It’s always such a crazy and frustrating moment when you finish reading some scientific literature on interesting psychological findings, e. g. the prevalence of rejection sensitivity in folks with ASD/ADHD comorbidity in relation to masking, and then remember that all of this is solely contained in some niche scientist subculture and will not hit actual doctors or therapists for decades.
You’re reading about, say, the comorbidity rates of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, irritable gut syndrome and gender dysphoria, and research into whether gut flora might influence neurodivergency …
… and then you go to a psychiatrist or a therapist and have to explain to a very smug middle-aged rich medical professional that autism actually exists in adults of all types and not just non-verbal teenage boys, that gender dysphoria is more than just being upset at your genitals in a binary way, and that some people with ADHD don’t actually fidget and run around all the time.
No medical professional I’ve seen had ever heard of something as basic as masking, and they all told me very condescendingly that something like masking can’t exist because “you can’t just turn off your own condition”.
“Neurodivergency” as a word prompts them to roll their eyes because they recognise it as a word used by “annoying woke people”. They do not even know the difference between anxiety and nervousness and fear. They don’t grasp the idea of believing two contradictory things at the same time while being aware of it. I’ve talked to doctors whose definition of autism consisted solely of “special interest, no social skills and general timidity” and who balked at the idea of simple concepts like sensory overload, rejection sensitivity or motor issues, all things they supposedly “never heard of” and “that don’t have anything to do with autism”.
It seems like their expertise is solely focused on low-hanging fruit like burnout at work or mild seasonal depression.
The contrast between what humanity technically knows and what the medical system knows in practice is so massive.
