Over the last few years, I’ve seen a lot of terminology changes and inventions within the neurodivergent community. While I appreciate that labels to a certain extent can help others understand I also get concerned that more and more terminology for the same thing just makes for a load of jargon that leads to confusion.
The latest buzz word I’ve seen on TikTok is ‘neurospicy’ and to be honest I’m really not sure I like it. It’s meaning seems to be the same as the term neurodivergent but take a more playful approach to the term. This has led to a lot of TikTok/ YouTube videos where people joke about aspects of their ‘neurospiceness’. While I know that they are trying to turn a negative into a positive, I just wonder whether it’s really giving the neurodivergent community the seriousness it deserves.
It’s almost laughable that I’d be the one advocating for ‘seriousness’ and I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be able to poke fun of ourselves, but when there is so much confusion already on what ADHD is and how it affects people, it doesn’t seem great to throw jokes into the mix and certainly not have them trending on a social media platform.
“Neurospicy to me sounds like some kind of food dish and in my opinion does nothing to inform people about what it’s like to have ADHD.”
adhd gIRL
Many people now relay on social media to facilitate the spread of information but misinformation tends to be on the raise, when posting videos containing the term neurospicy, it’s hard to know whether it’s a common experience, an individual experience or even a valid experience because unfortunately there are people out there claiming they on the neurodivergent train despite not having a ticket. I’m talking of course about the people who haven’t been diagnosed.
Far be it from me to stop people saying they think they have ADHD or any other kind of neurodivergent condition, but it’s one thing to use something as a way of validating your experience and to claim acceptance. However, it’s another thing entirely to promote something on social media as though you have it because this again leads to widely inaccurate information.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just becoming more cynical the older I get, and I should just accept people’s right to choose, but when there is so much to do in the battle for ADHD Awareness, I just get extremely passionate and don’t want there to be more confusion.
The next blog article will be out in two weeks, and I should really get a move on and decide what it’s about. Sometimes my ADHD brain plans ahead, sometimes it likes to wing it. What do you guys want me to talk about it my next blog article?
