This community is for people who have a special neuronal configuration and I'd like to hear how you discovered it. Were you told? By who? How did you take it? How is life today?

Here's my story:

I was only told by my mother that I'm smart but never anything else. She took me to a school psychologist for evaluation to decide what school form I should go to after elementary.

My teachers in elementary school thought I should go to a more basic school form but my mom was convinced I was too smart for that. So I went to sort of an advanced school. It was no problem intellectually but I became an outcast pretty much immediately. Had to switch schools later because of my social difficulties.

It took another 20 years for me to go out on my own and search for the reason why stuff wasnt working. Neither normal "desk" work nor "supervisor" positions worked really. When I went self employed, I found a spot for the first time.

When covid hit and I had to give up my company, I went digging for answers. "Gifted" was the first thing, but it wasnt the whole picture. When "Autistic" was added it all started making sense. Too much going on in the head to "be normal" but no social talent to actually make something out of myself in the corporate world.

Its an ongoing process of resolving trauma as much as possible and learning to live with what isnt resolvable. Explaining the process and situation to people, sometimes against opposition is not easy but all in all my life has become a lot healthier.

Thanks for reading. Have a good one!

My view on neurodivergence is manifold: It can be severely disabling in our neurotypical world and comes with massive health risks, depending on your support network and needs. But it often also brings positive or quirky things.

Today I'm having a particular bad day and would like to help everyone who is in a not so great mood to focus on the good things for a moment. When life can seem harsh, we can decide to focus on the good things, just for a moment and deal with hardships later.

My personal superpower is building things. I have very strong spacial thinking and love to build things, be that computers, Minecraft stuff or machines. I get a lot of positive feedback for this and i consider this my greatest skill.

What is your superpower, your favorite skill, the thing that makes you unique or just different?

I have decided to make this community so people can join in on the cause to help neurodivergent folks to unite instead of being divided by arbitrary borders of countries, diagnoses or cultures.

The diagnostic criteria of many neurological conditions varies depending on the country you are in. They also change over time and have the added detriment that they are considered "disorders" or "diseases" which don't help people to view themselves as "ok but different" or "having a unique perspective on life".

Personal note As a person with multiple neurodivergent conditions and severe trauma, I have had intense trouble with finding any single community to feel at home in. So far, I can only outline the characteristics that made them worth while for me:

• non violent
• accepting of otherness
• non elitist

This is what I'm trying to create here. Therefore, I want folks to post their unique perspective while not feeling like they're not "sick enough" or "not valid" for not being diagnosed or their neurodivergence being considered "light" like gifted folks.

There is also the difference between neurodivergence and personality disorders, many of which have been falsely ascribed to undiagnosed neurodivergent folks. We accept people with personality disorders but we will not accept bigotry, moral ambiguity, grandiosity and other harmful behaviors. So if you're being asked to drop the attitude, doubling down is the fast track out of here.

Let me know if you have any further questions or ideas.