You're different, not disabled

[Judge]

There are some of us with no apparent disabilities who are on the spectrum who manage to hold a job or even have long term relationships with varying degrees of social struggle. And as well, some who are both disabled (in the legal sense) and on the spectrum of autism, whether it severely impacts their lives or not.

In the case of those who have no apparent disabilities who sometimes or often struggle to exist in society nevertheless, I feel compelled to emphasize the distinction that we are different- and not necessarily deficient.

 

[Jimbo]

I think the whole concept of "embracing our autism" is easier when we get older. I'm 49 now and have learned to accept who I am and have had lots of practice at functioning in the world. But when I was in school it was a different story. Even when I got out of school and tried to enter the workforce the challenges of working with other people were tough. Now I understand people better and am able to cope, but it takes years of learning to reach that point.

 

[GCat3000]

Dr. Asperger when he first discovered Autism was describing a disease but an Ubermech like way of thinking which he considered superior. He was in fact a Nazi and nothing of a diversity supporter. He saw us as better is why he begged Hitler not to hurt us.

Years latter the two big traits of Autism High Emotional Empathy and Low Cognitive Empathy became dangerous because of the rise of capitalism over the Old Christian Order. In the New Capitalist Order High Emotional Empathy meant someone who would have a hard time exploiting people and low cognitive empathy meant further the same thing. In the New Capitalist Order Autism was created to describe Altruistic Human Beings like us.

Autism is a made up disease. We are human decency labeled as a disease!

 

[GCat3000]

This kind of sounds like you're saying that being autistic/neurodiverse is a matter of preferences, habit/practice and choice....it's not.

This doesn't mean it's hopeless for an autistic/neurodiverse person to improve their skills or learn to cope with impairments so they aren't a big deal, of course.

Yes, it hurts people to underestimate themselves. But it can hurt just as much to overestimate yourself, to live in denial of real limitations -- constantly setting yourself up for failure and then blaming yourself for it (e.g. "didn't try hard enough" "must not really want to" etc.) is no better than never trying to extend yourself because you're convinced you can't succeed at anything.

Reality Check....

Einstein, "WERE ALL STUPID ABOUT SOMETHING JUST DIFFERENT THINGS!"

Limitations exist in Neurotypicals too. They are limited by their thinking as much as we are by ours. There are things they can't do with their minds that we can!

 

[the_tortoise]

Reality Check....

This is uncalled for.

Just because our perspectives are different doesn’t mean I’m out of touch with reality.

Saying “reality check” before stating your perspective is a good way to hurt someone and make them less receptive to what you have to say than if you’d made your point without implying that they live in a fantasy and lack basic knowledge of the real world.

 

[55853]

There are things they can't do with their minds that we can!

Such as what, exactly? What can everyone with autism do, that can't be done by somebody without autism?

As far as I can see, all we have in common is having social communication difficulties. There's differences in how that manifests, and there's differences in how we perceive that (e.g. the difficulties being caused the disorder, the person, society, a combination of these, not being a problem, etc.), but that's all we share. We've all got different strengths and weaknesses, like anyone. So I really do not understand these generalisations.

This generalisation is something I keep occasionally seeing on this site, but never see any examples or explanations. Would you mind explaining?