Why do people call being autistic "on the spectrum" now?

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It's this weird term that is being used now as if people are trying to be politically correct. I always called it being autistic, whenever I tell people I have autism, but now people are using this new term and it just seems very unspecific and weird. But what do you think?

Perhaps it better helps them understand the wide range of states, or different levels of functionality, of Autism.

Maybe it's just a natural progression of terminology which always seems to be in flux in terms of mental health or its cousins.

Then there's also the branch of individuals who "Don't call it Autism, that's not appropriate/nice/PC". For me it's Autism or Autistic, I'm perfectly fine with those terms, they don't bother me.

Okay thanks. This gets me curious. How would I determine what my state of functionality is?

I've been using "on the spectrum" for a long time. I'm just trying to be inclusive, when I'm referring to us as a group, rather than having to specify between ASD, Kanners, Aspergers, NVLD, people who don't know what they have, etc.

Sometimes I refer to myself as "on the spectrum somewhere", but normally, I don't discuss my disabilities with anyone (outside of this forum, that is).

People have been using "on the spectrum" for a while now.

Like said above there is still a lot of misconceptions about autism so it is useful in that regard.

There is political correctness involved because there is a lot of language policing and shaming with people being offended by "autistic", "person with autism" "Aspie" etc. "On the spectrum" does not seem to have nearly as much drama associated with it.

I have noticed a lot of people using "Autism scale" lately.

In 1994, autism became much broader in scope. It became a "Spectrum," so to speak.

It reflects the advances in the understanding of autism.

Also: That people, even autistic people, come in many shapes, sizes, and colors.

Oh okay. I'm not offended by it, I just thought of the word autistic as nothing more than a description. As for which part of the spectrum I am, the doctor just diagnosed with me with 'autism' back when I was a little kid in the 90s, so that's all I know of my condition.

For me, I am autistic. There is no way around this. It's simply part of me. That being said, the NT's that I live my life around tend to not know as much as myself when it comes to Autism. They tend to know more of the PC terms like Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Personally I identify with Aspergers more than anything else due to the fact that when I was first suspcious of my Autism I believed that AS made more sense that anything else. But, if I tell someone that I have ASD, they seem to have a more positive response than if I were to tell them I have Aspergers or Autism. I have absolutely no idea why(maybe it makes the effects seem less severe to them), but it does.

IMHO, what you identify yourself as should be what you are comfortable with. Limitations are imposed by the ignorant.

A spectrum, in science, is a line between two points. All AS people are theoretically at some point on that spectrum, so as long as AS is seen as a spectrum - as it currently is described, by science, society and those on it - the term "on the spectrum" is valid and useful, it has nothing whatsoever to do with political correctness.

I don't happen to believe that the spectrum is an accurate representation, and think a Bell Curve distribution would be far more accurate to describe the AS population. However until that change occurs - if ever it does - then "on the spectrum" is accurate meantime.

I disagree with B19. I don’t think the autism spectrum is a line. I think that is a common misconception and implies you can be ‘just a little bit autistic’. And you can be more autistic than someone else. The characteristics are so wide I don’t think a line is appropriate. I personally never use the term ‘on the spectrum’ - that phrase always seems to evoke the answer ‘we’re all on the spectrum somewhere’ Here in the UK my experience is that people use that term to mean someone is a ‘bit odd’ or ‘a bit ocd’ (another phrase that I hate) this cartoon describes the spectrum in a way I completely agree with. Definitely not linear! https://themighty.com/2016/05/rebecca-b ... -spectrum/

Nothing to with political correctness, nor being nice, or being sensitive, nor anything like that.

Its a necessary phrase in this post 1994 world. In that year they expanded the term autism from its1960's narrow meaning of only low functioning classic Kanner types to include a wider range of people, including aspergians (who are usually outwardly quite different from Kanner type autistics).

So in the modern day autism is thought of as being "spectrum" ranging from low to middle to high functioning(depending upon the level of support the person needs), as opposed to the old way of thinking that autism was just one extreme state. Hence the expression "being on the spectrum". Like colors on the spectrum.

Maybe in the UK its become a bit of a euphemistic put down for someone who is a bit odd. But I have never seen it used that way IRL in the US, nor in the online world.

It took me a long time to achieve an understanding of my autism because for the majority of my life autism was used to describe people with really obvious and serious social impediments. Once the spectrum term came onto use and it became clear that autism covered a multitude of conditions I found it a lot easier to realise that my social oddness and dislike of NT behaviours in general had both a description and a diagnosis. If I had continued to believe that autistic people were way more weird than I was I would probably have gone to my grave just feeling that the world was out of step with me (and vice versa). As it is I feel for the first time in my life that I am not alone and that I have unusual abilities and that I can be proud of myself and what I have achieved and without the realisation of the autsim spectrum's existence that would probably never have happened.

To me, it's just more polite.

Because calling myself "aspie" is wrong now, even though I still say I am, and if I say I'm autistic people will be stupid and say "But you don't look autistic". Being aspie is like, I'm not really NT, but I'm not really autistic either. I don't relate well to people with "classic" autism, but I also don't relate well to NTs. I don't relate to anyone.