"autistic" or "has autism"

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I'm genuinely curious about this, because I know a lot of people don't like the term "person with autism" because it detaches the autism from the individual, and some don't like "autistic person" because they feel that you're trying to define them by their autism. My question, what is your perspective on this topic?

I don't think of "autism" as being a "disease"---so I don't believe that I "have" autism. I am "autistic," though.

It seems to me that "having" something implies that you "caught" it, somehow.

To me, it's simply how my brain works, not something I caught like the flu. I don't "have autism." I just am autistic. It's like being introverted. I don't "have introversion" I just am introverted.

That's just my thought on it. It's not some affliction I've acquired like high blood pressure or something. Maybe it depends on how the person views their diagnosis. Someone who truly dislikes autism in their life, may feel afflicted and say they have autism. Others who are more accepting of it in their life may say they are autistic.

Although, it really can go either way. Just like with blood pressure, both "I am hypertensive" and "I have hypertension" are technically correct.

Are people so ridiculous that they worry about peanuts like this when people are starving and dying with no healthcare, there's perpetual war and the environment is being raped by multinationals? No wonder those companies are so eager to keep us obsessing over linguistic insensitivity; while we're doing so, they take away our health and savings and destroy our planet.

I prefer autistic .

Autistic. I have a cold, a toothache, blonde hair. I am autistic.

As long as you don't call me an "autist"!

My autism is just as much a part of me as my love for writing or my love for Sylvia or my being a woman... I consider myself an autistic woman or an autistic writer because it is part of my social identity and I love my autism and I know that I would not be me without it. .

In a neurotypical world, we must have pride in our minds, in how we see the world, and also how we can change it. )))...

I think of myself as “autistic”but if somebody prefers being called “person with autism” it is fine with me. What is not fine with me is ninnies who go around correcting people for using a term they don’t like.

I prefer the term "autistic" because the term "person with autism" makes it sound like autism is something I could get rid off. And like we know, it's not.

I'm autistic. As much as I'm also a human female.


But I have chronic rhinitis/sinusitis, sleep disturbance, and hormonal imbalances that everyone else could be dealing with.
But people blamed it's cognitive effects to my blundered functioning towards autism, and the problems itself passed off as minor problems that they don't have to take it seriously.

Yet I also have dark brown hair and eyes. No one blames those things over something else other than being born and brought up from the same places.


I could care less if people prefers a person with or has autism.
Because people truly know nor don't have think about those things -- and whatever they thought and felt are none of my business.

As much as they don't have to consider what I thought or felt either, no one should tell me what my choices are otherwise.

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I don't really believe autism is a disease. Therefore, it bothers me when my mom says that I have autism. I would much prefer being called autistic.

Unfortunately, every time I tell my mom about this preference, she doesn't actually listen to me and continues using person-first language.

I just call myself autistic because it's a part of me. Autism isn't a disease that I carry. I'm not with autism, I'm proudly autistic.

Either one.