If NT apparently means "non-autistic"...

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To me, NT means the people with the majority neurotype. Sounds too simple right?
That doesn't always mean not dysfunctional.


But then, I'm no neurologist.

Some children with ADHD do grow out of it as they get older. They may still have some symptoms of ADHD, but the symptoms lessen enough in severity to be subclinical. I don't know what makes the difference, why some grow out of it and others don't. It may be a combination of factors, some genetic and some environmental.

In some cases ADHD is caused by fetal trauma (such as the mother using drugs/alcohol/tobacco during pregnancy, or having health problems that affect fetal development) or brain infection during infancy (such as PANDAS). Those people would probably be less likely to grow out of it.

Other than that, it probably has a lot to do with comorbids. Most people who have ADHD, have at least one other disorder to go with it (some common ones are dyslexia, autism, bipolar, depression, epilepsy, OCD, and Tourette's). Maybe the developmental delay in ADHD increases the risk of having another disorder, or more likely it's the other way around, that a comorbid disorder is already latent and predisposes one to having the developmental delay seen in ADHD.

It's not unusual for people who are diagnosed with ADHD as a child, to have the symptoms of another disorder emerge as they get older...or vice versa. Hard to say which comes first, like the old question of the chicken or the egg, but comorbid disorders tend to exacerbate each other and increase the severity of symptoms overall.

In ADHD the brain basically follows a normal path of development, it just lags behind others in the same age group.
Autism is different because it's not a developmental delay, it's an abnormal pattern of development.

Children with ADHD typically have about a 3 year delay in brain maturity, which catches up around age 16-17. But even when the brain's development catches up physically, the child has already spent years struggling to do what is expected of their peer group. Then any comorbid disorders will just complicate things even more.

It's like starting a race where you run much slower than everyone else, eventually you might catch up to the same speed but you are still far behind the progress others have made. Most of us never fully catch up in adulthood, even if some of the symptoms lessen in severity.

So yes - moving goal posts is exactly right. Well said.

And oh, if NT means non-autistic AND non-dysfunctional... Would that mean that ALL the 'NTs' I've met, in my entire life no less, are not NTs at all, but are intellectually delayed bipolar hysterics in the eyes of another NT under a different kind of norm? I'm serious.

But then, I might have sidetracked the topic.

Technically yes. you would be considered NT or non-autistic but no one is TRULEY NT. And its not bad to be "NT", it just means you dont have autism, it means you DONT have a life long neurological developmental disability- though you may still have problems...

If anything its a good thing to be NT...

There is a more precise one that is Allistic which mean People without ASD, while outside the Autistic community it is used as someone without ADD/ADHD or a Similar disorder that isn't autism.

Well yes we could go on and on forever, but the line between NT and non-NT isn't just about whether one is able to read body language or not. It's whether someone has a diagnosable (neurological) disorder that's enough to interfere with the person's daily life and faces significant challenges due to certain cognitive impairments.
Getting bogged down with awkward personality traits an NT person may have, like having a hot temper or being forgetful or having addiction problems with drugs or alcohol will cause confusion and you WILL end up getting mixed up between personality traits and existing diagnosable conditions. So it's no good keep questioning every corner, like "what about an NT who has a breakdown because of a rough divorce?" because we'd just drift off on a tangent.

I've seen many complaints on this site about gender option in the profile section, because some people consider themselves as bigender or transgender, so just having the 2 options of male and female is too black and white.
So I feel the same way about this neurotype thing. I don't think the population is neurologically split into 2 precise groups.

Well, being so I am able to recognise any body language and automatically pick up subtle cues from instinct, technically that makes me in the NT group.

I will now consider myself NT from now on.

Allistic is the direct Antonym of Autistic, also Autism Allism. I perfer to us those terms. Neurodivergent/Neurodiverse and Neurotypical, work in a simalier way.

I'm pretty sure I have inattentive type ADD. Have always had it. For many times in my life I've been able to handle symptoms well. I'm very smart, very hard-working. However, when I get over stressed or ill, then I'm not able to handle my symptoms as well. I'm currently in one of those phases (ack). I would love to be able to take medication to help myself out. But it's so hard to get a diagnosis here in the UK. Unfortunately right now, it's REALLY affecting my life.

I don't think I'm neuro-typical in the broadest sense of the word. However, for the purposes of this forum and discussions about AS, I self-describe as NT, because that is the shorthand here. NT = not autitistic

Well I'm still going to consider myself NT from now on, whether I'm Aspie or not, because of my natural ability to read people so easily.

When I'm walking in a public place, I'm subconsciously picking up subtle body language from people all the time, even though I don't make direct eye contact with strangers as I pass them.
Also I can tell how people at work are feeling by recognising facial expressions, tone of voice and body language.

Just to point out: if you are aware of it, it is probably not subconscious.

Some people have General Anxiety (anxiety linked to everything), others have Social Anxiety (anxiety linked to social relationships),
you have been diagnosed both of them, i suspect you also have Autism anxiety (anxiety about people with autism)

but in the same time, you may also have Altzeimer, mental retardation and Fragile-X, and schizophrenia.

None of them exclude each other.

I envy the ability of NTs (especially manipulators) to contradict themselves blatantly and continuoulsy in one same paragraph or in a very short period of time. This is an incredible talent.
Manipulators also have talents

Oh, Jeez.

Well reading so much about body language here for the last 6 years has made me become more aware of how I instinctly perceive non-verbal language, but looking back to my teen/child years, I didn't have an issue reading other people.

And I don't think I have Altzheimer's or Fragile X.