on aplatonicism and demedicalisation

(this is a repost of an original post from my tumblr account - I really liked it and i thought it would be a good first post here!)

"aplatonicism/aplatonic spectrum is often defined as little to no platonic attraction, or desire to form a friendship with specific people, and/or an identity for people who struggle to form platonic relationships of any kind, often due to neurodivergency and/or traumatic experiences." (source)

since struggling with friendships is often viewed as a bad thing, as a symptom of an illness, as something to treat, or as a warning sign, what i like about this definition is that it acknowledges that aplatonicism can be due to being neurodivergent, and at the same time it can also just be a lack of attraction (just like ace, aro, etc)

it transforms what would be a symptom into a trait. it removes the negative and medicalized connotation to remplace it by something with a neutral, and/or positive base, something that's just a part of you. you can do whatever you want with it.

i vibe a lot with that label thanks to that. friendships can be difficult and overwhelming for me, for a multitude of Brain Reasons TM, and while it's not all sunshines and rainbow, it takes some guilt off my shoulders to be able to say "it's just a part of me". I don't have to view it as a symptom of something, or fix it, if I don't want to, and that's okay.