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if you’ve been quarantining since the beginning of covid and you don’t have a personal reason, you’re just doing it in the interest of public health and saving others’ lives - you’re probably neurodivergent
you might wonder how other people can be so uncaring, but other people’s brains are processing things differently. neurodivergent people must weigh other people’s feelings in our decisions, and those concerns stay at the same level of importance as long as they’re relevant
that’s not how neurotypical brains work. they automatically, instinctually weigh their feelings first and foremost. empathy for hypothetical large groups of people is an intellectual concept they might care about, but it can’t easily factor into their decision-making process
things they care about intellectually but are not natural parts of their emotional/instinctual decision-making process - like concern for public health - are hard to hold onto emotionally for long periods of time. thus quarantine “burnout”
their brain processes differently from yours. it has nothing to do with how good of a person they are, or how much they care about others. those concerns just can’t FEEL real enough to make decisions based off of for very long.
we can see this also happening with long-term consequences. a neurodivergent person might know the long-term consequences for certain things, and avoid those things and wonder how others can ignore them. but long-term consequences don’t feel real enough for neurotypical people
neurotypical people get the concept of long-term consequences just fine, but it’s an intellectual concept that doesn’t feel real enough to activate any emotions and thus play a major role in their natural decision-making process, which is focused on the present & immediate future
if you can’t imagine making a decision without considering the long-term consequences, you’re probably neurodivergent. our brains can’t help but do that, they have to. we have no choice but to consider the effects on ourselves and others & emotionally weigh them equally
instead of seeing yourself as a stick in the mud or seeing others as reckless and uncaring, i think it helps to know that other people are not making decisions the same way you are, and that it’s hardwired into their brains. they can’t change just like we can’t change.
if your brain can make decisions both ways - the rational process and the instinctual process - that’s neurodivergent, and there’s endless variety in how often and how easily you think either way. if you only do the rational process, that’s autistic.
there’s a lot of pain in the world caused by assuming other people’s brains work the way ours do, and having them assume that of us. but our brains don’t all work the same, and it’s not a question of moral value - and it’s definitely not a choice.
if you’ve wondered why people accuse you of merely staying home because you’re scared or playing it up for clout, that’s someone on a neurotypical process who can’t imagine your brain doesn’t work the same as theirs. just like you might have not imagined theirs is different
i thought this might be a good example to show people which kind of brain they have, because it can be hard for many to see their thought process objectively - but here we can see the results of the thought process and work backwards.
asking people to work against their brains will always end in failure. nobody can do it for very long. brains absolutely hate not being allowed to do what they were built to do. that’s why neurodivergent people often suffer & struggle in a world built for neurotypical people
but the world suffers when we rest our future on neurotypical people making decisions focused on benefiting big groups of people they don’t know or averting far-off consequences. the looming consequences of climate change feel real for ND people but not NT people.
i’d love to see a world where we embrace neural diversity and work WITH people’s brains, not against them. there is not one right type of brain to have but we need to be honest with ourselves and each other about what kind we have so we can stop setting ourselves up for failure
