I find this contradicting

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That's what I always wanted when I was younger & I'm on ESA now & that's how I spend a good portion of my time.

Me.

We live in an overly unstructured, overly social world.

If society can't change then they should at least make accomodations for those of us who would do better in a superior world: more hobby focused and more structured.

I don't consider myself non disabled though. I've always suffered from dyspraxia and I picked up social anxiety after university which is a disability. I even consider parts of my autism disabling (eg sensory stuff).

I just don't think my personality is a disability. I think to do so would be self-hatred.

There is no contradiction between wanting accommodations for the way you're wired and not thinking you're disabled. Being left handed isn't innately a disability, even if it means you struggle without any accommodations made for it. Disability is context dependent - change the context, and what is considered a disability changes.

I don't like how America has lumped all autism types into one diagnosis. I do not believe there is one type of autism, with one cause and differing degrees of severity, and lumping them all together into one category makes exploring this a lot harder. Point mutation autism is not the same as polygenic aspergers.

I agree with you. So many spectrumers have appealed against any functioning labels because of the fact that everyone on the spectrum are too different from one another, but ain't that the reason we need functioning labels? OK a lot of spectrumers fall into the "moderate" category where the severity of their symptoms can contradict or they can be high-functioning on one day then essentially require accommodations the next. But also there are people on the spectrum who are wholly high-functioning, like myself for example. I seldom need any accommodations, and I think most people here can tell by what I talk about in my posts that I am very high-functioning. And then there are some spectrumers that are low-functioning and require care and support their whole lives.

I hate having to be lumped in with autism now. I feel like "autism" doesn't describe me. "Autism" is supposed to mean "self" and is often described as "repetitive behaviours" (which I don't have) and "restricted special interests" (which I don't have) and "giftedness/good at memorizing facts" - which I also don't have and never had. I am not gifted.
But I am on the autism spectrum because I struggled socially through high school and used to have emotional outbursts and mood adjusting issues and was difficult to live with. I'm on Sertraline now, which controls all that s**t. But I still feel like the meaning of autism doesn't describe me. In fact I wish Asperger's was a separate thing from autism, so that if I told anyone I have it they won't immediately think "that means you're autistic! But how? You can make eye contact, you have a sense of humour, you can have conversations, you are good at working in a team, you have no difficulties in your relationship..."

If I had to be cursed with a disability at least give me a disability with a relevant name that makes sense.

It can be both a disability and a difference without contradicting. The two do not contradict each other at all.

Problem is, the distinction between "point mutation" and "polygenetic" wasn't even known until sometime after the DSM 5 was published. And the genetics of the many different kinds of autism is still being sorted out.

The reason for lumping them all together was NOT because "autism" is one single thing, with one cause, but because there wasn't yet a reasonable way of distinguishing different types. The distinctions amongst "Autistic disorder," "Asperger's disorder", and PDD-NOS were arbitrary, inconsistent, and difficult to diagnose, especially in adults. By the way, not everyone diagnosed with "Autistic disorder" has a "point mutation."

As the genetics of autism continues to get sorted out, various specific genetic syndromes will get their own names. In the meantime, "autism" remains a useful umbrella category.

The general category "autism" will probably continue to be useful even after the different types are sorted out. There are so many different kinds of autism that creating separate support infrastructures for each type would not be feasible.

You appear to be confusing two different issues here. The reason why "Asperger's disorder" was taken out of the DSM was not because people were objecting to functioning labels, but because of the difficulty of distinguishing between "Asperger's disorder" and what was then informally called "high-functioning autism" -- especially in adults.

One of the criteria for "Asperger's disorder" was that there must not be a clinically significant speech delay. But how can it be determined when someone learned to talk? When diagnosing a small child, this is easy. But for an adult? It was necessary to rely on the family's memories, which are notoriously unreliable.

"Functioning" labels, on the other hand, were based on IQ test scores, not speech.

The many complaints about "functioning" labels were addressed by (1) creating three "severity levels," rather than just two, and (2) defining "with or without intellectual disability" as an additional dimension separate from the severity levels, which were to be based not on intellectual disability but on how severely disabling one's autistic traits per se are.

That's perfectly reasonable. It''s hard to do so though if your personality becomes the primary(negative) focus rather than the strengths and weaknesses you have. Criticism,in the warped mind of the mental health professional, is deemed to be more beneficial than help and support.

KT67, Autism is not a personality type. It is a neurological issue. Being Autistic has nothing to do with your personality. Autistic people vary in personality types just as much as anyone else.

Autism is not a personality disorder. Saying autism is personality is a very dangerous idea. Autistic people get blamed enough by NTs ascribing their behavior to a personality deficit.

Agreed!!

I'm talking more about Aspies who correct me when I call it a disability (it's happened here). They're like "oh, don't call it a disability, it's just a difference", but then in other threads the same people were like "oh it's a disability, we are all disabled, etc". Those people are just contradicting themselves, that's all.

Not saying it's anyone specifically here, I'm just saying that it's happened before here in the 10 years that I have been a member.

I really don't know why I'm autistic.

When people told me it, they told me it in terms of personality traits. Introversion, pedantry, preferring books to people etc.

As an adult, I've read my statement from school and it seems just like my report except that instead of framing things as 'model student' it framed things as 'patient'.

So for eg 'loves to read books and is forever collecting new information well beyond her years' became 'obsesses over books and minute details'.

I fit the stereotypes I was given which describe why I'm autistic. But they describe a personality. And not necessarily a bad one, either. More a neutral one depending on if you want to be a social butterfly or an introverted intellectual.

In some ways, we are better than many NTs.

My position is that we are different, rather than wrong.
But I will agree that most of us have what I would call a "social disability" in the context of a toxic, NT defined social system.

I think it's naïve to think it isn't a disability. and doesn't there have to be some level of impairment for you to get a diagnosis? For me autism is absolutely a disability. I'm sure my other problems don't help, but It'd be naïve for me to think otherwise. I've never understood aspie supremacism as i like to call it and imo it just serves to minimize the struggles autistic people face. Like excuse me, if autistic people are the future of the human race than why are a good portion of people with autism unemployed or on disability? As far as the social disability thing I agree with this too. In world with autistic people there'd be plenty of problems caused by poor motor skills, shutdowns, poor communcation (which unlike someone people might like to believe still exists autistic people) I don't think autism should be changed to a disability.
however, I think it's naive to pretend like ti's a disorder. Like are you going to go to the people who are stuck on the developmental level of a small child and are in distress constantly because of sensory issues and be like, no they aren't disabled they are different. You aren't because that'd be absurd. It's naive to pretend autism is a difference because they are people who are disabled by it. Just because you might feel that you have autism and it only makes you a different doesn't mena everyone with autism is like that. and As for asperger's that's a bit different but at the same time not that different there are still people who are disabled by asperger's and as such it isn't a difference.

I think one of the problems you are getting here is that you are asking what we want. Everyone wants different things. Some of the people on the higher end of the spectrum aren't as impaired by their issues and are able to live a mostly normal life. Thus feel sthat it isn't a disability just a difference. Then there are also people who are completely unable to communicate an opinion because they are to low on the spectrum and can't communicate. There's also the people who are in the midrange and are able to communicate but are unable to live a (somewhat) normal life and feel like they are disabled by it. It's like asking the democrats and the republicans all to agree on one thing. It's not gonna happen.
It absolutely is contradicting people have contradicting opinions all the time. You seem to have this idea that since people have autism they will have the same opinion of it. It's not a paradox. Me personally, I Absolutely think autism is a disability because I've struggled my whole life and worked hard to try and learn to deal with my issues and I have nothing to show for it. Except burnout and an inability to function. Of course those are always wonderful.

This is a problem with people in general. They always want the positives without the negatives.