People With Mental Illness Are Neuroatypical?

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Isn't whether someone with MI is neurodiverse or neurotypical very much dependent on how that person presents? Not all are neurodiverse but some surely are.

Some even consider gifted people to be neurodiverse. As in people who only have high IQ and nothing else. No autism, mental illness, ADHD, or any else.

The way I see this is that autism is a whole range of differently wired brains which are different enough to cause autistic behaviour sufficient for a diagnosis. NT brains are generally more uniform but will still have variations between one and another. So the overall topographical wiring of the brain is a major difference between NT and ASD people.

As I understand it, when people suffer some mental illnesses, like anxiety and depression, it's not caused by the wiring of the brain being different but by certain neurotrasmitters like dopamine and seratonin being at different levels and this can go back to normal at times. If you're brain is autistic though, it can't 'go back' to normal. This is why as autistic adults, I think we have made work arounds for our neurology so we can function better in the world but the autism won't go away.

Having looked into it a bit, I think schizophrenia is a bit different - there appear to be physical changes to brain structure in people with this illness. It's not completely clear whether the brain changes as a result of developing schizophrenia but the evidence seems to be going that way. My feeling is that although schizophrenia would still be classed as a mental illness, schizophrenic people are genuinely not neurotypical, in that their brain wiring is changed. Equally of course, they wouldn't be autistic either since schizophrenia is an illness which can develop whereas autism is a developmental condition.

Just how I think about this subject.

Some people with mental illness are neurotypical, some aren't, it's kinda impossible to tell because we don't just know everybodies neurologies. All that is really known is that some mental illnesses only occur in neuroatypical people, but not all, where they can be caused by stress alone. In general, neuroatypical people have a higher diathesis, meaning it takes less "stress" for them to develope a mental illness, or they are more included to behavior that causes "stress".

Schiozophrenia is one of the most heritable disorders. There is no doubt that genetics play a significant role in schizophrenia.

Depression can afflict any neurotype. Some neurotypical people go through a period of depression and then return to something very close to baseline.

There is no simple answer to the question.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2826121/

My aunt has schizophrenia and she is the only one in the family who has it. I used to fear I was getting it because I was hearing sounds others weren't noticing, I would mishear words so I thought I was hallucinating, people would remember things different than me or have a different perspective so I also thought I was hallucinating and going delusional. My mom would get mad at me for my worries about it and didn't take me seriously when I would voice my concern and my therapist was the only one who took me seriously so he asked me schizophrenic questions and my school counselor would tell me what things would be like if I was truly a schizophrenic. My mom was lucky I wasn't hearing any voices or hallucinating or going delusional or otherwise she would have done me a big disservice because what if all that was really going on and I was convinced that was all normal? You don't need to hear voices to be a schizophrenic or think people are spying on you because my ex sure didn't fit any of the known symptoms of schizophrenia and the only thing he showed was thoughts and conclusions he would jump to. He never heard voices nor did he act crazy or do cray things nor was he delusional. He didn't think anyone was after him but he had strange thoughts and had strange conclusions such as thinking the government can take your house anytime they want and your land and take anything you own. So my mom was lucky. And what if I was starting to have signs, I would have been too afraid to go to her and tell her and then it would have been too late by the time she would notice when it could have been treated before it got that bad. Unless she thought I was trying to be a schizophrenic.

I realize now it was my OCD that was giving me that fear and it was the anxiety that was making me think I was hallucinating and going delusional because my anxiety would make me see that from situations that were normal such as noticing sounds others aren't noticing, having a different memory or perspective than others and it was just my OCD and anxiety making me think I was going crazy. No one explained to me that sometimes you will notice a sound and others are not paying attention to it so they aren't hearing it and telling me everyone remembers things differently and sees things differently so their memories and perspectives will not always match mine. No one explained to me how I was not having delusions or hallucinations. Instead I was just expected to stop it. But for me I always need proof this is not what I have. I even needed proof I wasn't having an ectopic pregnancy so they gave me an ultra sound. Discrediting my concerns is not going to work.

The original definition of the word "neurotypical", when it was first coined by Jim Sinclair, meant not on the autistic spectrum. It didn't mean not having any kind of mental disorder. So, the use of neurotypical to describe people who have another kind of mental disorder is actually correct in the original meaning of the word. The use of it as a label for someone without any mental disorder only came about when the neurodiversity concept expanded to cover other kinds of mental disorders.

Do you know when he coined the word?

Can't find the exact date, but mostly likely sometime in the 90s.

Also, I discovered most people use mental illness wrong, as it is NOT a psychiatric term, it's a legal term that varies with the state. Generally what people are actually referring to are mental disorders.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

The issue here is that there is no clear word for 'those that are not one of us' and saying 'others' is very vague. Let them use their context-based terms. Who are we to copyright it?

I also see people trying to redefine a mental illness but I think that is because of the negative stigma. Mental illnesses are just mental disorders like Cluster B, psychotic, depression, anxiety, PTSD, adjustment disorders, behavior disorders. But people will say people with NPD are not mentally ill or people with ASPD, or people with BPD. My therapist said Frankie was mentally ill because it's not normal to use abuse and manipulation to control your mother to get your way and no kid does that to try and get their way including aspies. He told me it was a mental illness.

My mother says being mentally ill just means not being able to function in society so by her logic you can have a mental illness and not be mentally ill despite having a mental illness because you are functioning. I was considered mentally ill in 6th grade because I was falling apart and couldn't be around other kids at school or be by myself and I had behavior and did some conduct. I was considered to be sick even though it wasn't contagious.

But I also notice people will throw the word mentally ill around when someone commits a crime or when someone is always a dick. In some cases those people are ill but not everyone who commits crimes have a mental illness nor is every mean person. I remember reading a book back in high school and this character had a really mean sister and she was mean to everyone including to her parents and to the main character. She ended up on disability because she was so mean to everyone and it kept her from being able to function so she wasn't able to hold down a job because she was always mean. I would call that a mental illness because of her ability to act nice. I had no idea what she had and the author never said unless she made her condition up for the story. She was always a bully and always bullied for no reason and had no empathy and didn't care about anyone. I remember that character's name was Pamela but I forget the protagonist's name. It was told from first person view and the story took place through the years from when she was a small child until her early adulthood and Pamela was always abusive, always bullying her and her own friends they would be scared away and not want to come over and she was mean to their parents too. Then she runs away when their mother died and she didn't like her father's rules so she talks the protagonist into running away with her and I think she was 15 by then and still in high school and her older sister talks her into running away with her. Pamela also did not like their mother for some reason and then she didn't like their father. I wish I remembered the name of the book. But she got disability just for being a b***h to everyone and all the time so I realized she had to have a mental illness, something going on than just being mean. No that doesn't mean every bully has a mental illness and every abuser so I agree that some people do tend to throw that word around.

While you can be neurologically developed, you can still develop mental health issues in late adolescence or adulthood. The issue is that you can't be neurotypical and have mental health issues at the same time, that is not how the brain works.

Even if you are neurologically developed, you can still regress later.

You, as an adult, could possibly stop yourself from "regressing." You, as an adult, have some control of your destiny.

I know, even if you were neurologically developed, you can still regress later, especially you get older, but I am not saying that all old people have regression, but it's very common in older people.

That is why I hate the word "Neurotypical", because if you were neurologically developed in the past and developed mental health issues, you cannot be neurotypical anymore, because by definition, it causes you some kind of distress, it may not be the same distress as in neurological or developmental disorders, but your mental health issues shouldn't be downplayed and invalided, just because you were neurologically developed in the past, and it's not right and fair.