I’ve stopped using the word “mentally ill” or “needs help” as an insult, perhaps for months.

Because really, if you’re “mentally ill” or you “need help”, is that really an insult or is it an acknowledgement of your condition?

If you have gender dysphoria, autism, Tourette’s, or extreme stuttering, those aren’t things which can be “fixed”. Their most debilitating aspects can be moderated and accommodated in order to allow optimal function within larger society.

The neurodiversity movement hit upon language which claims these conditions away from being “diseases”, “illnesses” and “disorders” toward “states of being” within a spectrum of “neurological pluralism”.

But accommodation within the larger society for those states of neurological being is still few and far between, because it challenges what we have been taught about how the brain intersects with our senses, speech patterns, knowledge, education, sex, gender and health. And a lot of people would rather see the “degenerates” removed from sight and mind rather than become “woke” to neurological diversity.

They’re states of neurological diversity, and they need to be accommodated with respect and inclusion.