Most autistic people, despite everything, actually like being autistic.
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Here are the references for this thread:
Epistemic injustice: Autism, by K.J. Elphinstone
Epistemic injustice: Autism
Neurofabulous (www.neurofabulous.org.uk)
@KatyElphinstone Fantastic thread Katy.
I've long felt exactly what you said in the first t00t and remember refusing a particular therapeutic intervention 20 years ago (EMDR) because I feared it would change who I am. That was many years before realising I was autistic. Life is bloody hard being #ActuallyAutistic but it is who I am and I love who I am.
What I do not love is how difficult it is to be me in a society that doesn't want to know who I am, let alone accommodate me.
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Here are the references for this thread:
Epistemic injustice: Autism, by K.J. Elphinstone
Epistemic injustice: Autism
Neurofabulous (www.neurofabulous.org.uk)
Looking into the origin of the phrase 'high functioning autistic' really opened my eyes. They want what they can use.
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Most autistic people, despite everything, actually like being autistic.
Not all, of course. But most of us.
And I don’t just mean ‘making peace with it’.I mean: it's bound up with who we are.
A thread 🧵
1/11
(refs at the end)
#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent@KatyElphinstone I'm autistic. I like being autistic. I have skills that most people dont have.
What hurts me is the distain most people have for autism, and try to change me, boss me around, and do anything they feel will motivate me to be doing something I dont want to be doing, because "everyone does it"
I am not like most people.
I want people to appreciate me for who I am, different, not deficit.Society's general perception of autism is the problem, not me.
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@KatyElphinstone thank you (again
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Looking into the origin of the phrase 'high functioning autistic' really opened my eyes. They want what they can use.
@Orb2069 @KatyElphinstone very much agreed
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Looking into the origin of the phrase 'high functioning autistic' really opened my eyes. They want what they can use.
Ouch! And yes, it's very explicit, isn't it... "functioning"
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I completely agree. I wouldn't want a "cure" if where was one - but that's when referring to the condition as a whole. Certain bits I could sure do without and actively work on changing: like being able to recognize emotions by facial expression (or to be able to show my own more clearly).
Yes - I could do without my nervous system making my body go into literal agony (physical pain) when I'm distressed, stressed out, or upset by something. That would be nice to not have (although, then again, I guess it is informing me that something's amiss..)
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@KatyElphinstone I'm autistic. I like being autistic. I have skills that most people dont have.
What hurts me is the distain most people have for autism, and try to change me, boss me around, and do anything they feel will motivate me to be doing something I dont want to be doing, because "everyone does it"
I am not like most people.
I want people to appreciate me for who I am, different, not deficit.Society's general perception of autism is the problem, not me.
Exactly. And I agree with you about where that problem lies.
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Most autistic people, despite everything, actually like being autistic.
Not all, of course. But most of us.
And I don’t just mean ‘making peace with it’.I mean: it's bound up with who we are.
A thread 🧵
1/11
(refs at the end)
#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent@KatyElphinstone It’s literally in my DNA for me.
(It is mentioned in the genetic diagnostic I got after my first breast cancer).
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@KatyElphinstone I'm autistic. I like being autistic. I have skills that most people dont have.
What hurts me is the distain most people have for autism, and try to change me, boss me around, and do anything they feel will motivate me to be doing something I dont want to be doing, because "everyone does it"
I am not like most people.
I want people to appreciate me for who I am, different, not deficit.Society's general perception of autism is the problem, not me.
@GreenRoc @KatyElphinstone amen to that. I feel you because I am the same, but more and more I just tell people that what I do or don't is because of that, then they stopped doing whatever they did that was annoying.
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I completely agree. I wouldn't want a "cure" if where was one - but that's when referring to the condition as a whole. Certain bits I could sure do without and actively work on changing: like being able to recognize emotions by facial expression (or to be able to show my own more clearly).
@jmcclure @KatyElphinstone Similarly, I wouldn't want to change my general brain operating system - or perhaps more accurately can't imagine what it'd be like to have a different one! - but wish I didn't get so easily overloaded by light and sound
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Most autistic people, despite everything, actually like being autistic.
Not all, of course. But most of us.
And I don’t just mean ‘making peace with it’.I mean: it's bound up with who we are.
A thread 🧵
1/11
(refs at the end)
#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent -
Most autistic people, despite everything, actually like being autistic.
Not all, of course. But most of us.
And I don’t just mean ‘making peace with it’.I mean: it's bound up with who we are.
A thread 🧵
1/11
(refs at the end)
#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent@KatyElphinstone I like being autistic, even though it is very difficult. I don't want to be "cured".
Same thing: I like being trans. My life is better for being trans than it would have been if my parents had given me a detrans pill when I was a toddler.
Same thing: I have psychotic experiences, and I have tried so hard for so long to cure them. But I realize now that the real problem was my war against the experiences - the rejection of them, the fight to be "sane", the insistence on seeing myself as broken.
Diversity has value - both for society and spiritually for the individual.
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@GreenRoc @KatyElphinstone amen to that. I feel you because I am the same, but more and more I just tell people that what I do or don't is because of that, then they stopped doing whatever they did that was annoying.
@tursiops Yeah, I feel better if I am accepted.
Unlike your situation, I tell someone to stop something, and they double down and do more of it. Meltdown of sensory overload then happens.
My two friends will stop what they are doing if I ask them to, and they also warn me when they are about to make some noises, and tell me what a noise is if I ask, "what was that?" good friends
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If autistic people are saying ‘this is part of who I am’ and the response is to continue to fund ways to reduce and eliminate autism, while making very sure our voices are not heard.
That isn’t neutral.
It's chilling.11/11
End of 🧵
Refs in link below
@KatyElphinstone A cure isn't possible. That would be death.
I hate my anxiety, and EDS. I hate delays processing my emotions, and difficulty recognizing them...
But I like me, and wouldn't change that for anything, and I am autistic.
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@KatyElphinstone I'm autistic. I like being autistic. I have skills that most people dont have.
What hurts me is the distain most people have for autism, and try to change me, boss me around, and do anything they feel will motivate me to be doing something I dont want to be doing, because "everyone does it"
I am not like most people.
I want people to appreciate me for who I am, different, not deficit.Society's general perception of autism is the problem, not me.
@GreenRoc @KatyElphinstone yes! couldn’t have said it better – problems with my autism are overwhelmingly the problems other people have with it and insist on inflicting on me.
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There is, quite literally, an Autism Investor Summit – where autism services are discussed in terms of market growth and M&A.
So yes.
Autism is also a business model.
(refs at the end)9/11
@KatyElphinstone Often called the ‘Autism Industrial Complex’.
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That idea – that there’s a separable ‘pure self’ – is basically not one that's shared by us.
But it's very popular elsewhere!
Many millions are poured into #autism research every year, in the areas of treatment, intervention, prevention, and the hunt for biomarkers.
3/11
@KatyElphinstone
I don't think of my deeper self as autistic, but it isn't NT either.
Kinda like, underneath their small talk and their fibbing, NT people can have a deeper self that isn't NT. -
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@KatyElphinstone I like being autistic, even though it is very difficult. I don't want to be "cured".
Same thing: I like being trans. My life is better for being trans than it would have been if my parents had given me a detrans pill when I was a toddler.
Same thing: I have psychotic experiences, and I have tried so hard for so long to cure them. But I realize now that the real problem was my war against the experiences - the rejection of them, the fight to be "sane", the insistence on seeing myself as broken.
Diversity has value - both for society and spiritually for the individual.
Thanks for sharing this, it's beautiful.
🥰
