Unless you have been living under a rock, or in a sensory deprivation tank for the past 2-3 weeks, there has been a grand departure from Twitter/X to Bluesky.
Bluesky, a platform funded by Jack Dorsey (Twitter’s previous CEO), and became an American Benefit association. Bluesky is decentralized, meaning that there is no central authority, BlueSky is also open source, which means that anyone can build on it or from it.
This has led fellow Bluesky’ers to create their own feeds based on interests. Several of these curated feeds address disability, ASD, and other neurodivergencies. In short, it’s not a bad way to find other Neurodivergent people.
As of yet, no such feed exists for Dyspraxia. In the coming days, I’ll be looking into how to use this option myself. I am in Info Tech, but admittedly my job is about as far from coding as one can get. I make no promises.
Bluesky does have a search bar, and a simple search of dyspraxia will yield a number of users who have this disability.
Why is social media important to Dyspraxic people?
I am, what is commonly referred to as “an old”. I was diagnosed with Dyspraxia in 1985/86. Up until the 2020s, I was under the impression that our disorder was incredibly rare, having never met another soul who had it.
Although not a central theme of my life, the jabs about my poor handwriting, or my inability to do things such as the dishes without dropping at least one became draining.
The fact I misinterpret instructions, mispronounce, or misuse certain words makes people think I’m flighty at best, and an absolute moron at worse.
When I first thought to search for Dyspraxia on Tiktok in 2021, I cannot tell you what a joy it was to see others with similar childhood experiences to the ones I had. UTIs that you don’t notice until they turn into raging kidney infections, tripping over our own feet, walking partway into half walls, walking down hallways while listing right or left, well, you get the picture.
To see other normal human beings who had Dyspraxia with very “normal” (as I interpreted them) problems was emotional in a way that I was not prepared for.
Seeing a larger community on Tumblr, then finally on Reddit was mindblowing.
I became rather active on the Dyspraxia r/ on Reddit. Rather, I say because I do not allow many applications to notify me. This means I forget they exist sometimes. OOPS.
I started this blog so that others would know they are not alone.
My reach is incredibly small, but I truly and fervently believe this blog will find its way to the right people who need to see it.
When you grow up on an island where everyone speaks a different language than you do, is automatically 3x better at sports or games than you are, and doesn’t have to fumble more than twice with their house or car keys when you do, representation is important. In fact, for some it offers comfort.
Early on in social media history, I regularly used a Facebook that I had. One of my most frequently visited were posts on the Dyspraxia USA Facebook account.
At first, I kept quiet but then, I saw parents, and grandparents all concerned about their kids/grandkids being profoundly disabled and never being able to live on their own or have a normal life at all!
Trust me, I know I’m fortunate that I was able to live a life independent from my parents and caretakers.
But for concerned adults to not know there were any Dyspraxics alive and that Dyspraxia wasn’t a death sentence, hearing my specific voice was important. Through me, they could see a real human adult telling them “Hey yeah, I have that! It affects me day to day, but I still work a full-time job, drive myself to and from places, and have a fairly fulfilling existence.” or “People don’t have to do things well to be able to do them at all.” Or even, “Fuck yeah, get that kid into fencing! Although nothing is completely safe, at least in fencing there are a ton of protective elements to the uniforms.“
Out in the world right now, there’s a kid who is just like you were as a kid. They’re frustrated with not keeping up with their friends, they think there is something horrifically wrong with them. They think that physical therapy means surgery, or something a great deal more intrusive than what it is.
Could you imagine seeing yourself now when you were a kid and thinking “Oh my gosh I had no idea I’d be able to play the guitar, or knit, or bake bread!”
For me, it would have made all the difference.
Dyspraxia and Mental Health
It is common for those with Dyspraxia to suffer from all kinds of mental health disorders.
Poorer self-confidence, depression, and anxiety (for both founded and unfounded reasons) are among 3 of the many mental health issues that plague Dyspraxic people throughout their lives.
Here are 3 articles that speak specifically to the anxiety regarding spacial reasoning, depression and poor self esteem:
Navigation abilities and spatial anxiety in individuals with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD/Dyspraxia
Anxiety, confidence and self-concept in adults with and without developmental coordination disorder
Developmental coordination disorder (dyspraxia): what helps, what hinders in the school years for later achievement and wellbeing?)
The social aspects of this neurological condition are bad enough to tangle with regarding mental health, but if you add in the fact that we aren’t fully sure how our brains are affected and that there is strong evidence to support Dopamine processing just happens differently in our brains.
(A really interesting chart explaining how neurodivergent brains metabolize things)
Additional steps
We are just now learning exactly what kind of effects neurodivergence has on our brains. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that Neurodivergent brains are just wired differently. Since the current economic system is need/demand-based, the best way to get more research done into the science behind neurodivergency is to seek out a diagnosis if you are comfortable or if it is possible. Self-Diagnosis is valid of course, but when it comes to the scientific community at large, we all must follow the almighty dollar. (Praise be)
What we can do without the pain and hassle of getting a proper diagnosis is to make a lot of noise. Just like outrage at specific corporations causes a seachange in them, so too can we convince the scientific community there is a wealth of useful (and potentially profitable) information to be found about neurodivergency including but not limited to Dyspraxia.
Let us take advantage of our current economic system by being loud about who we are, not for the sake of ‘curing’ us, but for the sake of helping us all become just a little bit happier.
The more we know, the more we can do.