You Have the Right to Follow your Exploration of Neurodivergent Identity
Jul 08, 2020You have the right to follow your exploration of neurodivergent identity, even if and when others don’t agree or understand. The approval, understanding and comfort of your friends and family, even professionals, will not ascertain whether you are autistic, adhd, pda, dyslexic, or any other type of being. It will, of course, and does make the journey home to our true selves lonelier, longer, sadder and often riddles us with self doubt.
When we walk alone.
But up until this point, many of us have been walking alone for a very long time. Any life altering experience is made easier and softer when we are supported with love, kindness and support. And these values; these attributes should not be conditional. We don’t have to understand a person to support them, to accept them, to love them,
to be present for them, to be a strength for them.
I’ve been asked a few times -
“How did your friends and family react when you told them you are autistic?”
And the answer is, it didn’t happen. I didn’t announce it, throw it out into the world, share it with pride or celebrate it. And I don’t know what my family think.
Do they love me?
Probably
Do they understand me?
No
Does it hinder my exploration of my truest self?
No
Along this pathway, loss is inevitable. Loss of people, places and things in order to create space for things that are far more aligned with our true selves. The life we drew to ourselves via the many masks we’ve worn will fall away because they were never meant for us. But there is an entire world, Communities of people. People, places and things, perfectly right for us.
Exploration of neurodivergent identity can be lonely but it is brave, courageous, responsible and it is truth. Those who decline the invitation to support us were perhaps not right for the mission anyway. Nevertheless you will meet yourself, you will find connection in beautiful spaces. You’ll find your supports and you’ll move forward, regardless of who joins you. You have the right to follow your path.
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