http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NeurodiversityIsSupernatural

Chester A. Bum: You really think all of my mental problems is because I was an alien, huh?

Nostalgia Critic: It's not like that...

Chester A. Bum: No no no no, I get it! It can't be because of how I was born, or my environment! Clearly, being an alien explains it just as well!

Nostalgia Critic: No, I...

Chester A. Bum: It's like if an Asian person walks by and I'm like, "Ooh, maybe he looks that way because he's an alien! It's a perfectly legit reason!" I hope I will be seen as more than just an excuse for your stereotypes, sir! The Nostalgia Critic's review of Dreamcatcher You really think all of my mental problems is because I was an alien, huh?It's not like that...No no no no, I get it! It can't be because of how I was born, or my environment! Clearly, being an alien explains it just as well!No, I...It's like if an Asian person walks by and I'm like, "Ooh, maybe he looks that way because he's an alien! It's a perfectly legit reason!" I hope I will be seen as more than just an excuse for your stereotypes, sir!

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A real-world atypical neurological condition, like autism or schizophrenia, is presented as the result of or the presence of something supernatural. Bonus points if it doesn't occur naturally at all in the fictional universe.

Strange conditions spark the imaginations of writers, leading them to imagine otherworldly forces behind them. Just as Most Writers Are Male, so are most writers neurotypical. Though non-NT writers are by no means unknown and they might use this trope as well for various reasons.

In some uses of this trope, all cases of a particular neurological or psychiatric condition are the result of supernatural circumstances, and you can't have one without the other. Other times, a given condition can be caused by something supernatural, but the same condition can also develop without the involvement of the paranormal. For example, in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, being a demigod isn't the only cause of dyslexia and/or ADHD.

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This trope can potentially overlap with Go Mad from the Revelation, if a character ceases to be neurotypical as the result of tangling with the supernatural or learning Things Man Was Not Meant to Know. However, most of the time their condition is played as a side effect of an ongoing supernatural connection instead.

Can overlap with The Soulless in regard to sociopathy. See also Mad Oracle and By the Eyes of the Blind. If the character gets something useful out of their supernatural connection, it's also a case of Disability Superpower. If the application of this "something useful" changes people's lives for the better in a dramatic fashion, it also makes the characters Inspirationally Disadvantaged. If applied badly, this Trope can create Unfortunate Implications and a Broken Aesop. (If insane people are supernaturally awesome and people trying to help them through therapy or medicine are all allies of whichever evil is roaming around, then doesn't that means that therapy and/or medication are evil (and better off not taken)? Or if the reason for your depression is literally the ghost of your loved one having Unfinished Business and not plain grief, then why bother spending time and money getting counsel, anyway?)

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Contrast and compare The Madness Place, where the hyperfocus common to those with autism conveys incredible scientific talent, as well as Science-Related Memetic Disorder.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

In Betterman, Sakura's superpower, the ability to hear voices from around the world, is a result of her severe and heavily prescribed ADHD.

Comic Books

In X-Men, Daniel Dash's apparent severe autism is ultimately revealed to be the result of him being a crude nanotech construct.

Film  Live-Action

In The Omen (2006) remake, Damien shows signs of having some sort of developmental disorder, and it's bizarre how his modern, 2006 mother automatically subscribes to this trope instead of having him tested. The fact she's right doesn't lessen the unrealistic oddness of her reactions.

In The Dead Center, the doctor initially thinks the mysterious John Doe is suffering from kind of trauma-induced catatonia and dissociative amnesia. Turns out these are symptoms of Demonic Possession.

House of Cards (1993) has a six-year-old girl abruptly turning autistic, allowing her to communicate with her dead father, as well as speak telepathically with her mother.

Literature

Live-Action TV

Tabletop Games

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: If a human child fails to become a wereraven (because their magical spirit egg was stolen before their first transformation) they tend to become autistic suddenly (despite autism spectrum disorders being congenital in real life).

KULT: Schizophrenia is actually the ability to see behind the veil covering mundane reality. Mental illness in general is one of two roads to supernatural mojo (sainthood is the other one, but power-wise they're mutually exclusive).

Mutant City Blues: Mutants with force field powers have a significant chance of developing adult-onset autism.

While there are plenty of ways to develop mental disorders "normally" in Eclipse Phase, the post-Singularity nanovirus that gives asyncs their Psychic Powers always induces at least one disorder. In addition, many of the lower-level powers resemble savant abilities more than anything supernatural, such as Hyperthymesia, Hyper-Awareness, Superior Kinesics, Filter (hyperfocus), Predictive Boost, and Downtime.

Video Games

Visual Novels

Little Busters! is a subversion: Mio feels intense regret due to feeling like she abandoned Midori, an imaginary friend that lasted well into late childhood and which adults believed she was hallucinating , until she suddenly appears as a supernatural presence within her route. However, the final route of the game confirms that all magical things existing within the routes are due them occurring within the dream world. The dream world was able to manifest Midori as a physical presence through magic, but her hallucinations as a middle schooler were entirely mundane.

Webcomics

Western Animation

In God, the Devil and Bob crazy people can see God, just like Bob and innocent children.

In the Ruby Gloom universe, until a ghost gets its first scare it is invisible to everyone except "cats, psychics and that nutty guy on the street corner."

Real Life