Neurodiversity Beyond Autism and ADHD — Part 3: Curiosities

We don’t know what causes the DSM-5 diagnoses. No biological markers have been identified. No specific trauma history has been identified. For most diagnoses there appear to be biological and environmental influences. Diagnoses are clusters of symptoms that tend to show up together.

The Autism disability justice movement suggests that the Autistic experience expands beyond the “disorder” defined in the DSM, to include folks with the Autistic neurotype who have experienced less trauma (although most Autistics have experienced some trauma by just being Autistic in an Neurotypical world) and therefore may not meet all of the DSM-5 criteria. Autistic activists suggest that some of the Autistic “criteria” in the DSM-5 are actually trauma responses rather than features of the neurotype. I have also heard some folks in the Autistic community express that they believe Autism is an umbrella term that encompasses a number of different neurotypes.

These ideas have me wondering, might there be a neurotype or neurotypes behind disorders like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia that, when individuals experienced minimal trauma, they function in society with “traits” of these diagnoses. According to the Black Dog Institute, “genetic factors accounting for approximately 80% of the cause of” bipolar disorder. I’m curious about bipolar traits.

I’m also curious about the overlap of DSM-5 disorders. If a parent has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, for example, then the likelihood of their child having that disorder increases, as well as their likelihood of developing other disorders like ADHD and schizophrenia. Does this suggest some kind of genetically linked shared neurotype that gets expressed differently? There are so many variables that it’s difficult to make any claims based on our current database. The following blog posts will include interviews with folks who have been diagnosed with DSM-5 diagnoses to investigate these questions from the community base.