Camaraderie

 It is difficult for neurodivergents to experience Camaraderie, despite the longstanding way. Camaraderie is Acceptance throughout Belonging, Loyalty, Fellowship, highly valued societal gifts.

I was talking recently of the years we grew up in.
We use to refer to those imprinting times as ‘generations’.
New Generations typically borne every 20 years, the average lifespan of Youth.
I’m not sure whether that’s a biological or cultural thing, or a combination of the two.

We look for protection in our 20s, the time when personality is forming and each decade is characteristic, be it in music, fashion, politics…

My generation-80s- is being deemed the most influential of the last fifty years.
Those were the days when most subcultures were born: the Gothic, the New Romantic, the New Wave, to mention some post-Punk movements.

People sharing same ideals naturally aggregate, by so forming a movement, party, fellowship, club.
Fellow members feel protected and heard.

Neurodivergents seek protection.
Needless to say, I joined the Goth movement in my teens.

The melancholic, soothing notes and atmosphere, the sense of belonging, captured me immediately.
There was no judgement, exclusion, just a warm camaraderie.

It’s not true that autistics are self-absorbed, they don’t know how to express their craving to belong.

Music is the most powerful outreaching means: notes have no words, thus activate brain circuits involved in thought-processing.
Words are the result of thought-processing, what makes a song, words put in music, so-called ‘lyrics’.

Sure, social media help to connect with all the world, although I was born in ‘the physical age’… that makes me feel extremely lonely and homesick.