In this video, JoyGenea, International Neurodiversity Coach, shares an empowering message about taking control of how you define and talk about your neurodiversity. Whether you identify as neurodiverse, dyslexic, or have ADHD, the labels you use shape how others perceive you—and how you perceive yourself.
Learn how to reframe your language, explore new labels, and highlight your strengths. Remember, you get to choose how you present yourself to the world.
🌟 Key Takeaways:
• Why the labels you choose matter.
• How to shift from limiting labels to empowering ones.
• Encouragement to embrace your unique perspective as a “different thinker.”
Transcription:
You get to choose your label, meaning if you’re neurodiverse, you get to choose how people talk about you as far as what terms they use. It matters how you refer to yourself. So this is just a reminder: if, when you talk about yourself, you say, “I have a learning disability,” don’t be surprised if people refer to you as having a learning disability. Or, if you talk about yourself as being dyslexic and say, “I have a really hard time spelling,” that will be what people remember about your communication about yourself.
Those are the labels and the identifiers that you’re using. My encouragement today is in the fact that you get to choose that. You may not have realized that because maybe when you were young, you were diagnosed with having a learning disability, and that’s the label you’ve chosen to stick with and how you’ve identified.
I’m going to encourage you: you can challenge that label, and you can look to see and find possibly new labels that better identify where you are at in life and where you are going in life. I personally prefer to say, “I’m just a different thinker.” I don’t look at it like that—I’m kind of a different thinker. I see it from this perspective. Maybe there’s a little way to look at something a little differently.
So, you get to choose. I just want to empower you to take a moment to think about how you’re talking about your neurodiversity and how you identify it. Are you saying, “I have ADHD, and I’m always distracted?” If so, that’s what people are always going to identify with you—that you have ADHD and you’re always distracted.
Maybe instead, you can say another option might be, “I have ADHD, and I notice a whole lot of things going on all at once. What would you like to know about?”
So remember, you get to choose your labels. Explore all the options. I’m JoyGenea, International Neurodiversity Coach, and cheering you on to identify and know the best parts of you and your strengths. Bye now!