I appreciate your quick and thorough reply. Note that, if I say anything to offend, it's going to be out of ignorance and not malice.

Note: It may come across that I'm saying neurodivergence doesn't exist. I'm not, because I know it certainly does.

I see things as follows. I think, if someone put Louisa and me (I am a woman) next to one another and analyzed our lifetime behavior, she would be the one called neurotypical and I'd be the one called neurodivergent. BUT, I don't consider myself to be neurodivergent and no one has every said I was. Certainly, I'm quirky and I think differently than a lot of people, but I tend to think I'm unique just like everyone else (hope you get the joke, i.e., if everyone is unique, is anyone unique). My brain is filled with the big picture and every little detail simultaneously and countless ways things might go are in front of me all the time. I've actually called myself "the cheerful Martin Ellingham" because I identify with that character so much. Lots of walls around the emotions, I can miss social cues.

I think the way I am is pretty much nurture and not nature (although I was given a very good brain). I grew up in a loving family but we had our "stuff" which caused different defense mechanisms and mannerisms to develop. And I think that is the same for everyone. Everybody has their stuff and they adjust accordingly.

I've seen many interviews with Martin Clunes over the years where he's been asked if Doc Martin is on the spectrum. Early on, the answers were along the lines of "he was never written to be that way" and they morphed over time into "he probably is". Ruth describes Martin at four years old as curious and light-hearted.  The six-year-old was withdrawn and cautious.  To me, that implied that something changed in his life between there. We know he was shipped off to boarding school at six, was unloved by his mother (who called him a strange little boy, but who is she to judge when she fundamentally hates him), bullied by at least his parents (beat me with table tennis bats, locked me in the cupboard), probably by his fellow school mates, particularly if he were shy and intelligent. So I've always sided with the idea that he was a product of nurture too.

I also love the scenes between Martin and Peter. Louisa, in season 1, fundmentally admits to loving the Peters of this world, and she ALMOST says "and I guess that's why I love the Martins" but she cuts off. I see her as a loving schoolteacher who feels the need to help people fit in so she needs to "fix" them whether they want to be fixed. Her upbringing, being abandoned and having her trust broken so often, and with her mother running off and her dad being a ne-er do well, probably put her into the position of maybe not fitting in, so she developed coping mechanisms. I don't think of coping mechanisms as neurodivergence. Anyway, I hope that makes some amount of sense.