Neurodiversity art. Artwork by MissLunaRose12/Wikimedia Commons
Many neurodivergent people say just being themselves at work is an extremely hard and miserable task for everyone including themselves. Even though ASD and ADHD tendency differ in behaviour and thought structure, there is at least one thing common in the two big neurodivergent spectrum tendency – that the owners of the traits are often considered ‘weird’ or ’extraordinary’ (in both positive and negative meanings) from neurotypical people.
Recently, there was a big K-Drama series that attracted a lot of watchers globally, and it was called Extraordinary Attorney Woo, that featured a lawyer and autistic woman named Woo Young-woo. People started to say the character is adorable, but it was merely a consumption of an image portrayed by the character. In your empirical world that you live in and you feel pain (OH WAIT, AM I THE ONLY ONE FEELING PAIN?), it’s drastically different.
Although I know there are two layers of difficulties I experience while I try to live in a social situations: The layer of ADHD and the layer of trauma. The feeling of being framed and being excluded all the time is probably from the latter. But does the former make you less awkward in social situations? Not at all. In fact, it’s the other way around. It makes you more and more awkward in your workplace, your friendship, and your romantic relationship (if you are a romantic-oriented person). People will think you’re a weird person even more, and you will actually be excluded from the community, providing evidence to your traumatic delusion.
So, am I “Extraordinary engineer Jeong”? Perhaps I will find out, if I survive this world, I mean.