Further to my last post, I spent a lot of my day yesterday catching up with the activities of Guy Martin. I started thinking how nice it would be if there was some kind of meet and greet event, or facility for my son to, like, ask him a question or something. Or maybe some of his TV work would be engaging viewing for him. Because although the idea of my son one day careening around the Isle of Man on a superbike is not a comfortable one, Guy Martin is still a fucking beautiful example of a human being, demonstrating multiple values I wish to instill in my offspring.
And then I thought who are you fucking kidding, Yve? You’re not researching Guy Martin for your son’s benefit here, you’re just having a nice bloody time.
And THEN, fucking chest-deep in Guy Martin content, I thought holy fucking shit, Guy Martin is obviously neurodivergent*. Like it’s glaringly obvious that he’s neurodivergent*; how slow on the uptake can you be, super-fan-girl? And then I actually googled it and, sure enough, he’s diagnosed with autism, and he doesn’t give a single shit about it.
I actually highly suspect that almost all (if not all) of my long term favourites are neurodivergent*. Specifically neurodivergent* people who have learned to embrace, celebrate and nourish their neurodivergency. Most of my hyperfixations sprang forth years before I understood what ‘neurodivergent’* was, or realised holy fucking shit, Yve, you obviously have ADHD. Like it’s glaringly obvious that you have ADHD, how slow on the uptake can you be, person-who-lives-in-your-brain? …and I like to think my brain was guiding me toward the revelation.
I’m not actually diagnosed with ADHD. I was denied a diagnosis, it seems, on the basis that I did exceptionally well at school up to the age of 16. I didn’t actually get to speak to the psychiatrist responsible for the decision, but the message relayed to me was ‘if you had ADHD, there’s no way you’d be able to do what you did’. This made me very angry, and I drafted a lovely letter about it. I have an IQ of between 137 and 161 depending on which test you ask; school was easy, what I couldn’t do was brush my teeth. I may or may not send it at some point.
*Note: I struggled to find a link that adequately summed up neurodivergence in a way that reflects my understanding without including some aspects that I just don’t vibe with, but suffice it to say; a neurodivergent person, to me, is an individual whose brain is fundamentally, structurally and functionally different from the majority of human brains, leading to unusual strengths and weaknesses that don’t fit into society’s concept of acceptability. This is usually due to neurodevelopmental differences such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia (not an exhaustive list). I could ramble my psychology-enthused head off about the many complexities and implications of the term, but I’ll save that for another day, maybe.