Video #9 Disabilities Exist Along Continuums of Competence

I’m doing a series of videos to introduce my new book The Power of Neurodiversity: Unleashing the Advantages of Your Neurodivergent Brain (Completely Revised and Updated Second Edition). In this video (#9 in the series) I point out that most of us relate to different mental disorders or divergencies as isolated entities that are at a distance from us. Seeing them in this way allows us to push them away and say to ourselves ”at least I’m not that.” But scientists are increasingly becoming aware that these disorders, like autism, dyslexia, and schizophrenia, exist on spectra (hence the name, for example, ”autism spectrum disorder). I go a bit further and suggest that we’re all on spectra with each disorder, and provide examples of continuums from autism, dyslexia, schizophrenia, and broader personality traits like sociability, systemizing, and empathizing. Knowing that we all have a little autism in us, or that we’re all somewhere on the road to having the literacy skills of a Shakespeare (at least we’re on the same continuum as he is!), makes us realize that we’re all connected, and this should help to make it less likely that we’ll stigmatize people for their different disorders, since there’s probably be a seed (or more) of it in us as well.