviously someone who is committing violence should not be allowed to do so. But beyond that, I know at least with Autism a lot of people get labeled with ‘high functioning’ or ‘low functioning’ and the former label can minimize real struggles and the latter can totally dehumanize and exclude people. For instance, many nonverbal autistic people who do not speak or often can not speak could (and probably do) still use iNat. But some would label them ‘low functioning’. The function levels also appear to correlate more with providing ‘value’ to capitalistic society than the actual ‘function’ or value someone has as a human.
Not trying to pick on you by any means as the language is pervasive, just a thought…
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Hi! I haven’t seen you around for a long time. These folks were in a psychiatric hospital. The man I talked about had been there for 30 years. Speaking, and being able to form coherent thoughts of any sort are different things. I’m not trying to dehumanize these people. In fact, the opposite. I liked them, and regarded them fondly. A lot of people were afraid of them. Partly because of their past ‘medical’ treatment and partly because of their disorganised thinking, they would have been unable to participate in iNat. It’s similar with dementia. People tend to think of it as memory loss, when it’s really the inability to process thoughts and perceptions that is the main concern. I could talk about this stuff for days. However, I know nothing about Autism and other of the conditions mentioned in the thread. But the fact that folks manage to participate means that they unlikely to ‘need’ a diagnosis (label). BTW, Stuttering is listed in the DSM IV, and I don’t feel like I have an illness!
I hope this makes sense.
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There shouldn’t be a label put on people with any mental condition, but everyone have problems and some of them are related to how their brain grew, knowing it can allow person easily deal with them.
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While I generally agree with you about labels, there are times when the diagnosis of a major mental illness can lead to effective treatment. As an extreme example, about 15 years ago a man beheaded another person on a bus close to here. He was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, avoided prison, responded well to treatment with medication, and finally returned to society (which many people were angry about). As far as I know he is still doing well. I’ve also seen folks with major Bipolar disorder respond well to treatment. People like we meet here do not need labels, but sometimes a psychiatric diagnosis and competent treatment, can mean that a person can live a life free from torment. And with that, I will get off my psychiatric horse!
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But that’s kind of what I said? Though with schizophrenia biggest issue is checking how a person is taking medications, history has a couple of serial killers who just refused as it affected their normal life, but they also did what they did without them, and system didn’t check anything, so it’s another complicated question. I said having a diagnosis if a person seeking this info, is a good thing, most of conditions don’t require any forced medical treatment, so it’s safe to check.
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It was a little unclear, but I think we are on the same page, so to speak!
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…and so is the developmental disorder. 
The real value in autism and other neurodivergent labels is to be able to access a community of others like you. That has made a huge difference in my life. It is hard to be weird and different all teh time and not realize there are others like me. For instance if the autism label did not exist, this thread would not exist.
I won’t dive down the rabbit hole of function labels and autism copmorbidities here but, yeah, labels can be bad or they can be good. Same as taxonomy. Scientific names are good until the splitters get to them and make them unusable for their purpose, then they are not so good.
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Im ADHD I dont really know what to say about it or what exactly is wanted to be shared but one thing I can say is that being ADHD is not easy. Almost every little sound bothers me so in school I listent to music. The one thing that bothers me the most and that I hate being ADHD is that when someone is tapping their had or foot or doing some sort of tapping it breaks me out of my focus cycle.
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oh yeah, that is an interesting one.I get a lot of behaviors like that (stims) which can also be a sensory issue for someoen else. And vice versa of course. I named it ‘stimclash’ and awareness and mutual respect and communication can help but that can be really hard especially since it isn’t always desirable or even safe to be openly neurodivergent. And lots of people don’t know.
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Some people think its funny to keep doing it when I ask them to stop and then I get really frustrated.
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yeah no that’s just bad bullying at that point. Sorry to hear it. No one should knowingly trigger someone’s sensory issues
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And probably, some just need the stim so much that they can’t stop. I really don’t know what I would do if my stims triggered someone; possibly resent the person for it.
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yeah, i have had that literal thing happen before and i got very upset and horrified. I think the only possible answer for it is more broad awareness and acceptance of neurodivergence and ability to talk openly about it and accommodate each other. Until that time ‘stimclash’ will always occur.
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@charlie Thank you so much for this “stimclash” concept. I find certain repetitive actions by others excruciating; they make me feel like I need to run screaming from the room. I feel overcome with shame at being triggered by someone else’s stimming, because I know stimming is so important for some people, is normal/healthy for them, and is 100% not my business. And the therapists I’ve mentioned it to just give me a blank look. I think knowing someone else has experienced stimclash will help me let go of some of the shame and redirect that energy into interacting with the other person in a compassionate and accepting way. I hope, anyway. Thank you so much for making me feel less alone!
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Awesome! I used to feel very shamed and terrified if anyone commented on stimming sounds i made, but i also didn’t know what ‘stimming’ even was i just knew i couldn’t help it. If people are open about it, i think stimclash can be addressed on both ends. Like, wearing headphones on the one side and someone trying to swap stims when possible on the other side (they aren’t possible to repress without causing other problems but swapping can work).
I get pretty bad stimclash from my kids (not sure if they are N/D or not but kids make tons of loud stimmy sounds as most young kids do). It’s so hard because i don’tw ant to silence and shame them but the loud loud yelling and screaming just hurts.
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Maybe musician’s earplugs - to block the loudest part? I am still thinking about that for my one overworked ear which intensely dislikes LOUD!!
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I’m at that stage of life where loud sounds, and noise in general, really aggravate but I haven’t yet lost any of my hearing due to age. I’m thinking of wearing noise-cancelling head phones more often.
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