What makes NT's so "normal"?

Post Reply New Topic

I realize that I have alot to be thankful for - whatever my issue is (I've yet to be diagnosed with anything), I'm relatively functional, with a career, large family and loving wife. And a senior psychologist I spoke with today told me that in many ways, I'm more "normal" than most people. He wasn't saying I didn't have issues to be concerned with, but that my reasoning is sound and I value things that alot of NT's probably overlook but shouldn't. But what is an NT?

There well are over 300 neurological and psychological disorders. There's enough to go around. Who's gonna tell me that of all the population in this world, each individual doesn't suffer from at least one of those? Everyone has quirks. I think the concept of a "normal" mind is an illusion. I feel "normal". Its when I compare myself to the majority that I feel alien.

Is this a stupid question? I ask those alot...

There is no such thing as normal really if you look at it a different way. Everyone is different, everyone has problems, everyone's minds work different, everyone is good at different things.


An NT is someone who doesn't have any neurological conditions.
I heard people with mental illnesses aren't considered NT either.
So in that case my Dad isn't an NT either since he has ADHD.

Are people with color blindesses considered NT or not? I'm not sure.

Are people with depression considered NT? I'm not sure but I do know people with Bipolar, and manic depressive aren't considered NTs.
Is my mother an NT? Maybe, she doesn't have any conditions in her brain.

Normal is how one defines it...

I prefer the word typical over normal. What is 'normal' anyway? As far as I'm concerned you can't say any one person is more normal than another.

The professionals seem to be stringently avoiding the very notion that anyone is normal, in that there could even be some kind of black-and-white standard for normalcy. Thus the term NT, which only says that a majority have an across the board similarity in functioning.

a slight deviation from the neurotypical doesn't make you abnormal, just a shade to the left or right of the average. It may make a lot of difference internally, as to how you perceive or react to common social situations, but in all other respects you still adhere to the 'norm'

We appear as the NTs and they assume we are like them. Only we know that we were born onto the wrong planet. Are we the pods from Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Snoogans.

I don't think it's as how much they are normal but how weird we are. We just tend to "stand out" in a bad way that's considered weird by other people. Like being quiet or walking funny, not making eye contact.

I think 'normal' is really just a cudgel that people wield at those who either don't conform, can't, or in general are outside the norms that in some way offends them. Notice that people very rarely say a damn thing when a person's far and above average in things that are really prized in this society - athleticism, strength, social skills, financial savvy - something more around other angles (especially an angle that's farther outside the core mating game of life) is where you start running into headaches. That and people wield it at each other in general just to keep the next person in line and following the group, mass coercion still goes a long way.

'Normal' is used in a statistical sense - normal is not a point it is a range. If you like,consider the average (mean) of the trait that you are measuring, typically 'normal' is a range that falls around the average point.

Take height of 1000 people, the average may be 5'8", there of course will be a range it could be from 3' to 7', variation can be measured by a range of statistics, but for the example we with use standard deviation and say that the standard deviation is 6", hence given that the sample is roughly normally distributed, 95 % of the values are within two standard deviations, hence 95% of the heights are likely to be within 12" of the average height. Clearly in this sample those people that measured 3' and 7' foot are not 'normal' relative to the measure population trait.

Normal is not a measurement of value, it is merely a statement about variation around population mean of a measured trait – hence Aspies at <1% of the population are probably outside the normal distribution range for a measured population.

he's a psychologist. Psychology isn't a real science, and in psychology they do have a definition for normal. It is "what society deems to be appropriate behavior" i.e "the social norm". Mental illness is considered "deviation from the social norm".

A Neurotypical is not defined as "normal", but they are as they sound. A person with a standard neurological structure, a structure which is shared by the majority of the human race.

A neurotypical would psychologically speaking be called "normal". We are psychologically speaking referred to as "people who deviate from the social norm", or abnormal.

Considering the social norm is to frequently display your lack of knowledge to amuse one another, make frequent emotional outbursts to indicate your uniqueness, and battle everyone you meet for superiority whilst smiling and calling them your friend, take great solace in this fact.

Yes, I have been told this garbage about how everyone is different in their own way and there is no such thing as "normal".

But as I asked a psychologist once, how is it that you with all your education are unable to determine what is normal when any child in a playground has no difficulty whatsoever in picking out the ones who are not normal? Children are just more blunt about it, they haven't learned to cover up and be diplomatic.

There is normal and there is not normal, and while they may not be able to describe it, they know not normal when they see it.

NT is considered "normal" because it is the majority.

Anything that is the majority for an extended period of time becomes the norm.

It's just the way society works.

I agree with brittany. There are more of them, that doesn't automatically mean that they are better in every way . In one playground white kids would be the norm and a coloured kid bullied - in another playground the reverse may happen.

I assume majority creates the 'norm'.

nt just means typical. AS is a rare variation.