How Can Anyone "Be Proud" of being autistic?

Post Reply New Topic

I love how it gives you interests and concentration on interests. So Autism can make you really good at something. I also love being autistic as well.

Corrected. It's a double edged sword. You're a invisible minority. What you're feeling is the frustration of being a square peg in a round hole. If you're an "as*hole" you have every right to be. You were born into a mental asylum that tortured you since birth to conform to this wilderness of pain that is human civilization. It's only natural to feel anger at your condition.

1 Pride is about endurance in a society that oppresses you. People shouldn't be proud to be the oppressing majority. Do you think stats are great for trans people, black people, gay people compared to cis people, white people, straight people? No. They're not. But black pride is a thing, trans pride is a thing, gay pride is a thing. If someone told me 'white pride' I would know they were a Nazi scumbag.

2 I would rather have good focus, intellectual interest and an interest mostly in concepts, ideas and things than be a gossiping NT with no sense of focus and inability to see things/hear things correctly. This isn't about being proud to be autistic, it's about being happy to be autistic.

3 I am proud to be myself. Ultimately everyone should be proud to be themselves. Trouble with autism as a diagnosis is that it defines an entire person. You want a cure for autism? Might as well ask to be a whole other person. That's not a mentally healthy thing to want to do.

Sounds like you're saying Pride is a psychological defense mechanism that stabilizes self esteem in the face of oposition.



A psychological coping strategy that produces a sense of superiority in order to counter negativity of being 'different' and maintain a pleasant mood.



What if autism is a result of early brain injury ( which i think the scientists are just now proving) would it be wrong to want to somehow fix that? like you would want to fix a broken leg? Maybe it's not healthy to think that your own brain/mind needs some kind of healing". but isn't that what we want, not to feel awkward and out of place in this world? I mean if you were a paraplegic and wanted to run a a marathon, would you feel proud to be incapacitated? Wouldn't you want that "cured"?

Not sure where the “whole other person” thing comes from?

If you was cured from anxiety and had a clearer mental focus with better communication skills why do you think you would wake up a blank slate like a newborn maybe?

Quit stereotyping "NTs" as all gossipy and shallow and "Autistics" as geniuses, aight? If you love your personal set of strengths and weaknesses, great. You shouldn't generalize your experiences to everyone. It's totally possible to have good focus and intellectual interests and be charming and socially savvy. That's an uncomfortable truth that a lot of people don't want to accept. Autistics love to claim that Einstein was one of them, pointing to his ability to focus and intellectual prowess as some sort of proof, and forget about how popular with the opposite sex and charming he was supposed to be. Most of us on here cannot relate to that.



See, I disagree. I don't know what you mean by "cure", but Autistic people must be impaired in order to be diagnosed. Medical treatment that targeted specific symptoms like social anxiety, attention problems, sensory problems, or something like that (similar to how antidepressants target depression) would help a lot with these symptoms, to the point of possibly no longer qualifying as impaired. Are you still "Autistic?" Guess it depends on how you define Autism, but you'd certainly be more functional than the typical DSM-diagnosable Autistic.

The "magic pill that erases all Autistic-associated features" is a strawman argument.

If I was cured of anxiety I would be back to what I was when I was at uni.

If I was 'cured' of autism, I would be a completely new person or a blank space.

That blank space idea isn't good. It's been seen before with humans who had lobotomies and it's been seen in horror movies/shows.

I feel fine in this world.

If I had a time machine & could tell my mother to send me to a smaller school rather than forcing a diagnosis onto me, I would do that.

Quit assuming all autistic people see our personalities as negative.

Quit assuming all autistic people sought diagnosis ourselves personally or would have done.

I was 11 when that label was forced onto me. It is not my fault. My mother herself fought it for the longest time.

Also you don't like yourself?

That's fine. Not really fine but hey none of my business.

I don't let wannabe NTs tell me whether I should like myself or not. Whether HFA people ought to dream of being someone else or not. You don't get to do that.

Well, its good your happy in yourself but it would be wrong to presume everyone is happy being disabled, or those unhappy hate themselves, just as it would be wrong to presume all autistic people want cured, that would be obvious definite stereotyping.

Still not sure where the blank slate (or menticide) as I’ve heard it idea comes from, I’ve often heard it on other autistic advocacy sites, its certainly not backed up by any science. Memories are made up of trillions of connections & its impossible to wipe a brain like a hard drive. I think it’s just made up out of fear like other things.

Autism is just a name given to a set of symptoms with possibly many causes, for example serotonin is sometimes thought to play a major role in autism in some, so some kind of future gene therapy that regulated serotonin might cure anxiety among other things. Poorly insulated mini columns because a faulty gene that stops the protective myelin being produced (another possible cause or contribution to ASD symptoms) that leak signals could one day be resolved potentially leading to clearer thoughts and a more efficient brain.

The same person would exist in both cases with the same memories, just better able to enjoy life which is short enough.

I never did. I just said that many people "with Autism" like having it, many don't. Also, not all Autistics are geniuses and not all NTs are stupid. With regards to HFA, the average IQ is well within the normal range. Not that different.

While you may find higher rates of high knowledge in a certain subject, like most people, most Aspies are average intellect.

Alongside those who 'like' it or 'dislike' it there's probably just as many who are indifferent or who's opinions are too complex and intertwined to be reduced to a binary answer.

I'm not intending to disagree, I like how reasonable and grounded your perspective is.

Yes, I'm probably one of those people who can't quite articulate my opinion of the diagnosis. Good catch.

Quit assuming autistic people want to be called people with autism.

I'm no more a person with autism than I'm a person with bisexuality.

Your negativity and calling it a 'disability' is your own sadness and sorrow to bear in life. Not mine.

Take away the sensory aspects which are disabling and it wouldn't be one to me.

When homosexuality was considered a disability/mental illness, I'm sure there were some pathetic homosexuals who considered themselves 'disabled' or 'inferior'. It didn't mean that the problem wasn't society's, it just meant that some people choose to hate what makes them them.

I love how you negative ninnies always call any 'stereotype' which is positive towards ND people 'a stereotype' but any stereotype which is negative towards us 'a symptom'. My social needs are met. Easily met. Only way to not meet them is through negativity such as if I actively get bullied.

Last edited by KT67 on 09 Jan 2021, 4:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Take away the being stuck in a wheelchair and being a paraplegic wouldn't be a disability. I'm not sure that's actually point.