I am just an individual like you...

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For years there were so many things I never really understood about myself, until I found the time to dissect, pull apart what I thought and then was mystified by what I found... a list of differences I was meant to be. Confused at first of course, because no word or name can change me, maybe help explain certain aspects of my originality and I wondered if I really wanted to know or would I even agree with another view point of me, how would I know it's right and could I take back any decisions of difference I did not choose to place upon myself.

Intrigued I found myself needing to know more, and to my surprise what I found was my brain seemed to be neurologically an extra bit different from many apparently. I came to a conclusion fast, was I that different or was it more to do with neuro- diversity, indifference of often means many are stuck within a set of rules that does not work or necessarily fully apply to them. Myself while diagnosed, given labels like medals to be proud to wear. I still had to get my head around which seemed at the time a never ending list.... Bipolar (type 1), Aspergers ( Dyspraxia), ADHD, Intellectual learning difference (Dyslexia) and other varied differences like everyone, but all just words of course. Because its our individuality that's is a part of everyone and I feel if we all embraced and accepted each persons differences more, would we really need any labels, maybe its more about acceptability, adaptability and assisting each persons varied needs.

I think it depends if your happy being you and if you allow the labels to change you?

That's a refreshing post with an upbeat message.

Although I disagree with the notion of AS just being part of Neurodiversity, and I would give and arm and a leg in exchange for the neurological and physical benefits of being NT, people should nevertheless be less obsessed with labels and more interested in the individual's personality.

I would extend this notion to other subjects outside just Neurodiversity ; for example I dispise the idea of people having pre-conceived ideas of people based on their nationality. As an expat I am grateful that most people in my host country are more interested in who I am as an individual rather than what it says on the front of my passport.

I guess all labels, descriptions are just words and often communicated differently, people often judge by many aspects, to often forgetting the person inside and look at the outside imagine and then decide about another for often no reason, but what they think they know... crazy really///

Okay, so this may come off as a rant, for which I apologize in advance.

<rant>

I've maintained, since adolescence, when I came out as gay, that words can be both limiting and liberating. I bristled when well meaning people tried to tell me not to label myself when I came out. I think it's because there was an unspoken homophobia to their discomfort with what I was telling them, even though they presented themselves as being liberal-minded. They said they didn't want such a "young, pretty girl" to "limit herself" by identifying that way. So, for me, speaking out and using my label was an act of defiance against those who would have had me be as they wished and not as I actually was. But I think I was never able to get them to understand this.

Lenny Bruce had a point about not letting people lord it over you by giving slurs and other terms people found offensive too much power. He used to say them over and over in his comedy act (which got him in trouble with the law in those days). He'd finish with one and then point out, see, it's just a word.

On the other hand, if someone knows a word can hurt, it's their responsibility not to throw it in people's faces to attack them and to be compassionate about how casual use affects others.

I don't want to be limited by a label. But it's not my fault if, once I mention something about myself, it's all another person can see. We use words because they're useful. That's why we label ourselves and each other. It's not the words themselves that cause the harm. It's the attitudes and lack of honor in their use.

We will no more end prejudice by ending labeling than by waking up one morning to find ourselves all to be the same shade of tan (a hippie ideal my mother once expressed). For as long as people want to think themselves superior to others, new and different ways of justifying that notion will be found - not only if we eliminate the old ways, but even in spite of keeping them around. The answer is not to stop having, labeling, or acknowledging difference. The answer is to grow up. And, if we're going to respect the individual as part of the community, which is really what it's all about, we need to honor both those people who wish to have their labels applied to themselves and those who wish to move through the world without labels.

Also, when we apply them, we should also respect that groups of people are not monolithic. Different people within a group may prefer different terms. For example, some women in the gay community prefer to be called lesbians. Some would rather be referred to simply as gay women. Some like the word dyke; some hate it, because of the way straight people have traditionally used it; and some would only be okay with it if it's being used by others in the community and not by straights at all. And some are into using the word queer, with its radical overtones.

If I use black and African American interchangeably, in those not really so frequent situations where there's any call to mention anything, I can always abandon one in favor of the other for someone with a preference - say, someone who says, "I'm not African, I'm an American who happens to be black," or "My ancestors came from somewhere, and I want that acknowledged over skin color, which varies." If someone says, as I've read Avery Brooks does, "I'm a brown man," well, then, the man is brown. If another person says, "I'm just a person, so don't call me any of that," then I don't have reason to call them anything of the sort. How is this hurting me? Not at all. If we're really going to see people as people, and as individuals, then such accommodation is part of that.

I'm not "color blind", and I don't expect others to be "orientation blind". I see variety. I just happen to be glad for it. I hope for people to come to view neurodiversity in a similar way, even as we deal with both the societal and the personal issues that some types of diversity can present. Being on the autism spectrum is disabling in certain ways for many people. That has to be faced and handled in a way that is both kind and effective for spectrumites, as well as compassionate and useful for those who encounter and perhaps give care to individuals needing services and assistance. But whether someone needs help or just understanding, the issue isn't labels and whether or not we use them. It's whether or not we're approaching each other in a loving manner.

</rant>

Thank you for your patient indulgence (or polite skipping of all of this, if it's not your thing or simply too long).

Hmmm very interesting post. I quite often find myself thinking about the blurred lines between personality and mental disorders. If you think about the definitions of them, they are quite similar. Just a combination of characteristics. Personality is defined as the combination of characteristics that form an individual's distinctive character. Whereas mental disorders are defined as the combination of characteristics that disrupts a person's character. But if that person lived with that mental disorder for their whole life then shouldn't it be seen as their personality because it isn't disrupting any character because there was no other character.
I see this with aspergers. It's something people live with their whole life, it's who they are, their personality, yet it is called a disorder.

I do not feel anyone has disorders as such, we all have varied abilities, and as individuals some of us may need more support than others. So called labels often needed for certain types of support and that would not be so bad, if you do not need to cram yourself into a box that does not fit. I like to see myself as another human being with a name, at times I use certain words to explain reason for the many whys, but I try never to over explain.

Words are words and alone say very little, mental, aspergers etc... is far from who I am and has nothing to do with my name

Today is today and tomorrow is tomorrow and whatever we feel, whatever we think, the world and life will be as it is, so there is no need to stress, no need to worry, life not always calm like the waves At sea... because at the end of the day, we can only be that indivdiual we are!