How Can Anyone "Be Proud" of being autistic?

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I, for one, is all about how the label and diagnosis serves an individual.

The diagnosis served me well enough, and I know how to suit it's purpose.
But I go beyond that.



I do not mind anyone seeking autism cures.
I do not mind anyone being a proud autistic.

I rather wanna know -- how does it serve you (generalized 'you')?
How does the attitude/s over the matter serve you?

For me personally it mostly helped with putting things in perspective. Just knowing some of my experiences weren't crazy but weren't the result of everyone else being crazy either probably helped keep me from losing more of my mind.

I never really considered my traits growing up in relation to autism because how late I was diagnosed. Some of my aloof tendencies I assumed were normal, I didn't know why I couldn't form connections like other people and often assumed it was conspiratorial. At least some of my suffering was unwittingly self-inflicted.

I guess the other aspect of this is should we be ashamed of our autism. I think pride is just trying to point out that we have nothing to be ashamed of. I don't agree that it is some kind of magical thinking that wipes away the challenges of the disorder. And certainly this is a lot more difficult for some than others. I don't think we should be making those with severe autism feel marginalized.

Do you mean your mother fought to get you diagnosed or your mother fought to get people to see you as you than as autism?

She opposed me being diagnosed since I was 3, I think. Not sure on the exact age. Pretty much as soon as I was in speech therapy over my dyspraxia (I would find it hard not to label dyspraxia a disability especially verbal dyspraxia).

Because I have dyspraxia people tried to force it onto me, suggesting 'your kid's autistic' etc.

She wanted me to just be seen as an individual but as an individual who got to go to decent school. Not special school just small school. She couldn't afford it and we weren't religious.

The best thing is that she didn't end up sending me to Steiner school which was one of her ideas. They have all sorts of pseudoscientific nonsense in their beliefs & they hate logical thought even more than normal society does. I wouldn't have fit in there.
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Right now I can hear NT drunks walking down my street. It's a decent street. Because the pubs are shut and their need for socialising is so great, they have decided to go into the park and get drunk. I have absolutely no desire to be like them.

I have no desire to gain excess social needs beyond that which is a choice and/or can be sorted through my family. I hear my mum talk about it and it sounds awful. Even at her age and she's not an extrovert. She worries all the time over friendships, so do my cousins. I'm glad not to have that. If someone is crap and not related, I cut them out of my life.

If you take away a wheelchair from a disabled person they absolutely are disabled.

The wheelchair helps them be less disabled.

People want to make autism more than just sensory needs. They want to make it 'your personality is wrong' or 'how you interact with people is wrong'. Nonsense. My personality is just fine & I get on with some people & not with others just like anyone else.

Also the day someone finds someone with 3 legs is the day they will be able to compare the inability to tune out too much noise because of decent hearing with the inability to walk because of failed legs or lack of legs. It's the same thing as having 3 legs. Someone with 3 legs can't walk in our world, the extra leg gets in the way, but they could probably do better walking than we could in a world which had constant walls up on one side.

If you'd like to pretend that autism doesn't represent a disability because you don't view yourself as having your functionality impaired you're more than welcome to. Just please don't impose your preferences or experiences on the rest of us when many of us have not had that experience and don't share that preference.

Autism is more than sensory needs, it's possible that this is the element that you find most of an issue, but not all of us share that experience. Many of us self-report having impaired social skills that leave us unable to meet our social needs. If this isn't part of your experience I'm happy for you, but look around on this forum and you'll see that is not the normal response for the people here, let alone other people with lower levels of functioning who might not even have the option to post online about their experience.

Could you clarify what you mean? what is the connection between a wheelchair and sensory needs?

I'm the one who mentioned a wheelchair; it seems like I could have been more clear. I didn't literally mean the chair, I meant the paralysis. Minus being paralyzed being a paraplegic wouldn't be a disability.

I've noticed I get along relatively fine with other autistic people, so the social aspect of it doesn't frustrate me as much anymore. I also pick up on learning things quite easily, and am good at remembering things. I know a lot of facts about different things and have the drive to at least try to become proficient in things that interest me.

I'm not necessarily proud of having autism, but there are aspects of it that I'm proud of, and that I think in some ways balance out the issues I have and give me worth as a person. I'm just a human being with a different neurology and it's not something for me to be ashamed over, because being ashamed wont fix the issues I have, it just will make me upset for no reason. All I can do is take the pros I get from it and utilize them the best I can.

Oh ok, I am legit confused now?

You could have just read more of the thread to get the context, but...




Get it?

So physical disability - paralysis = Normal

SO you are saying you can't make that comparison with autism because its too simplistic or that the analogy doesn't work (sorry its as hot as hell here and my brain processing speed is somewhat compromised this morning).

I'm saying autism represents a disability and that for someone who largely experiences one aspect of it but not the whole range of what it can entail, them insisting that minus that one thing it wouldn't be a problem sounds silly. It sounds like saying minus the problems I deal with it's no problem at all.

Got it....so people need to be mindful that how one person with autism experiences the world is not the same as the next person with autism due to a constellation of differences in both neurology and comorbids.