What do you consider to be neurotypical?

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What do many people on the spectrum believe to be neurotypical? The more and more I read about what neurotypical is: someone that doesn't display neurologically atypical patterns of thought/behavior. The more I feel like neurotypicals don't exist. And if so....then who are people referring to on here when they say neurotypical? What do you think neurotypical is to you? Do you believe a different title and definition should be used to describe people who lack understanding of those of different thinking/behavior? Maybe I just got the definition of neurotypical wrong...

I just don't feel that everybody without an ASD is neurotypical. Some people with other disorders are less functioning than me, so it can be confusing to say they're neurotypicals while I'm not. I am in a relationship, I work, I pay bills and tax, I can look after myself, etc etc, but the man down the road with severe mental disabilities who is in care and cannot hardly speak (mental retardation, not autism) is "normal"? It doesn't make sense.

When I use the term "NT" I am referring it to people who aren't born with significant delayed learning and/or social development that could make them require more support than their peers and may need support throughout their entire life, or will have challenges in life. Also people who were neurotypical can not be neurotypical later on in life, for example severe brain damage or Alzheimer's, etc.

Neurotypicals are people who don't have communication problems or difficulties with socializing and making friends.

What Elaine said.....seems simple to me.

I'd say Neurotypicalness is a spectrum, just like Autism is. There is a line beyond which we will call someone "Neurotypical", but even beyond that line, there are still varying degrees of Neurotypicalness, and someone might be more neurotypical in some traits than others.

I also think there are more traits that define a Neurotypical than someone with ASD. For example, I'd say someone with PTSD, while not displaying any Autistic traits, hasn't been Neurotypical since the traumatic event occurred.

This is hard to define because “neurotypical” doesn’t apply only to people not on the spectrum. ADHD and other learning disorders like dyslexia are also considered neurodiverse. Then when you factor in things like schizophrenia and bipolar, it seems as if more people are neurodiverse than NT. I’m sure there are even more “neurodiverse” conditions that I didn’t mention.

To me, neurotypical means caring way too much about being social, thinking alone and lonely are the same thing, believing that only what other people think about you is what matters, that being unique is the same as having the plague, that loners are freaks and serial killers, being a sheep, being brainwashed by society, being obsessed with sensationalist media coverage, always pretending that you're something you're not, and the constant, constant lying, which I *really* hate. Autistic people can be like this as well, but we're not as "good" at it, which is a "bad" thing.

I think a neurotypical is someone without any mental disorders such as autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, etc., and without mental health disorders like depression or anxiety. Neurodivergent (the opposite of neurotypical) people can have difficulty in any of a number of areas, such as socialization, behaviour, learning, adaptive functioning, or perception. I don't think the line between neurotypical and neurodivergent is clear-cut, though. And even neurotypical people can have some difficulties with socializing and communicating, such as deaf people, who have trouble communicating with hearing people because of their physical disability.

Thank you all for the replies, I think I'm starting to understand what it means for someone to be neurotypical. I like the idea of it being on a spectrum, as SplendidSnail pointed out. It helps me apply the concept of "neurotypical" better. And from what I have gathered from replies, a neurotypical is someone with no social or communication impairments. So it being on a spectrum would make sense.

This is is a very interesting question in that the terms used to differentiate someone who is on the spectrum from someone who isn't are somewhat of misnomers. I would be neurodiverse, and someone without ASD would be considered neurotypical, however no two people think or process information in exactly the same way.

I would have to say that someone who is neurotypical might be better described as off-spectrum where someone who exhibits the general thought patterns and information processing patterns that would qualify them for an ASD diagnosis would be better described as on-spectrum?

People whose neurology is different from birth.

Whomever originally coined the term for nonautistic people coined a vague and inaccurate term wide open to interpretation. It is inaccurate because 98 percent of the people are so different from each other there is little typical about them. There is "allistic" for "not autistic" but "not autistic" more directly describes who is being talked about. There is "nueromajority" which somewhat less inaccurate but won't catch on. Looks like we are stuck with "neurotypical" and "NT" for the foreseeable future.

"Neurotypical" to me means someone without a neurological condition (including autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorder, dyslexia and epilepsy). I'm on the fence as to whether all mental/emotional health problems should be considered neurodivergent, but I do think people who have chronic depression or anxiety for neurological reasons would qualify.

btw, I really can't stand the term "allistic" tbh because I feel like the etymology of it erases the experiences of extroverted autistic people like me, and promotes the narrative that autistic people lack empathy. I am "focused on others" in that I love to hang out with a group of friends and meet new people, as long as it isn't in a stressful or overstimulating context. otoh, the "aut" in "autistic" doesn't bother me, because it can also mean self-directed/individualistic and many autistic people (myself included) are very individualistic.

i'd consider 90% of jobs/workforce as NT, leaving a small amount like cleaning or self-employment as close you can get to a solitary work environment that has always been very difficult to get in due to many factors albeit unrelated to being neurotypical or not.

Yeah vaguelyhumanoid, I don't like the word allistic either for the same reason.

And to Scorpius14, I agree that most jobs are catered to neurotypicals. However I like that things are changing in that more jobs are beginning to go the route of automation, creating new jobs like programming those machines and fixing them. Such new jobs are a perfect environment for those who want to just focus and not deal with their senses being overloaded.

The prefix, neuro, means: of the nervous system. Your nervous system determines how you sense and experience the world around you. Typical means: normal or most common. So, literally, neurotypical means: having a type of nervous system that is common to the majority of humans. The type of nervous system shared by autistics is significantly different from the majority in characteristic ways. There are also other variants besides the autistic type.