Poll 23: Are the current terms for autism the most accurate

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Do you think that these terms used to describe those on the autistic spectrum are the most accurate and appropriate words which could be used?

Syndrome, Disorder, Condition, Disability, Affected by, Suffers from

Classifying people is difficult because we are all so different. People can only be categorized on a spectrum--what statisticians call a range. Obviously for the severely autistic, ASD can be an extreme disability or disorder. In my case, my AS causes me a lot of problems, but on the whole I think I have turned my AS into an advantage.

The only one I dislike of those is "suffers from".

Syndrome - Unsure, as I'm not 100% sure what it means exactly, nor what the connotations are.
Disorder - Bad. Implies that NT is the only possible norm.
Condition - Unsure. I'm not a native English speaker so I'm not quite sure about all the connotations. In its base meaning, it seems OK.
Disability - Bad/ableist. Puts the responsibility for all problems on the autistic side. However, it is needed to garner support in NT minds, who seem to think only disabled people deserve support.
Affected by - Seems very neutral, and therefore appropriate.
Suffers from - The worst of all. We don't suffer from autism, we suffer from the people who don't understand us.

Definitions

Source: The Oxford Paperback Dictionary and Thesaurus.


syndrome noun 1 group of concurrent symptoms of disease. 2 characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, etc.



disorder noun 1 confusion. 2 tumult, riot. 3 bodily or mental ailment.

1 anarchy, chaos, confusion, disarray, disorderliness, disorganisation, jumble, mess, muddle, colloquial shambles, tangle, untidiness. 2 clamour, commotion, disturbance, fighting, fracas, fuss, lawlessness, riot, colloquial rumpus, tumult, uproar. 3 see ILLNESS 1.



condition noun 1 stipulation; thing on fulfilment of which something else depends. 2 state of being or fitness of person or thing. 3 ailment. 4 (in plural) circumstances. verb 1 bring into desired stare. 2 accustom. 3 determine. 4 be essential to.

1 limitation, obligation, prerequisite, proviso, qualification, requirement, requisite, restriction, stipulation. 2 fettle, fitness, form, health, colloquial nick, order, shape, state, trim, working order. 3 see ILLNESS 1. 4 (conditions) see CIRCUMSTANCE 1. verb 1 educate, fit, prepare, teach, train. 2 acclimatize, accustom, brainwash, educate, mould, re-educate, teach, train.



Illness noun 1 disease. 2 ill health.

1 affliction, ailment, slang bug, complaint, condition, disease, disorder, health problem, indisposition, infection, infirmity, malady, malaise, pestilence, plague, sickness. 2 disability, infirmity, indisposition, sickness, weakness.


Edit: To add disease


disease noun 1 unhealthy condition of organism or part of organism 2 (specific) disorder or illness. diseased adjective

affliction, ailment, blight, slang bug, complaint, condition, contagion, disorder, illness, infection, infirmity, malady, plague, sickness. diseased ailing, ill, infirm, sick, unwell




From what I can see reading my thesaurus "brain disease" is just as acceptable as "development disorder" as "condition" as "mental illness" as "Asperger's syndrome"

In my opinion, a lot of autistic people are very used to hearing these terms to describe their mentality from a very early age, they relate the terms specifically to certain aspects of their own neurology rather than sticking to the terms literal meaning, and in doing so they embrace the terms without realising that they mean much different things literally and to other people. I'm guessing that a few autistics will be surprised to see the definitions from my dictionary.

You have to realise that neurotypical people have not been relating these terms to themselves and they will be thinking about either the terms literal meaning, or most likely relating the terms to their own negative assumptions of your neurology.

I think we need a more accurate and literal definition which everyone can relate to and which is not just a random plethora of words, centred around the word "illness", which can more or less be interchanged with one another. From reading my thesaurus it seems that most of the words used by those who speak about autism are fairly interchangeable, so why do they use all of them and not just one? And the vagueness given by different interpretation from relating differently to the terms rather than sticking to the literal meaning. These things seem to benefit those who think they are qualified to speak about autism but in reality don't know what they are speaking about, it's safe for them to just pick a few of these random terms whilst everyone nods their heads and agrees that autism is bad.

As for my own neurology I don't relate to any of the terms, I disagree that any are accurate to describe me, and I dislike the negativity associated with them, as if people have the right to judge my neurology. I especially dislike illness and disease, which the words condition, disorder and syndrome are interchangeable with. I feel that my mind is different but functioning well and that I'm not ill at all, none of these terms describe that.

Having said that I fully accept that there are autistic people who do feel that there are strong negatives in their autistic neurology and who need to use negative terms when talking about this. Every autistic person is different and the key here is not generalising. I don't think that the current model of using only strong negative terms to describe autism does describe autism or autistic people in general properly, let alone the autistic people who do not feel negative about being autistic. The current model, as it only uses negative terms, only describes autistics who do feel very defective and who see no benefits whatsoever in being autistic, if you overlook most of the literal meanings of the terms. I'm not saying: "Use only good terms because I'm autistic and I'm fine!!" Mostly I'm just saying that the current terms being used are literally ridiculous.

Just my own opinion.

Any more opinions on this? This is a major one. I am speaking to a lot of people right now about autism and the more opinions of autistic people I have the better