Is ADD Neurotypical

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Hi, I have ADD, and I consider myself to be on the Aspie end of being Neurotypical, and are people with ADD considered Neurotypical or not. (Sorry for sounding harsh, I don't know the word used to describe people who aren't Neurotypical.)

Nope, you're not neurotypical! ADHD is one of many reasons you mightn't be.

Neurotypical is the group of people without any kind of atypical neurology--that is, people who don't have things like dyslexia, autism, ADHD, epilepsy, synesthesia, giftedness, savant syndrome, dementia, traumatic brain injury... People in the middle of the neurological bell curve.

Neurotypicals are the largest neurological subgroup, but they may well number less than 50%, because humanity is a neurologically diverse species.

The word for non-neurotypical is "neurodiverse". I've also heard "neurodivergent" and "neuroatypical".

I only know 2 NTs who claimed to have ADD. One I know as a best friend in church says he has a slight form of it, after I told him about my Autism. Another one was probably using it as a excuse after the teacher kept kicking him out of the class for talking.

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No, the 4 ADHDs (2010) are not neurotypical.

The 4 ADHDs are like the many, many epilepsies (petit mal/absence/complex partial, TLE, etc.).

Some persons with epilepsy or ADHD benefit (not a cure) from the right medicine for epilepsy or ADHD. Books like Nerves In Collision by Walter C. Alvarez, M.D., A Remarkable Medicine by Jack Dreyfus, and a How To (understand) ADHD Inattentive book by C. Thomas Wild go into the neurology of some cognition challenges.

The 4 ADHDs would not be viewed as a disorder if the 4 ADHDs were neurotypical.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodmi ... ntion.html
http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-5/auditory.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/

ADHD

The usual course of treatment may include medications such as methylphenidate (Ritalin) or dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), which are stimulants that decrease impulsivity and hyperactivity and increase attention.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/adhd/adhd.htm

http://www.rsna.org/rsna/media/pr2005/Coffee.cfm (Short-term memory)(not a cure)
http://coffeescience.org/alert (Mental alertness)(not a cure)

http://www.sportsconcussions.org/

http://www.waiting.com/glossarya.html (Paying Attention)
http://www.waiting.com/glossarym.html (Memory)

http://www.biausa.org/

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ADHD vs Absence

http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/seizures/absence.html
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/adhd/adhd.htm

Neither the 4 ADHDs nor the many, many epilepsies are neurotypical.

I consider anything non-autistic to be neurotypical (possibly with exceptions of serious cases, like Schizophrenia or mental retardation). So yes.

Considering that someone who has a learning disability or a developmental disability had being neurotypical is wrong in my opinion.

Neurotypical means that your brain works "normally", people who suffer from dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, NLVD, ADD/ADHD are not Neutrotypical, especially since these disorders are something you are generally born with just as Autism.

I would not consider giftedness as neurotypical either, most "gifted NTs" have problems because of the way their brain works.

People who suffer from the inherited form of depression are atypical as well.

There is a difference between being Autist and being Atypical.

I do not know what to do about acquired disorders/disabilities, though.

I thought it was either "Autistic" or "Neurotypical".


I think it's how much ADD/ADHD actually affects you. (For one thing, it can be treated like Depression and other treatable disorders are.)

There was the fad diagnosis phase with ADD/ADHD where doctors thought that every kid had ADD/ADHD. One of my friends was diagnosed with ADHD, but he's as neurotypical as can be. He has no problems relating to others, and he seems more like everyone else.

I guess it's down to semantics and definitions though. I can't be sure of it.

If you have any neurological condition, you are not neurotypical.

Wow. Was I ever wrong in my assumptions about this. Amazing isn't it? How easily we can develop a sense of what a word means without any knowledge at all of how the word came into being.

After Googling this, and looking at about ten different sites, including two different online dictionaries, with two distinctly different definitions, I don't think I want to use the term anymore, because you never know how others are going to interpret it.

Here's the two most common meanings.

1) (and apparently the original ~ began around ten (?) years ago): Anyone who is NOT on the Autistic spectrum.

2) Anyone who does not possess atypical neurological brain function.

http://autism.about.com/od/autismterms/ ... ypical.htm

http://www.suite101.com/blog/traceythom ... urotypical

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&clie ... d=0CBIQkAE

(That link above might not work in non firefox browsers ~ not sure)

Want a real chuckle? Take a look at this one:

Main Entry: neurotypical
Part of Speech: n
Definition: pertaining to autistic persons whose neurological development and function is within the normal range; also called neurologically typical

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/neurotypical

Whaaaaatt?


Looks to me like the term is so new, the definition you choose is up for grabs. The dictionaries can't even agree on it for crying out loud.

To me though, the most logical definition should be anyone who is devoid of any neurological problems. Since there doesn't seem to be any clear cut consensus though, it seems to me the term is too confusing to even bother using at all until you know you and the person you use it with agree on what it means. Otherwise, discussion involving the word isn't very effective.

It means that you're not an NT.

'Neurotypical' just means that someone has no ASD.
ADHD ≠ ASD

NT is someone without a mental disorder.
ADHD is non-NT.

I have Inattentive ADHD and I am almost disabled by my hypoactivity. I need my meds to get basic things done and I don't consider myself NT or even human at times. And I have AS on top of that.

This does seem to be the most frequent and original meaning, but it has come to be used by many to simply mean anyone without a disorder. Interestingly, according to most sites telling of the history behind it, it came to be used first among people on the spectrum to refer to those not on the spectrum. Nothing more.

Looks like this word is still morphing. Even some dictionaries don't agree on this.

I know someone who is dyslexic and was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid(and he definitely seems like he has ADHD because he's hyperactive and always looking for something else to do. except i can't see where it causes him any functional issues. they mostly seem to make him more sociable and interesting to others), and i consider him super-neurotypical.... He has extremely good social skills(even better than average) and well-rounded interests.. His thinking is very.. uhh.. abstract or something.. Not very logical or concrete. He's like the opposite of an autistic person. It doesn't seem like his dyslexia or ADHD cause him any issues functioning at all, except possibly in some school situations. Because of his dyslexia and adhd he's not neurologically "typical" when you look at everything, but then if you look at it that way then NOBODY IS, because even people without some sort of disorder have things about them that are atypical. My mom stims(and i don't mean nail biting or something normal, i mean obvious rocking back and forth), but she has no disorder. I consider her NT, but she has more autistic traits than most people i've come across with just ADHD. And then my dad was never diagnosed with anything, but he probably has some type of ADHD along with some autistic traits like being obsessive and going into monologues. I consider him basically NT, but he's probably one of those people in the grey area, on the more autistic side of "normal." My sister has no disorder and no autistic traits that i can tell except for being slightly introverted. She's an NT, but she's still unusual in many ways. None of them are neurologically "typical" in a broad sense, but they are neurologically typical when you compare the way they are to the things about me that put me on the autistic spectrum(maybe less typical than most when it comes to my dad).

As i understand it, the word "neurotypical" in the way we use it is more related to autistic thinking vs. what is relatively "normal"(any other way makes the term as we use it essentially meaningless, because everyone is different in their own ways). And the majority of people with just ADHD don't have much that resembles core autistic traits. Some ADHDers do have a lot of autistic traits, and i see how that could probably be seen as sort of borderline autistic spectrum... But for the majority who have active social lives and well-rounded interests, they seem to fit the "NT" label to me. They just overlap when it comes to executive functioning and attention regulation issues.

The main problem with this definition is that people with other disorders do not always feel normal either. There are some who do not think it influence their lives, some who do not feel any different especially once they have learned to live with their disorder but there is a different in the way they think.

It is true that we can either say that we are autistic or NT on this forum (on our profiles), but I feel that there should be a "other disorder" category since the community is very neurodiverse (and I think it is the best community I've seen because most communities reject people who are different, undiagnosed and there is generally a competition between the members to know who is the most autistic member of the forum...).

Right now, I only fit the "other disorder" category, I have been diagnosed with dyspraxia and as you know, it is not Autism. However, I do feel different, my brain does not work like the brain of other people I know apparently, teachers has always suspected there was something wrong with me, I have always been considered "odd" even by my best friend who is both bipolar and gifted.

I spent years and years trying to find what was wrong with me, I thought : dyslexia (and that's how I discovered Asperger Syndrome, ADD/ADHD, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia and now NLVD), mental retardation ?
I only have one answer for now and it is not Autism.

It may depend on the person, and I know I do display Autistic characteristics. I know that many dyslexic, dyscalculic or dyspraxic people have no difficulties with their social life, though some have. It's the same with gifted people, some are totally normal apart from their IQ results. Yet, they do have something different, it may not be a problem with their social life, but they do have a difficulty other people don't have. Most of them have to find another way to learn something because their brain does not work like it "should".
My maternal grandmother is dyslexic, she reads very well and have no problem with spelling but that is only because she had to teach herself how to do that, she worked hard on it and she felt different though she did not have social difficulties. It is juts another kind of difficulty.

I have been reading one of Daniel Tammet's books, he seems to have taught himself how to have a social life and succeeded, it does not mean he is neurotypical. There are many people who try hard to overcome their difficulties, they may even seem neurotypical later, some will "fail", it may take a long time, your brain will never work neurotypically, but you can try and work on it (but not change your personnality of course).

I agree with ColdBlooded, there are probably no NTs, especially if you take into account psychological disorders, almost every human behaviour is a disorder nowadays, some people have decided that there was a norm but nobody truly fit it.
I do not know how to call people who have acquired a disorder later in their life, perhaps "Acquired Atypicallity" (I am pretty sure this is a neologism ) ?
However, I truly believe that people who are born with nay kind of disorder other than Autism do not think "typically", it may seem harder to see because their problem is not really a social problem but they think differently.
For example, many dyslexics think in pictures, they feel different (my cousin who is dyslexic and ADHD, no matter how much I dislike her, does not feel like she fits in though she had many friends, lovers and no social difficulties, people just do not understand how she thinks when it comes to some areas) and they obviously need to learn things differently.

Something everyone who is born with a disorder have in common is that feeling that you are either ret*d or very intelligent because you do not understand others and they do not understand you (though I think that most people only believe they are understood and understand others). It is easier for me to relate with people who are different, I only befriend people who have a disorder (or those who are very intelligent but socially inadapted like one of my best friend who fits some AS characteristics but not all of them). It seems normal since we can understand better people who live what we are living (though I admit I do not understand all of them and some does not seem to be socially inept to me since they do better than I do. XD)

I can teach better to someone who has dyslexia than to someone who has no disorder for example, just because the way their mind work is different (thus I can try to use various non conventional methods I am familiar with because I did use them), but it also depend on the person you have in front of you (I cannot teach anything to my cousin because she does not want to improve and lacks logical skills sometimes), AS are not all the same, neither are dyslexics.

You have to remember that if these learning disorders exist and are being diagnosed, that is because children and adults who have them do not think "normally", nor "relatively normally", their brain works differently. Thinking abnormally does not only mean "having no social skills."

ADD, assuming its correctly diagnosed and not confused with a mimicking condition is definitely neurdiverse.
I have it and I can testify that the way my brain works is wildly different from that of everyone else in my environment in a fundamental way. I simply approach just about everything in a different way.
It is more than just a neurological disorder. It is a genetically caused difference that pervades every part of my functioning, every day.