I have a hard time with this label. I just want to be honest.

Everywhere I want to say this, I get talked down to. But I really wanted to put this out there and see what others with similar brains think.

All my positive traits as a person feel overlooked by others and roped in with more negative ones to get me under the umbrella of neurodivergence. I've never experienced a single benefit to having an ADHD diagnosis (2007, so yeah, a while ago), and when my daughter was diagnosed with autism it appeared to be a superhighway straight to professionals throwing up their hands and saying "well, what can ya do?" The very normal things I wanted to work with her on suddenly became autistic traits she couldn't be helped with. Years later she got a dyslexia diagnosis, and since moving schools and with that (and not an autistic label), she's doing better than they ever told me she would.

When I and my parents were in the ADHD world mindset, I was sure I could only do ~creative~ subjects. (Which is so stupid, obviously you need creativity for most/ if not all STEM fields.) I completely ignored a huge part of my strengths, science, to pursue random opinions and subjective art. After decades of that, I'm burned out. I've circled back to realizing how much I am fueled by my analytical brain. And no one thought that was possible, because I was "artsy." (I wasn't actually, I was just really good at drawing and reading.)

So what I'm trying to say is, I find it really hard to latch onto any diagnosis. I totally understand you can take this all and say well yeah, you have both, you just switched them around... But seriously. Any time I've ever "used" my diagnosis for ADHD, or suspicion of autism to solve social interactions... it's never been positive.

I'm not trying to disrespect anyone out there who finds it helpful. I just want to know if you have ever felt this way, too.