I normally hate gatekeeping, but as a person with ADHD, I really dislike when people go into neurodivergent communities and claim that they fall under the umbrella because of things like depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, or personality disorders. Neurodivergence means you have a neurodevelopmental condition like ADHD, autism, or Tourettes. I don’t understand why this is so hard for people to understand.

I get that people with mental illnesses and personality disorders are also marginalized, but they are marginalized in different ways than people with neurodevelopmental conditions, who deal with some very unique and distinctive struggles that nobody else does in our society. Among these struggles include frequent invalidation, ableist tropes, and misconceptions from people who think things like ADHD and autism are psychological and can be treated with therapy or mindfulness techniques. People who are NOT neurodivergent going into these spaces and making things all about them is just another form of invalidation that truly neurodivergent people have to suffer with.