Aspergers syndrome is a disability plain and simple

Post Reply New Topic

The AS mind is neither broken nor out of balance. We developed differently and our minds work differently, but they are healthy, in-balance minds. Just like a short person is not an unhealthy tall person, an autistic person is not an unhealthy NT. Even when the person is so short as to be considered as having dwarfism, they can still be healthy. So it is with autism. Autism is a developmental disability; our minds are different, causing impairment, but they are not out of balance unless we have some mental illness as well. That means that the goal for autism treatment is to teach people to cope with the NT world, instead of trying to make them into faux NTs.

Yes, it's a disability, but you seem to think that that means it has to be a totally bad thing, that it means it can't have any positive effects, that autism can't benefit the societies in which autistic people live, that everything would be better if it didn't exist. That's not true. Disability is a neutral fact, not a tragedy.

I appreciate that you are calling people out for being silly (and unscientific) enough to call anything, including autism, a "next step in evolution", but don't swing to the opposite pole and say that autism must be totally undesirable. The genes for autism are floating around because they're useful. In small doses, they are involved with innovation and creativity. In large doses, they're involved with disability.

Additionally: Yeah, autism can cause annoying things, even painful things. But I think that when we suffer, it's far more to be from the prejudices of others than from autism.

As for antagonizing NTs by calling them NTs, I think if they are offended by being told that they have neurology in the average range, a fact that they by and large consider to be positive or at least neutral, then they're far too touchy. Most NTs don't mind. Having a word for them is a way for us to affirm our own identity as well as talk about ourselves as a group; it's like the word "straight" or "cisgender". Instead of there being "people" and "autistic people", we use terms like "neurotypical" to define both groups as equally human. If it's valid to label ourselves "autistic", then it's valid to label people without neurological atypicality "neurotypical". We do not need to be submissive and try to placate the NTs, because we are not inferior to them. We are equals. If "NT" implied anything offensive, I'd change my story and say that using the term was wrong; but the way it is, we need a way to talk about people who are in the average range, who make up the bulk of humanity, and "NT" serves the purpose nicely.

Having a disability maybe for a good reason, you never know

I have always struggled with the word disability. I don't feel disabled. Certainly there are things that i can't do or are seriously impaired at. However, there are things that I am much better at than the average person.

I recently heard someone refer to it as a "situational disability". I kind of like that term. I think that sums it up for me. (I think they may have obtained the term from the book "Finding Kansas"?)

It is a disability because it has an impact on the ability of people to work and socialize. If it wasn't a disability, autistics wouldn't have such a high unemployment rate.

i don't consider it a disability in my opinion. With the right help and medication you can at least function with a job at least. I am currently in college and on 3 meds that work very good for me. I see a doctor who understands AS. But everyone is different of course, i still have my struggles like Obsessions and OCD, but i have come a long way since