Should we stop using the term Autism to avoid discrimination

Post Reply New Topic

This...

... and this...

Wouldn't a lot of us be better off if we just picked other disorders that are either more widely accepted or less widely known? With a disorder that isn't widely known, the majority of people wouldn't have any stereotypes towards it, so they would have to look it up on the internet and learn about it instead of just making ignorant assumptions. People who are knowledgeable about Avoidant Personality Disorder and think that I'm Avoidant would probably have a better idea of who I actually am than people who are ignorant about Aspergers and know that I'm an Aspie. I want people to perceive me as correctly as possible, so I should lie to them about my Aspergers so they will be less likely to base their ideas about who I am on ignorant assumptions. I'm not impaired enough by my Aspie traits that I couldn't pass off as being Avoidant, Schizoid, or Schizotypal instead. I rarely tell people that I have Aspergers or any other disorder, but it'd be nice to prepare just in case someone ever asks me about it in the future.

Wait ... do you think that we can just "pick" the disorder we're afflicted with?

Do you actually think that Asperger's Syndrome is a CHOICE?

No, but I can pick a similar disorder as part of my alias instead. People don't have to know that my traits don't completely align with that disorder.

Last edited by Mike1 on 22 Oct 2012, 7:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

FOR GREAT JUSTICE, IT HAS BEEN DECIDED, WE SHALL SWEEP SOCIETY WITH THE WORD AUTISM SPECTRUM, THUS WHEN WE SAY WE ARE AUTISTIC, THEY WILL KNOW OF THE SPECTRUM, AND THAT WE ARE OF THE PATTERN OF AUTISM BUT MAKE THEIR OWN GUESS AS TO HOW SEVERE IT IS, WE MERELY MUST PRESS ON WITH OUR INSISTENCE THAT AUTISM IS A SPECTRUM OF PERSONALITY TRAITS ALONG CERTAIN LINES, AND THAT DISORDER ISN'T AUTOMATIC

WHY ARE WE YELLING?

OH YEAH, BECAUSE VIVE LA REVOLUTION

and I do NOT want to be associated with rainbows, thank you.

edit for autism is a spectrum of personality traits.

LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION, LONG LIVE THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS/AUTISTICS.

rabblerabblerabble

Last edited by noobler on 22 Oct 2012, 7:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

As long as autism is considered a mental illness we will always face discrimination.

I refuse to call myself Autistic, in many ways, for this reason.

One thing I was thinking of, though, is if we're to be truly accurate, what we're talking about is brain structure. Our brains are wired one way, while Neurotypicals are another. What about having an A-Type Mind?

But, regardless, yeah, I'm not down with the DSM, one damn bit. They do not understand the consequence of their actions.

Why tell anyone anything at all? Why give them any ammunition to give them some imaginary justification to practice discrimination against you?

Sometimes, choosing to stay in the "Aspie Closet" is the best choice to make.

Damn right!

I had the instinct to stand up for those who I affectionately saw as 'a bit weird like me' long before I realised I (and possibly they also) had aspergers. From what I read, a heightened resolve to fight against perceived unfairness is even a particularly typical aspie trait. My diagnosis now feels like a forgone conclusion but, even if I am somehow convinced that I was mistaken, I feel such a powerfull affinity for people on the spectrum that I would continue to stand up for them at every opportunity.

I myself was very ignorant of the intelectual diversity of autism until very recently and had dismissed the possibility of being on the spectrum purely because I don't act like someone with 'classic' autism (actually, in a lot of ways I did but I chose not to see it).

I am oversimplifying but we are all basically the same neurological kin, just with varying functional capabilities. If we are not going to stand up for our own kind, why should we expect anyone else to?

No, we should not stop using the term autism to avoid discrimination.

We can either avoid telling others of our condition (if it isn't obvious), or come out and admit it, and be ready to stand and fight for every consideration that non-ASD people seem to take for granted.

Me ... I'm ten years from retirement, and I don't want to lose anything I've gained so far to the mind-set that equates ASDs with mental illness or criminal activity ... or both.

So call me a coward, but I would rather retire comfortably than in some mental-health facility or homeless shelter.

I will continue to use autistic to describe myself. It is not the word that has caused difficulties for me, but people who judge me based on what they think they see because I am autistic and thus do not fit into their social or cognitive expectations.

Horrible idea! The last thing we want is to have a euphemism treadmill. Just think of mental retardation. At first, people with mental retardation were called "morons", "imbeciles", and "idiots", to indicate the level of severity of retardation. When those words became slang-synonyms for stupidity, the name was changed to "mental retardation". I'm sure a lot of people here can relate to the experience I've had of being called a "ret*d" or "ret*d" as an insult, not as a diagnosis. In fact, "ret*d", even when used in context of a person with mental retardation, still stings me a little. Society's solution to that? "Let's call it an 'intellectual disability'!". Why not call mental retardation "mental retardation" or a "low IQ"?

The same thing has happened to black people, by the way.

No, abandoning "Autism" or "Asperger's" won't stop people's ignorance. Educating them is a start, though.

I just read back over my post, and I realize I have to clarify something.

As I am now, I couldn't live with myself if I denied having autism to avoid being associated with autistic people who are facing discrimination.

But in the past, I've been in situations where you have to pretend to go along with things just because that's the only way to survive. Some of you are facing those things now. Maybe you would be bullied at school, abused by parents, fired from your job. Maybe it isn't just you that would be hurt, but friends and family too. Maybe you've been bombarded so constantly with the autism fear-and-pity stereotypes that you've started to believe them, and you have to reject the idea of autism to preserve the idea that you are worth something yourself. Sometimes, to survive, you have to do things that are hard to live with later.

Just this: When you get your feet under you, and you have the will to fight, think about the other people who've experienced what you have. The one thing that can banish that fear and the need to hide is the ability to care about others. Eventually, you start to realize that you really would rather take a few risks than stand by and let other people get treated like crap. It won't be some kind of heroic selflessness; it's simply that you feel better about yourself and the world and the future if you start fighting for the rights of other people, because maybe that means that somebody else in the world won't have to go through what you did. It's a matter of hope--or, if you're a particularly cynical person, at the very least a way to say that you're sick of autistics being hurt, and you're not going to take it anymore.

Last edited by Callista on 23 Oct 2012, 12:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

When I decide I need to tell someone about my AS as an explanation for my behavior, it's not always an easy choice, because I know I have some extra work to do in explaining what that means. I assume they've been misinformed and give them an overall summary of what it really means along with the simple information that I am on the autistic spectrum. I think I've gotten pretty good at summarizing it quickly and adding emphasis to the fact that it's just as much an ability as a disability. I try to highlight some of the cooler things I can do because of it, and brush the negatives off with a smile. After about five minutes they have a general idea of what's going on with me which may conflict with their preconceived notions, but they can hardly ignore what I say with such authority and what obviously fits with who I really am.

Before I learned I have AS I had no explanation for my behavior. I'm intelligent and learned to "fake it" reasonably well from a pretty young age, which left everyone assuming that if I did something wrong, it was intentional. I was therefore punished for things that weren't my fault. Now that I have a reasonable, scientific explanation, which fits with any information they might find if they did any real research (but includes other information not typically offered to NTs that help to assuage their prejudice), people mostly accept me. Now and then someone tells me I "can't" have autism, but I just laugh it off and assure them they've been misinformed. You can't convince everyone, but trying to hide behind another label for myself as the OP suggests would not help at all. It would just increase the ignorance of those around me, give others different expectations for me than they should have, and make me a liar.