The Issue with How AuDHD is Framed

I'm seeing a lot of social media content that frames AuDHD (being an Autistic ADHDer) as akin to having two parts of oneself at war within one person.

The creators I see running with this narrative describe living with AuDHD characteristics as an obstacle or hindrance to living a normal life.

They typically describe ADHD as one way, Autism in another (opposite) way, and AuDHD as some mix of oil and water that mirrors the trope of the tragic mixed-race person.

Example of a deficit-based understanding of AuDHD

The identities and social positioning of the people pushing this view of being AuDHD are rather limited and largely reflect groups with unearned advantages in the West.

This way of viewing AuDHD people is pretty widespread from what I’m seeing and threatens to become “the narrative,” which erases those of us whose experiences differ from the “canonical arc” of AuDHD experiences.

I don’t speak for anyone but myself, and to me, my Autism and ADHD are not at war with one another. They're in perfect balance. They happen to be located in a human being who has to navigate social systems founded on and that reward Neurodominant ways of communicating, sensing, and processing.

It's society's ableism that is the problem, not being AuDHD in and of itself.

The last point I’ll make is that the people pushing the tragic narrative of being AuDHD are not comfortable with voices who do not align with the narrative.

I’ve had other neurodivergent voices share my writings just to critique them based on their feelings (never on the merits).

These voices that have built platforms on pushing out simplistic ideas and recommendations related to neurodiversity that ignore considerations of power, race, wealth, language, and culture are threatened by voices of neurodivergent people of color who offer a nuanced, culturally rooted, and dynamic approach to neurodivergent empowerment.

The entrenched voices promote either or thinking, buzzwords, and colorful graphics that conveniently ask nothing of power and minimize emerging voices.

There is a roiling debate underway within the neurodivergent public intellectual landscape, and social media is but one site of this conflict. While social media content can be somewhat informative and accessible, we would do well to question flat and limited articulations of neurodivergence.

Follower count does not an expert make.