Our minds work in different ways.
Despite all the research into our brains, a lot has yet to be discovered. But in recent years, many people have championed a way to describe some of what we do know.
And that way is through the term "neurodivergent," which took off on Google trends amid widespread coronavirus lockdowns in June 2020. Since the pandemic, "neurodivergent" has made waves online, in the media and in academic studies to help talk about neurological differences more inclusively.
The term really got its start back in the late 1990s, and was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2002. In 2019, the Oxford English Dictionary added it as well..
So for the latest "Word of the Week," we're talking about being "neurodivergent."
What does neurodivergent mean?
Neurodivergent is an umbrella term that describes people whose way of processing information is different from what society considers normal, according to Nick Walker, a psychology professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
"Brains differ from each other in the way fingerprints do. 'Neurodivergence' establishes this idea that within the spectrum of neurodiversity, there are dominant norms and divergences from those dominant norms," he said.
There is a widespread belief that "neurodivergent" is a medical term, limited to diagnoses such as autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
"It super is not," said neurodivergence activist Kassiane Asasumasu, who is credited with coming up with the word.
And there are different ways people become neurodivergent, said Walker. Some are born that way. Others develop neurodivergences because of things like traumatic head injuries or long COVID. And intentional neurodivergence can happen, for example, in people who meditate frequently or use psychedelics, Walker said.
Where the word comes from
In the late '90s, Asasumasu was a high school student, active on online forums for people with autism.
"Neurodiversity" had been coined a few years earlier by autistic civil rights activists. People often confuse neurodivergence and neurodiversity, but there is an important difference, Walker said.
"The spectrum of human neurodiversity includes everybody ever, including people who are within the dominant norms," he said. "With neurodivergence, you diverge from something. You differ in some way from some socially constructed norm."
But "neurodiversity" began being used as a synonym for autism, and everyone else was deemed neurotypical. Asasumasu said while "neurodiversity" was progressive, it wasn't enough.
"You've got typical, and what's the opposite of typical?" she said.
She began using neurodivergent first online, where she had the term in her AOL signature, and it became especially popular within online communities for autistic people. Then it spread to her school, where her peers were using it in face-to-face conversations.
Asasumasu, now a board member for the nonprofit Foundations for Divergent Minds, said she felt the need for a more general term. For one, some people have multiple neurodivergences. The term "neurodivergence" offers people who have them a way to express their differences without revealing their medical history or other private details, she said.
It's also a way for people with neurodivergences to band together and leverage social and political power.
"It's just good to have solidarity across disability," Asasumasu said.
How it became popular
"Neurodivergent" gained widespread traction within the neurodivergent community in the 2010s, said Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, a researcher on neurodivergence and founder of the nonprofit Advocacy Without Borders.
Walker remembers being taken aback when around 2010 or 2011, a student of his said they were neurodivergent while introducing themselves to the class.
"That was the moment where I was like, 'Oh, this is taking off somehow,'" he said.
Then in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic helped thrust the term into news articles and casual conversation. Isolation and the onset of remote work led to public discussions about accessibility accommodations and mental health, Onaiwu said.
"These were a lot of the accommodations that [neurodivergent people] had been begging for, and advocating for, that we were always told were not possible," she said. "But when the rest of the world needed it, it was something that was possible."
However, Asasumasu said the word has started to become less inclusive as it becomes more popular. Like "neurodiversity" in the '90s, people tend to now use "neurodivergent" as a synonym for autism, leaving out divergences like depression, Alzheimer's, bipolar disorder, and more.
"It is a very, very large tent," she said. "However big you think it is, it is bigger than that."
In other ways, "neurodivergent" continues to expand. "Neurospicy" has emerged as a synonym, which Onaiwu said she first saw being used by people of color drawing inspiration from their various cultural cuisines.
"Neurodivergent" is also becoming popular in other English-speaking countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, Walker said.
Onaiwu said her academic works have been translated into other languages, but notes that what is considered neurodivergent in some places may not be the same in others.
For example, avoiding eye contact can be common in some places, and therefore might not be seen as a sign of neurodivergence as it could in the U.S. Some cultures may be more accepting and don't feel the need to label neurodivergences, while they may be heavily stigmatized in others.
As people continue to learn about the experiences of those with neurodivergences, Onaiwu encourages them to stay grounded in shared humanity.
"They matter just by virtue of being human," she said.
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