Generally, in a neurological context, I see "normal" as people who:-
- Had no social, emotional or intellectual delays in early childhood development, or if they did they caught up with their peers before it became "too late" (as in late enough to be noticed). Environmental factors, such as bad parenting or being isolated from the right environment to learn important skills, is a different cause than the child actually being born with a neurological condition or disability
- Are normal-functioning adults (mentally), and aren't diagnosed, or undiagnosed, with any neurological disorder/condition/disability that affected their development as children or affect their functioning to some extent as adults
Things get confusing when an NT has trouble functioning due to loss of a loved one, but that doesn't really count as a person being abnormal, it's just grieving, which can cause depression or anxiety in otherwise "normal" people. NT people with depression or anxiety are generally still NTs, as anxiety and depression are so common among humans that if we labelled everyone with those conditions as non-NT then the majority of humankind would probably fall into the non-NT category.
Although there are so many disorders and disabilities out there, the majority of humankind are NTs. But NT Vs ND is not a binary thing. It's not like "99% of the population are NTs". People with Downs syndrome also fit the ND category too, also people with intellectual disabilities. But those aren't often discussed and I'd like to discuss them but I'm scared I'll inadvertently offend people here if I did.
- Had no social, emotional or intellectual delays in early childhood development, or if they did they caught up with their peers before it became "too late" (as in late enough to be noticed). Environmental factors, such as bad parenting or being isolated from the right environment to learn important skills, is a different cause than the child actually being born with a neurological condition or disability
- Are normal-functioning adults (mentally), and aren't diagnosed, or undiagnosed, with any neurological disorder/condition/disability that affected their development as children or affect their functioning to some extent as adults
Things get confusing when an NT has trouble functioning due to loss of a loved one, but that doesn't really count as a person being abnormal, it's just grieving, which can cause depression or anxiety in otherwise "normal" people. NT people with depression or anxiety are generally still NTs, as anxiety and depression are so common among humans that if we labelled everyone with those conditions as non-NT then the majority of humankind would probably fall into the non-NT category.
Although there are so many disorders and disabilities out there, the majority of humankind are NTs. But NT Vs ND is not a binary thing. It's not like "99% of the population are NTs". People with Downs syndrome also fit the ND category too, also people with intellectual disabilities. But those aren't often discussed and I'd like to discuss them but I'm scared I'll inadvertently offend people here if I did.
