A quick question

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If you don't mind me asking, what is NT? I mean, I hear it a lot but I'm not really sure what it is. Is it Classical Autism or somthing differnt?

NT means Neurotypical. It means not having any neurological or mental disorders. But when most people on here use the term, it simply means not being on the autistic spectrum.

But people with schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, bipolar, etc., are not NT either.

Tim

Thank you!

De nada.

Tim

http://isnt.autistics.org/

I thought NT was someone who isn't on the autism spectrum. That's what I've read.

This is untrue. Autistic disorders are different than mental disorders/illnesses in that they are neurological disorders. Mental disorders/illnesses are not neurologically based. People with mental illnesses are still "NT." They may have a bio-chemical difference, but not a neurological one.

Though there is some current research which may indicate that schizophrenia might have a neurological component, but the jury is still out on that one.

It's my understanding NT is sort for Neurotypical and it is a term that was coined by the Aspergers community for all the rest of the non-Autistic world. NT's is just a nickname for the so called "normal" people.

My understanding of schizophrenia is it is a chemical imbalance in the brain that causes a mental disorder and not neurological.

Thank you Mnemosyne for pointing out that Aspergers is not a mental disorder. I was really put off last week when I attended a Mozart and the Whale presentation and non-Aspergers people that work at a counseling center were trying to say Aspergers and Autism were mental disorders and that I should come join their group discussion groups. They don't have autistic groups, but somehow thought an Aspie could somehow relate to schizos, Bi-polars, alcoholics, etc. Some of those are the kinds of people I have actively been trying to avoid ever since getting in several abusive relationships with such people and finally learning it is not safe for me to be around those kinds of people. No disrespect to those people, we all have our problems, its just that I learned one of my problems was getting involved with those that would try to be hurtful.

Now mind you some with Aspergers say they also are Bi-polar, but those are entirely two separate "conditions" for lack of a better word. At least for me Aspergers is a neurological and developmental disorder. Actually I think its a form of brain injury (that affects development) having had a traumatic birth and a second head injury as infant plus being exposed to DES in the womb.

When I use the term NT, it's is a general term for anyone that isn't on the spectrum. I do know that, when it comes down to it, whenever we use the term NT we run the risk of actually coming out false (in a possible scenario that the person we're calling an NT actually is not Neurotypical). In fact, sometimes I imagine a Schitzophrenic could accidentally be called an NT, due to a lack of better wording. For the general use of NT, this is wrong, but for the specific use and meaning of the word, it is true. In fact, if you want to get really fancy and arguable, you'd say that no-one in the world is NT, because we all have some sort of problems we have deal with within ourselves, but I'll leave that to another thread to sort out. It's a confusing and debatable topic.

All in all, the short of it is this:
In the general use of the word, NT means anyone not on the spectrum.
In the specific use of the word, NT means anyone who is not, as the word suggests, Neurotypical.
For the totalist use of the word, the term NT it shouldn't even exist at all.

On WP, I can pick out that we use NT in it's general meaning, but we sometimes use it in the specific meaning too, but rarely in the totalist use of it.

I'll have to ask my mother about me.

I have a vague recollection of being told I was delivered with forecepts. My younger son was and he has AS traits.

Bazza,

Moms don't always remember the details of their child's birth especially if they were given a spinal block, medications or were in a lot of pain. My mom doesn't remember the forceps delivery. However I obtained my birth records (that in itself took some diligence) and discovered I had been injured by forceps. My mom was in labor 31 hours with me so no doubt I was deprived of oxygen at some point. I don't think anyone can know just what kind of damage a strong forcep clamp can do to the brain but it injured me enough my right eye was swollen shut for several days according to the records plus had abrasions all over the head.