{"id":428,"date":"2025-06-27T23:55:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T06:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/?p=428"},"modified":"2025-06-29T00:54:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T07:54:30","slug":"its-not-a-condition-its-a-predisposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/27\/its-not-a-condition-its-a-predisposition\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s not a condition \u2013 it’s a predisposition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Me: It’s not a condition \u2013 it’s a predisposition.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friend: What is?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My particular nervous system processes my experience through language. I have experiences, and some part of me chews and chews and chews and digests and then out comes a word (this didn\u2019t start as a scatological reference, but here we are).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the language around neurodiversity is pathologized.<\/strong> We \u201chave\u201d ADHD, like we \u201chave\u201d the flu. It\u2019s a condition, like rheumatoid arthritis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that differences in our sensory processing are just that: differences. Like moods. Or characteristics.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, being someone who cannot imagine visual imagery, and who has limited fine motor coordination, and who experiences frequent emotional dysregulation (has big feelings), and who is hyperaware of certain sensory environments and hypoaware of others (that all describes me), and in connecting with other people who have similar-but-different experiences, I\u2019m highly dissatisfied with a lot of the language that\u2019s out there to describe the traits of people like (yet unlike) me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s Pride month<\/strong>, and on this day, the Supreme Court of the United States voted to allow parents to disenroll their children from classes that include language around LGBTIA+ identity. This is, in effect, re-pathologizing a predisposition (a predisposition is a tendency, a particular personal expression style: so-and-so is predisposed to snarkiness; that dude is predisposed to making puns; this person is predisposed to process their grief through artmaking).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we don’t have safe language to describe people-as-they-are-predisposed-to-be, then people not only get left out, but they get isolated, shamed, and ‘othered.’ So my ever-chewing brain is always trying to poop out new words to celebrate difference \u2013 the collective variation that makes us such a successful species in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So no, I don’t have a condition, I have a predisposition.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember, it was only in 1973 that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,<\/strong> and only in 1987 that language around gender dysphoria was removed. So those are the dates that those predispositions were ‘officially depathologized.’ But those actions were not accompanied by a corresponding shift in the language around these predispositions, so they are still existing in the language as if they are ‘conditions,’ (subtly implying that they might eventually go away, like eczema). (Which also describes me, and which comes and goes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court’s action today is akin to the Catholic Church making heresy of the discussion about heliocentrism in the 17th century. And as someone speaking from the future, I’m telling them: you are idiots who condemn your own people to eternal suffering with your stupid-ass amplification of old-ass outdated viewpoints. F**k y’all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So yes, depathologize language around difference<\/strong>. Does that answer your question?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Me: It’s not a condition \u2013 it’s a predisposition. Friend: What is? My particular nervous system processes my experience through language. I have experiences, and some part of me chews and chews and chews and digests and then out comes a word (this didn\u2019t start as a scatological reference, but here we are). Much of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28,14,26,15,9,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicle","category-ethos","category-neurodiversity","category-personal-narrative","category-politics","category-reflection","category-zen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paor1p-6U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":458,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/21\/neurodiversity-journey-recognition\/","url_meta":{"origin":428,"position":0},"title":"neurodiversity journey: recognition","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that I am coming to understand my own neurodivergence, from the inside, (my punch card is getting full! It's pretty clear I have autistic traits, in addition to ADHD, aphantasia, and proprioception hyposensitivity. Hurray!), I understand some of my differences as gifts. My inner blindness reroutes my visual processing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3F080A78-FE43-42DF-9B29-38214F5F8927.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3F080A78-FE43-42DF-9B29-38214F5F8927.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3F080A78-FE43-42DF-9B29-38214F5F8927.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3F080A78-FE43-42DF-9B29-38214F5F8927.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3F080A78-FE43-42DF-9B29-38214F5F8927.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3F080A78-FE43-42DF-9B29-38214F5F8927.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":314,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/02\/the-language-of-inclusion\/","url_meta":{"origin":428,"position":1},"title":"The language of inclusion","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Neurodiversity, like gender diversity, sexual orientation diversity, racial diversity, is just language to describe the vast territory of human variation. Where once our language was simple, our categories few, and our understanding limited, we now are able to talk about our unique being in the world with recognition, empathy, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "neurodiversity"","block_context":{"text":"neurodiversity","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/neurodiversity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-3.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-3.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":632,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/10\/attentional-disengagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":428,"position":2},"title":"Attentional Disengagement","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"September 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Thesis: the attentional disengagement family of predispositions is a healthy and strategic set of adaptations within a species or community with strong tendencies to cooperate. In a species adapted to function through tight coordination, the coordinated activity can become prioritized, causing those engaged to lose sight of the emergent reason\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/03\/neurodiverse-teams\/","url_meta":{"origin":428,"position":3},"title":"Neurodiverse Teams","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"June 3, 2025","format":"aside","excerpt":"See folks, I'm not just making this stuff up. Neurodiverse teams are significantly better at solving complex problems than neurotypical ones. I'm convinced that we evolved together because we actually need each other. A co-emergent strategy that has, for better or worse, made us very prolific as a species. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "neurodiversity"","block_context":{"text":"neurodiversity","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/neurodiversity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":583,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/12\/the-care-economy-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":428,"position":4},"title":"the care economy","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"August 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"give The care economy is an emerging model for supporting people, things, and processes we\u2019d like to see more of in the world.\u00a0It is about recognizing the things in our experience that bring us joy, that give us a [wow] or a [yes], and responding to these moments in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "neurodiversity"","block_context":{"text":"neurodiversity","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/neurodiversity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":639,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/17\/neurodiverse-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":428,"position":5},"title":"neurodiverse community","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"September 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Affirming neurodiversity is recognizing that, in a musical space, one person is tuned into the soprano register, even though their voice presents in the bass register; another person hears long melodic phrases when everyone else is creating short rhythmic phrases; and someone else's brain is turning the patterns of sound\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}