pedantics

Is it characteristic of being on the spectrum that I like my definitions unambiguous and immutable? I can seem pedantic on all sorts of subjects, hung up on how we define something. I suspect a lot of what people argue about comes down to how they define things. The language we use and our understanding of it is fundamental to how we think.

Among all these words I fear losing their meaning is autism. I grew up with autistic kids. There's an autistic adult here in Vermont that I train with at the gym sometimes. I have to be clear though, and it's difficult, because by "autistic" I mean a condition there is no longer a specific term for. The word has broadened in meaning such that there is no longer language to describe the people I'm referring to. Nor can I think of a good way to distinguish them from the chromatic spectrum of people who identify as autistic on social media, but there is a clear difference. It's not something that can be "masked" any more than Downs Syndrome or cerebral palsy. Rainman couldn't just fake being neurotypical.

I've been getting lots of "look at me I'm mentally ill" memes in my feed lately. So much, why am I like this, oh it must be autism, it must be ADHD. So much struggle to understand and define ourselves in a world of chronic disconnection from each other. Growing swaths of young people struggling to understand why they're not successful in a failing societal framework.

ADHD suffers from an inverse problem. One person listed off some of the more severe symptoms, commenting that it's absurd that this is named such that people think it's like a problem-sitting-still-disorder. Lots of people have attention span issues but conflating that with ADHD is like conflating common forgetfulness with Alzheimer's.

So, it took me forty years to realize how well this badly named condition actually fits. I wonder how many people with ADHD feel that same need for a more substantial diagnosis than problem-sitting-still-disorder. Increasingly, people with common attention span issues end up being diagnosed with ADHD, too. With such expanding definitions, it's no wonder diagnoses are surging. 

I also wonder if there should be a third term for these people somewhere between OG autistic and ADHD. I don't want to presume they're all ADHD. I think they may not even be on the same continuum, but three separate conditions with some overlap.