It’s all just being autistic!

Since the time of Leo Kanner, the naming and codifying of what it is to be autistic has gone through many variations. We’ve had Kanner’s autism, Classic Autism. Autistic Disorder, Aspergers Syndrome, PDD-NOS, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Autism Spectrum Condition.

But they’re all naming the same thing, they’re all naming what it is to be autistic. You’ve likely heard the phrase, if you’ve met one autistic person then you’ve met one autistic person, it’s something of a cliche but it does communicate a basic truth, that every autistic person is a unique and individual person. We’re all different.

Some have said we’re possibly more different to each other than non-autistic people are from each other. There could be some truth, and yet, there is something we share that is ties us together as a tribe. An autistic tribe.

As autistic people we share many differences to each other, sensory differences, social and communication differences. Some of us have no issue with eye contact and yet for some of us, actually giving eye contact is actually painful, intensely so.

Often the most noted difference is the difference in our speech and language skills. Indeed, it was in DSMIV meant to be the difference between an autistic disorder diagnosis and an Aspergers Syndrome diagnosis. But unfortunately it didn’t pan out that way. Many autistic people that did have speech and language difficulties were given a diagnoses of Aspergers, even though, according to the criteria it should have been autistic disorder.

An unfortunate repercussion of all this different naming is the building of division in some sections of the autistic tribe. A misconception that an Aspergers diagnosis was somehow better, that it was some kind of mild version of autism has grown up around it. And the reality is that it’s absolute bullshit. Aspergers is not different it is autism.

We’re all autistic, regardless of the nomenclature and none of us are better or worse than any other autistic. We all have our skills and strengths and we all have our challenges and difficulties. They aren’t ranked, they’re just different.

It’s unfortunate that the non autistic world we inhabit likes to codify these things as better or worse than each other. This world has created fictional names for an autism diagnosis like High Functioning, Low Functioning, Mild, Severe are a few examples. The thing is though they are not real, they are fictions created by the non-autistic world to make an attempt to codify us, to level us, to rank us against each other.

And it’s all bullshit.

We as a tribe have faced enough rubbish research looking for causes and cures. We’ve had enough trauma being subjected to horrible therapies designed to make us indistinguishable from a non-autistic person. We’ve had to deal with more than our share of rubbish diets and fads, had our existence equated with the very rare condition of a vaccine injury.

It’s time we stand together and call bullshit to it all.

We aren’t a mistake, we don’t need to be made indistinguishable, we don’t need to be intervened on. We need to stand together and call out all the bullshit and stand strong together as an autistic tribe declaring strongly our call to action, that we are Different Not Less and that there should be Nothing About Us Without Us.

Whatever we use as our identity preference is a personal thing, one that we each make within ourselves, and that is our right to do and we should never be told we can’t do such a thing. Personally the best and most correct is Autistic. I have friends who love the term Aspie, I don’t like it myself but it is not my right to tell them they can’t use them.

I absolutely believe Identity first language about ourselves is the best way to go, but I also believe every single autistic has the right to choose the way they identify in regard to their autism.

Having said this, what is key is that we don’t let false distinctions of label divide us that we stand united and claim our human rights, our rights to exist as we are, to be who we are and not have our existence called into question.

We are autistic, we are human, we are Different Not Less!!

Autistic tribe, I call on us all together to declare it and to insist on Nothing About Us Without Us. No more Bleach, No more fad diets, No more antivax bullshit, no more conversion therapy and dog training.

What we want is support. Support to be the best individual autistic person we can be, to get the very best out of life we can as we carve out our lives as our true autistic selves.

Let’s proclaim our call tribe, Nothing About Us Without Us. We are Different Not Less.