I'm proud to be autistic, you should be too

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Gay pride parades aren't an issue, they're really no different from things like Mardi Gras or spring break or Carnival.

im not proud. it's not an accomplishment. but im not ashamed either.

Sometimes it is double-sided for me. I'm glad I am autistic because that's who I am and how I am and it just makes up who I am! But there are times when life can be really difficult because of it and I slip into these brief moments when I wish I was "normal" because sometimes it is REALLY hard to deal with things in life. My mind just moves slower. It takes longer to process things and I have sensory issues sometimes near to severe and severe anxiety. Basically to me it feels like the world moves too fast for me to keep up with it. I do things at my own speed and it isn't fast enough to keep up with this face-paced world. Then again being autistic makes me who I am and yes I am proud of it at times. It makes me detail-oriented and although I have deficits in some areas I am really smart in others.

I just read someone's post that we shouldn't be proud at all, that most of us don't have jobs or lovers, that we have hardly any friends or can drive or go to college. And NT people think we're nerds and we're all just a bunch of losers even if we don't want to admit it. Th OP said they'd take the cure if there was one.

So I guess if one person feels that way, the rest of us should as well.

Great. I guess I'll just go kill myself, then.

Autism for me is both good and bad.

Sure, I'm proud to be autistic!

If I had a choice of whether I would rather be autistic or NT, I would stay autistic, so in that sense, I am proud.

I would also choose being Autistic over NT because it's all I know and it's who I am. I like how I view things and understand things logically and sequentially and outside the box rather than socially. But Autism is exceptionally challenging for me in many ways because I live in an nt world. I am proud of many things that I have been able to accomplish and my Autistic traits have helped me accomplish them but I am not proud of being Autistic. That to me is as ridiculous as if I were nt and going around saying I am proud of being nt. If someone told me that they were proud of being nt, I would wonder proud as opposed to what? If you are proud of being nt, would it make you not proud if you were something else? I think some of us might even get offended if someone went around saying how proud he was to be nt. I see no difference in being Autistic. If I were to take particular pride in being Autistic, would that mean that I would be ashamed if I had Down's Syndrome? I don't see any reason of being proud to be what we are born being. I am not proud to be black or to be a woman or to be a human being. My accomplishments can make me proud but the things that are just part of who I am are just that, just part of who I am. I did not create them or accomplish them. It's like saying I am proud that I have brown eyes. Would I be ashamed if I had green eyes? It just doesn't make sense.

Speaking as someone who didn't talk for the first 7 years of life yet was not diagnosed until age 64 , I feel very strongly that the worst handicap of autism is not knowing you have it . Getting the diagnosis was the most liberating event of my life because now I can finally begin to understand the massive amounts of confusion , doubt , pain and needless suffering in my life . Am I proud of being autistic ? Not really but I sure am relieved to know why I think , feel and act the way I have . Am I ashamed of it ? Absolutely not , in fact I think it's a gift if you know how to use it . I compare it to having a brand new 450 HP Ferrari where none of the switches or gauges are labelled , the windshield is fogged up and you can't find where to put the key . We don't need a cure , what we need is an owners manual that helps us understand , sort and make sense of the overwhelming amount of information we can access .

I absolutely hate it when people say they hate having Autism when it really doesn't affect them that much. Autism effects me a lot and I love being Autistic.

As one who is affected by it a lot I go back and forth between liking it and disliking it.

It might be harder for those not affected by it as much being between both worlds.