Chris, I would go and have a read of some of the other comments - because my issue isn't with the concept of neurodivergence it is with the application of neurodivegence as a word. Neurodivergence as a concept is there to describe the fact that people with autism often have brain structures that differ from each other. Their brains are divergent, but this divergence still generates a similar presentation. You can have 5 autistic people and their brains would be as different from each other as from non-autistic people. That's what neurodivergence was originally about.

However, it has now spread to include 'doesn't fit the norm' in some of the ways you have suggested. if you do not function well in education that could be because you think in a different way to others - that's possibly the fault of the education system rather than the individual. I'd argue that is likely the case. We need to think about how different people learn -but that doesn't make people neurodivergent.

If what we do is allow any individual to identify any difference between themselves and what they consider the 'norm' and use the phrase 'neurodivergent' to describe this, we will do two things. First, we will fail to understand who needs the most help. In most societies the loudest people get the help not the most needy. Secondly, we will not be able to have any reasonable discussion about how to tackle mental disorders and behavioural quirks. Social anxiety (whilst not fun) can be solved fairly quickly with a bit of CBT. Autism cannot be - we do not want to mix the two things up because someone has self-identified traits on a Youtube video.