I’ve been asking around a bit.

“Do you know that I’m neurodivergent?”

And friends would respond with:

“Yeah, I’ve always known that. It’s your superpower.”

Oh?

Because I hadn’t even considered it until a few weeks ago. So, apparently, I’m only now growing wise to something friends have known for years (admit it – for some of you, it’s been decades).

So, why did I even entertain the thought that I might be neurospicy, and why seek to confirm it in the first place?

Well, one way or another, the term kept showing up in my feeds. And I certainly don’t pay attention to everything I come across, given that the algorithms love to feed your bias. Sometimes they even suggest content you’ve already watched.

But messages kept coming from different directions, and they kept landing. Not like one or two. Dozens. It felt like someone was reading my mail.

Of course, again, you’ve got to be careful with this sort of thing, because we all want to feel special (maybe not special in this particular way), and sometimes just being told we’re special makes us think, “Oh yeah, that’s me. I’m amazing. I should listen to the rest of what this talking head has to say.”

Yes, you are amazing, and you probably needed to hear that today.

But we should still be wary of clickbait, rosy reads, and, for those who don’t spend their days getting paid to evaluate it (something I’ve been doing for nearly two years), AI content.

And by that I mean I can still tell when it’s AI-generated and when it isn’t, though that may not always be the case.

Speaking of work, I tested the waters there, too. And the response I got was “Yeah, I would say you’re on the spectrum.” Oddly enough, I am surrounded by neurodivergent coworkers, who are likely to recognize the signs.

Now, it’s one thing to be told, but this all became a lot clearer in reflection. Yes, I exhibited some otherwise ordinary childhood oddities, but I was always a little different in more overt ways, too, and hindsight has made it clear why it seems like I’m incapable of living a “normal” life.

Well, then.

I guess this isn’t like finding out I was adopted (I wasn’t, best to my knowledge), and…

I think neurodivergence may have served me in a lot of ways, too.

Knowing that I am also makes it possible for me to notice where it’s held me back in the past, and choose differently moving forward.

Are you neurospicy? Do you know someone who is? Have any shocking truths been revealed to you about yourself?