‘It expresses itself very differently with me,’ a young woman who passes me says in a serious tone to her hiking partner. “I can be very easily distracted, but I also have a hyperfocus.”
The same week, different sidewalk: a little boy crosses by on his bicycle. He yells at a friend: “You can also be busy without having ADHD!”
It is no coincidence that I receive conversations about ADHD twice a week. Lately, a remarkable number of people have been telling me how happy they are with their ADHD or ADD diagnosis, which finally explains why they are so different: why they fail to be on time, find their things, their focus on conversations to keep, etc.
It is probably no coincidence that the piece about ‘neurodivergent people’ in the workplace, published last Friday in NRC, was invariably one of the best-read articles for the following days. It describes how companies nowadays recognize that people with brains that work differently, for example autists, dyslexics and ADHDers, can be of added value.
I thought it was an interesting article because it says so much about our time. First, how much people are looking for recognition of their particular constitution. Boxing and ‘tagging labels’ officially have a bad name, but in the meantime people are crazy about it: finding the right label can feel like coming home. It explains who you are – a bit like a horoscope does – and at the same time it offers an excuse for your shortcomings. “Sorry, ADHD,” a friend of mine says when she hasn’t texted back.
It has something navel-gazing, but I also find it a sympathetic development. Sticking labels leads to more acceptance, both from others and (if necessary) from yourself. For example, I am quite sensitive to stimuli – eager labellers would call it highly sensitive. The sound of a hand dryer can drive me insane, as can sweepers or food processors. I used to think that was stupid of myself: why couldn’t I just like normal people push my hands in such a dryer and stare relaxed in front of me? This had to mean that I was a poser. Now I think: I can’t do that, because I’m put together differently. It’s not a character weakness, just a trait, just like height and hair color.
That’s also what the article shows: we should not see something like autism or ADHD as a disability, but simply as a different wiring of the brain. A variant, not a derailment.
But, and this is the second sign of the times, at the same time more is happening: according to neurodiversity experts, neurodivergent people are not only different, no, they have something special to offer. This is how dyslexia expert Nel Hofmeester points out in the NRC-article on the fast and conceptual mindset of dyslexics. Send a few to Schiphol, she says, “that will solve the problem in no time”. According to Anna Sarbo of ADHD Netherlands, neurodivergent employees can provide innovation: “They get off the train and show that things can be done differently.” Annelies Spek of the Autism Expertise Center touts autists as “productive and conscientious”.
Deviant behavior is thus normalized, but in one movement also made extraordinary again. It is typical of today’s obsession with positivity: everything should have a bright side. Eke Krijnen recently described in an essay in NRC how people on LinkedIn present their failures as a cradle for later successes. They have to, because if failure is simply failure, ‘then you place yourself outside the society that is driven by effectiveness thinking’. The same thing happens with neurodiversity. Just like you can’t have a pointless burnout, you can’t just be autistic or dyslexic; the must produce something beautiful.
What a strain that puts on neurodivergent people: everyone waits for them to do their trick. But what if there is no trick? What if being different has no economic added value? Are companies still interested?
In a truly inclusive labor market, the more problematic autists, ADHDers and dyslexics also get a job. Fortunately, there are now so many vacancies that it will happen automatically. A tight labor market is the fastest way to inclusivity.
Floor Rusman ([email protected]) is editor of NRC
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 25, 2022