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You’re Different and That’s Good
Winnie the Pooh vs. DSM-5
When you look closely at children’s literature, you realize every great story is about someone who felt different, learned to love themselves, and turned their flaw into a superpower.
Sometimes I wonder if all writers are neurodivergent.
Children’s books explain why the world feels forbidding and confusing, and offer hope.
Psych manuals, on the other hand, explain why you aren’t quite right and then offer expensive therapy.
Everyone has to learn how to be different — whether it’s temporary due to circumstances, or permanent because of disability, cultural differences, illness, or discrimination.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) is the tool doctors and psychologists use to explain why you’re having a problem— but it has a strange way of being non-affirming. It’s written and designed to point out everything you lack.
What a crappy system. I say we use children’s literature for self-diagnosis and I think after reading this list, you’ll agree.
1 / Seasonal
Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer didn’t fit in but he also stood out. It’s a deadly combo but as luck would have it, he found his neurodivergent tribe on the Island of Misfit…
