You were probably born in the 1970s, a teenager in the 80s, and probably partied hard in the 90s!
Well thats a rough timeline of what is referred to as Gen X.
Whilst personally i’m not a fan of these labels based on birth dates, i’ll use it in this post.
This post is about my personal thoughts on growing up in the uk neurodiverse, at a time when it ‘wasnt really a thing’.
What is Neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity: It’s Not a Deficit, It’s a Different Operating System
Let’s get one thing straight—human brains aren’t all running the same software.
Some are iOS, some are Android, some are open-source Linux with a bunch of brilliant but unconventional mods. That’s neurodiversity.
Coined in the late ‘90s by sociologist Judy Singer, the term challenges the idea that conditions like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and others are “disorders” in need of fixing. Instead, it frames them as natural variations in cognition—different ways of processing, learning, and engaging with the world.
Why This Matters
Society’s Default Settings Are Often Exclusionary – Schools, workplaces, and social norms are often predominantly built for one type of brain (usually the neurotypical one).
That’s like designing a smartphone that only works for right-handed people and calling left-handed users “defective.”
– Different ≠ Broken – Struggles exist, but they’re often from mismatched environments, not inherent flaws.
Give a dyslexic student audiobooks, an ADHD employee flexible deadlines, or an autistic person clear communication—suddenly, barriers can drop.
– Innovation Thrives on Cognitive Diversity – Some of history’s greatest leaps in science, art, and tech came from neurodivergent minds. Ever heard of Einstein, Turing, or Temple Grandin? Exactly.
The Bottom Line
Neurodiversity isn’t about pretending everyone’s brain works the same—it’s about stopping the assumption that they should. It’s recognising that a one-size-fits-all approach to thinking is, frankly, a bit rubbish.
So next time someone says, “Why can’t you just focus/organise/think normally?” —remember, their idea of “normal” is just one setting in a much wider spectrum.
Brains are diverse. Adapt the world, not the person.
Back to the 80’s
This post is about my personal experience, so lets go back in time, to the 1980s
Ah, the 1980s, a time when street car racing was done on the real roads, and not a video game.
A time when you would still regularly meet people who had fought in WW2, or even had tattoos on their arms, from being in a Nazi Concentration Camp!
A time when the modern Internet didn’t exist, and few used it.
As a teenager feelings were something that you kept to yourself, rather than talking about them openly.
Maybe this was a continuation of the traditional ‘British Stiff Upper Lip’, an attitude that encouraged the suppression of feelings and emotion.
But personally I remember thinking that my feelings were unimportant, as I had neither fought a war, or been in a concentration camp. Compared to those guys, what did I have to complain about.
But feelings do matter, and whilst I think the attitude of my generation, is to ‘ shut up, and crack on with it’, we need to remember its not still the 1980s.
Neurodiversity wasn’t really a thing at my school.
Certainly I can’t recall any mention of it.
I do know of someone who got diagnosed by his school as dyslexic, but that was a fee paying private school, and not the type of state school attended.
As teenagers we were aware that there was a ‘Special School’ about ten miles away, but didn’t know much about it.
It was called the ‘Rydd School’. The name of this school was used in the playground, as a term of abuse aimed at students that were less academically able. If you were called a ‘Rhydder’, it was an insult.
Personal abuse and name calling to your face was pretty normal in society back then. I suppose its the same now, but the name caller is hiding behind an anonymous social media profile.
So what am I getting at, why am I writing this post.
Well I am noticing an increased amount of people online, with late diagnosed adhd and autism. When I say late diagnosed, I am including elder Millennials in this, especially women.
People are still slipping through the net, and schools are not picking up on neurodiverse students, who are often masking their symptoms, to try and fit in.
This is particularly true of women with autism and adhd, who may present differently to men, and therefore be harder to obviously spot, as neurodiverse.
Being bought up with an expected mask of ignoring your true nature and needs, whilst cracking on with life, perhaps needs self examining?
Its ok to acknowledge now, that you are different.
You don’t need to buy a product from a company with a think different slogan, to express that you are different, whilst suppressing the fact that you are different from the neurotypical majority.
What do you think?