Transcript
A (0:00)
Hey, everyone. You are listening to the Divergent Conversations podcast. We are two neurodivergent mental health professionals in a neurotypical world. I'm Patrick cassell.
B (0:08)
And I'm Dr. Neff.
A (0:10)
And during these episodes, we do talk about sensitive subjects, mental health. And there are some conversations that can certainly feel a bit overwhelming. So we do just want to use that disclosure and disclaimer before jumping in. Thanks for listening. Okay, so.
B (0:33)
Okay.
A (0:35)
We just finished recording our Giftedness series, and I know we both have a lot of thoughts and feelings and, aha. Moments that have come up along the way.
B (0:46)
Yeah. Yeah. What is this series been like for you?
A (0:52)
I think I. You know, it's interesting. We were just talking with Danica. Is her last name Maddox? I want to make sure I got it right. Yeah, Anakin Maddox. And I was just sitting there thinking about, like, okay, I have definitely experienced, weirdly, in my opinion, like, more shame and stigma using the gifted label or association for myself than I have for the autistic ADHD labels or designations like.
B (1:22)
Stigma from yourself or stigma from other.
A (1:24)
People for myself, for sure. And then what went through my mind so often throughout those episodes is like, damn. For most people listening, how in the hell do they really figure out how to differentiate between, like, the autistic experience and a lot of the gifted experience? Because a lot of the subjective stuff that we talked about and a lot of this stuff that we talked about would make such a good Venn diagram for you.
B (1:52)
Well, Katie's already done that, thankfully, so I don't have to touch that. But no, but, yeah, there are definitely times where even. Or I even I would kind of step in and be like, well, actually, I think what you're describing is adhd, because I also do that, and I think it does get so messy. And I think that's part of, like, folks who are critical of the gifted conversation and the ableism in it. Like, that is the critique is that these other traits, like autistic ADHD traits, get overshadowed when someone's like, oh, that's gifted. And maybe that kind of gets to the conversation in the ND space in general of, like, oh, that's an autism thing. Or, oh, that's like. There's a lot of monopolizing of traits that happens. Like, oh, that's a gifted trade. It's like, well, maybe we can lean in with curiosity. Okay, that's an experience a human's having. There might be a lot of factors for that, but there is this urge to, like, label it. That's a gifted trait. That's an ADHD trait. That's an autistic trait. That's a R. That's rsd. Like this obsession with naming. Not that naming and labeling. Like, I think that's very powerful, but it can be kind of reductionistic, I think, if we're not careful.
