People First Language

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I am not Autism. I am a person.

A person who happens to have an Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

Treat me like the person that I am and we'll be friends.

Treat me like a physical representation of clinical symptoms and we won't be friends.

I have a name, and my name is not "Autism".

I have aspergers too.

Pleased to meet with you all.

I'm not autism, but I am autistic.

In some ways I want to be treated like someone with autism. Like on the forums, my forum friends who know I'm autistic, know I have trouble understanding the way things are worded. Either I take it too literal or it's something conceptual I won't get. So they are careful about how to word things to me. They think I'm vary smart, but they also understand my brain works differently.

But at the same time they make me feel like part of the team. A new comer probably sees us as a clique and may even see me as one of the leaders of the clique. So they treat me as autistic where I need it and treat me like a regular person everywhere else.

I'm Ezra and I'm autistic. I'm Ezra and I have autism.

Personally I don't favor one over the other.

I guess I'm the only one who feels like being autistic defines me. I am a vegetarian because I can't stand the texture of meat. I often don't go places with my friends because it is too loud, and if I do, I wear earplugs and look like a freak. I get all As in college when everyone else is struggling to get Ds because of my above average IQ. So I think that it controls me.
Thanks guys for your input .

I don't really mind it much, but it is an interesting discussion.

What I find interesting is that the -tic suffix means "pertaining to" (according to the online free dictionary). "Pertaining to" can either mean "to be related/applicable to" or "to belong to something as a part". As the second definition makes more sense in the contextual usage, it would be the more likely meaning. That means that saying "I'm Autistic" could be construed as saying "I belong to Autism". As Autism does not define me, perhaps then it would be better to say "I have Autism" as it gives me ownership.

Saying "I'm Autistic" seems to flow more easily though lol

I prefer "autistic person" to "person with autism" for myself, because the second one feels slightly dismissive of the part of me that makes up the majority of my personality. I would be a completely different person if I weren't autistic, and so to just tack it onto the end of a phrase like an afterthought or an unfortunate side-effect of my existence makes it sound as if the person is saying, "I think you're great... even though you have this unfortunate condition."

That said, I do enjoy the phrase "I have autism" just for the way it sounds when I say it; it's one of those phrases I can say over and over again just to hear the sounds, until the words lose all meaning. I don't know why.

I self identify as Aspie-Autistic, Autisic or Aspie. I do believe that while Autism is all of who I am as it is my neurology it is damm important part of who I am. But that is me. I think it is up to the individual to call themselves how they they please because they know themselves best. That is not how it works at the moment. For the most part People first language about disabilities is mandated in journalism, education, in psychiatry. For awhile it seemed in every comment section on a blog or youtube some people first fanatic insisted only people first language could be used be used. From what I have seen this really is a one way street, I have rarely if ever seen people insist on identity first language. This was was not a trivial matter to some of us we viewed it as bullying because we viewed it as invalidating and dismissing the very core of who we are. In the threads I read the people who insisted on people first were always called out on it. In the last few months the correctors have disappeared from the threads I read.

You could say, an odd thing is also that if you insist to say "person with", you could ask: isn't it obvious in itself that we speak about a "person" - or is it in one way or another not obvious that the eg. "autistic boy" is a person - isn't it included in "boy" anyway? Isn't it a bit strange that you have to point it out?

You could consider that offensive as well, if you want to.

Don't you just love NTs telling is what language we're supposed to find offensive.

It's not always NT's but usually is.

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