Aspie or autistic?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm currently training to take part in a local swim to raise some funds for my local autism trust. As part of this I'm thinking about creating a short educational/informational video.

My question atm is this: I would obviously include the full term 'aspergers' and/or 'autism' but out of the two terms, would it be better for me to use 'aspie' or 'autistic'?

Personally, since my diagnosis, I've had no issues with the term aspie and have actually regularly used this online myself, though if I've not yet been in a situation in person where using it would make sense. For example, when I met my personal tutor at uni I obviously said 'I have aspergers', not 'I have aspie'.
Aside from that I'm kind of torn. On the one hand I sort of feel like maybe I should 'autistic' instead of 'aspie' because it might go some way to educating people on autism, in terms of challenging the preconceived ideas and stereotypes people have. On the other hand, I feel a bit like saying I am aspie, whilst perhaps playing to those preconceived, stereotypical ideas, it also perhaps helps to give people a slightly better idea of my skills/abilities/strengths/weaknesses.
Then, regardless of all that, if I personally feel comfortable with it and it doesn't bother me then should I even worry about it?


Also, any input/ideas for the video would be greatly appreciated. I'm pretty set on doing the whiteboard thing though, like a sort of time lapse.

I would use "autistic."

Asperger's is a form of autism. Many autistic people are not Aspergian.

You want to reach EVERY autistic person, right?

I like the word autism for this, in particular, because it shows people what autism looks like. It looks different in each person. So many people think of autism as rainman, and only rainman. That was me before my son was diagnosed.

Good points, thanks.

I think part of my difficulty with the video though, is how do I cover such a wide spectrum?

Some points that I definitely want to include are:
- That the spectrum is more 3D than 2D. By that I mean, you can't be 'a bit autistic' or 'very autistic', you're either autistic or you're not, it's more about you're profile of traits if that makes sense?
- That being said, all autistic traits can be present in the general population/NT's but it is the number of traits and the extent they're present that determine whether someone is autistic or not.
- A bit about how a diagnosis is given.
- I think it's important to me that I point out that whilst some of us need a lifetime of daily specialist support, some of us are able to be a lot more independent, go to university, hold down a job, have a family of our own....
- You shouldn't assume an autistic person's skills and abilities etc. based on any preconceived ideas you may have or simply on how we present. For example, if someone is non-verbal you may assume they do not understand something or have anything to say. Conversely, you may assume that because someone appears to functioning to a high degree, they might have great verbal skills, appear to cope well in certain situations.... that they can't be autistic but you fail to remember that 1) the chances are you are only seeing a tiny fraction of their life and 2) you are almost certainly not seeing the often great struggles/challenges the person is dealing with internally and the enormous work that is often put into managing/coping with them and often masking/hiding them.

I was also considering producing an 'Autism' myths video. (I may even simplify the first video and include some of the above points in the 'Autism myths' video.

As you can tell, I'm still in the planning/figuring things out stage!

That sounds really interesting. I need to watch a video like this. Being brand new to the autism world, I still need education on it all.