Author: Radaar

Is neurodiversity contagious? (Part 3)

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: if your friends are neurodiverse….

I’m AuDHD (Autistic + ADHD) and it turns out most of my friends are neurodiverse too. I guess we’re just drawn to each other, maybe because we understand each other.

These days “everyone is getting a diagnosis” because we’re recognising it better. Once your friend is diagnosed, you might seek your own diagnosis.

It also happens when a mother takes their kid for diagnosis, or when perimenopause hits and all their coping mechanisms stop working.

Chances are if all your friends or your partner are neurodiverse, you might be too.

Is neurodiversity contagious?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: Look around you.

When I was diagnosed with Autism (shout out to Autism NZ), they suggested I might have ADHD too.

An ADHD friend agreed with them.

One of my siblings had been diagnosed with ADHD as a child, surely mine would have been caught then?

Nope.

ADHD is something noisy boys tend to have, not quiet people pleasing girls.

What? How did we miss this?

Luckily, the route to diagnosis is easier now than it was for me a few years back. I worked with a psychiatrist, but these days it may be possible to access through a GP.

Looking around me, I discovered only one of my friends didn’t have ADHD.

They’d always had ADHD. I’d always had ADHD. But now we could see it.

Is neurodiversity contagious?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: It feels like it is.

A friend of mine was diagnosed with Autism. When she talked to me about it, I recognised myself in her symptoms.

“How can I be Autistic?

I’m not a boy. I don’t like trains.”

Turns out the concept we have of Autism isn’t always how it presents, especially for anyone born female. This makes recognition, let alone diagnosis, much harder for us.

I didn’t become Autistic because my friend was, but I recognised it through her experiences.