“Learning Disability” is a Stupid Label
Being diagnosed with ADHD myself, I can attest that learning disabilities can and do play a significant part in what your personality is like. One of the things I struggled with most as a child is trying to figure out which part of my personality was ‘me’ and which part was the ADHD. How different would I be if I was “normal”? How different would my friendships be, or my artwork be if my learning disabilities didn’t “hinder” me from reaching my full potential? Do I need to take medication just so that I can be “regulated” or “normal” like everyone else?
What I’ve come to realize is that none of those questions matter. My brain isn’t damaged or broken because of my learning “disabilities”. It’s just that my brain is formed a bit differently, can people who don’t have the brain chemistry that I have decided to classify it under the term “ADHD” and treat it like it’s a bad thing because this type of brain chemistry is less suitable for a classroom or office-work setting. But it’s not actually a hindrance in all scenarios.
My ability to zero in on tasks or subjects I’m interested in–like editing or storytelling–is unparalleled. My ability to bounce around 5 different conversations or topics or moods seamlessly comes in very handy while performing during streams or videos. Cancer is a documented biological defect where skin cells in the body stop generating and starts attacking the other skin cells. Your body starts killing itself. When you have a cold, an outside infection is attacking you and your body is trying to fight it off out of survival. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects your direct ability to experience the world the way that it truly is. Whereas something like Autism or ADHD just means you experience the world a bit differently. The way you approach problem-solving certain issues may be different. Not bad. Just different. There are a lot of positives to having these as well. They actually come in handy.
So I don’t think it’s fair to say that having pride or being proud of something like neurodivergency is the same thing as cancer or a cold. I feel like society has really made it a lot more difficult than is necessary for people to understand the different ways people’s brains work. I would always ask myself as a young teen “Am I me because of my disorder or in spite of it?” Of course, the truth is, THERE IS NOT DISORDER. Because my brain operates differently, that doesn’t make me broken or disabled. It doesn’t mean that the different ways that I think somehow make me alien from who I could be. I am just Weston.
There is an argument to be made that the term “neurodivergent” in itself is stupid from the jump. To classify some people as “different” from the norm is to completely disregard the fact that everyone is different. Don’t get me wrong, it’s better than a lot of the terms that have been used historically. At least we aren’t calling people mentally “slow” anymore. I remember even just a few years ago when I was in middle school, teachers would regularly use the r-slur during class while referring to certain students. In 2010, Barrack Obama signed a law called “S.2781,” which changed the wording inside of a lot of federal laws to “intellectual disability” instead of the r-slur. While this is a great next step, I don’t understand why it is we need these terms and labels to classify people. Is the problem with labeling someone “disabled” the term itself? Or the stigma that we attach to the word?
Speaking from experience, the label has historically been used as a way to validate my own experiences. In school, when I was struggling with keeping up with the classwork and I would tell people I couldn’t focus, the school did nothing. They did nothing until my parents handed them paperwork proving my diagnosed ADHD. When I talk to people about their own experiences, I’ve heard people say that it’s nice to have a label to call back to for people to do more research. When I talk to people about my focus at work, I’m often–OFTEN– told, “You just need to focus harder, Wes” as if it’s as simple as sitting down and focusing. It’s only after telling my coworkers “I have ADHD, which has been proven to make it difficult for people to focus on task lists” do they start to actually listen to me. Labels are often just used as a way to validate my experience. They’re a way for me to say “I’m not making it up. My experiences are real.”
However, there are a lot of people in the world who experience the symptoms a little bit, but not enough to meet the diagnosis requirements–Or worse, experience very bad symptoms, but (maybe because of their home life or maybe something else) didn’t get diagnosed as a child. Their experiences are just as valid as mine are, but they aren’t treated the same because they don’t have the little badge next to their name that says they are mentally diverse. We have decided to classify an entire group of people as “diverse” because their brain chemistry isn’t made for office work. And worse yet, when people come out and complain that what is happening is wrong, the label is changed as a way to make us feel more valid as if that is going to fix the issue. Our society is focusing so much on which term will be best used to describe people whose brains aren’t built for what the capitalist system wants them to be that we are completely overlooking the actual issue: The lack of trust.
I shouldn’t have to wear a badge to be treated as valid. I should be able to simply explain my experience and know that people will listen. It’s not like my symptoms with ADHD are the same as others anyway. It really doesn’t help people understand me any better. Usually, when I talk about my attention span or my emotion regulation issues, I have to go into specifics with my experiences because there is no one-size-fits-all answer for what it’s like to experience a “disability”. I shouldn’t have to fall back on this term as a crutch. Having trouble regulating focus should be taken in the same way as someone being introverted or extroverted. Some people are naturally better with people than others. Some people are better at focusing on certain tasks than others. Some people are better at communicating emotions than others. None of that is suddenly invalided if you didn’t happen to get a label attached to your name as a child. You are just as valid as everyone else. Label or no label. “Disability” or not. You are not defined by the struggles you deal with. You are defined by your personality (all of your personality), your intentions, and your actions.
Regardless of what some scientists say, my brain chemistry is just as much who I am as any other aspect of my personality. And so, I don’t think there is a clear-cut answer for whether it’s right or wrong to be proud of my nuerodivergency, whatever that word means, because I should just be proud of who I am GENERALLY–Not just the part of my brain people say is wrong. Yes, I may be different from other people, but that doesn’t make me disordered or disabled or slow or any other word society wants to label me because I’m less suitable to the economic system that’s been set up. I’m simply me. And I should be proud of that! I am valid, quirks and all. I just wish someone could have told me that when I was younger.
Sources:
Why You Shouldn’t Say “Special Needs” (verywellfamily.com)
