What even is autism?

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It doesn't though.

Impair is subjective.

I enjoy my daily life.

The idea of a disability is something that either impairs someone or that makes someone inferior. For eg my dyspraxia makes me inferior to someone without it, in the area of motor skills.

My autism doesn't impair me or make me inferior.

It's a stupid label.

I wouldn't have had it if I went to the smaller school. Mum wouldn't have bothered pushing for it cos I wasn't impaired to a great extent.

I resent the disbelief on this site that someone can be autistic and entirely happy with themselves and not in need of correction. It's becoming an Autism Speaks type site.

This Yank confesses to still being confused. Is "It's" referring to "students" or "pupils"?

Students.

In the UK it used to be that one was a "pupil" until 16. If someone opted for an education beyond that age, one would become an "FE student", "sixth form student" or (18+) "university student". This was a choice alongside a job or instead of a job. It wasn't school/compulsory education.

This is now considered patronising. In my school planner it said "we refer to you as students not pupils because you are no longer children, you are young people". We were 11/12. Sure we were leaving primary school but we weren't entering adulthood.

But they're kids. You don't see that when you're a 15 yo student/pupil, but you're not a proper adult yet at that age. At 13-15, you're a teenager and that's arguably different to both a child and an adult. But at 11 and 12, you're still a child.

The way I see it is by looking at the word itself, Aut-ism. This indicates a level of inwardness or being “to the self” since it literally means self-ism. This can manifest in different ways with some cases being more or less severe than others. On one hand, you have those who have limited awareness of their environment, intellectual impairment and can’t speak. On the higher functioning end, you have those with normal language development and average to above average intelligence with the impairments showing in more subtle ways. This can manifest in lack of interest in socializing, wanting to socialize but having no clue how, and not automatically learning social behaviors that NTs do automatically, having to be explicitly taught things that you should “just know.”
Note that this isn’t the same thing as shyness or introversion but rather a lack of social cognition. It may manifest as introversion or shyness but the underlying cause is different. Neurotypicals who are simply introverted don’t have trouble learning how to be social or understanding social situations, they just prefer to be alone more than an extrovert would.

You can't get an Autism diagnosis if your life is not impaired. Just because one is impaired does not mean he can't enjoy his life.

I am no longer going to respond to any of your posts. I don't believe that you and I are able to have an actual conversation because you don't understand anything I am saying.

I think I am more in KT67 's camp on this. The Diagnostic Criteria listed on the CDC's web site appear to me to consider just being different to be an impairment.

It is quite possible for an autist to have a good, productive, happy, successful life and still be considered impaired just because they are different. There are hints of prejudice there.

From the same site you linked to, the DSM-5 has this criteria:



That does not sound like just being different.

Thank you ^^

It is a matter of definitions. When they described the "impairments" it appears they consider just being different from NTs to be an "impairment". The individual has an impaired ability to pass as an NT.

Personally, I have a number of those so-called "impairments" and the psychologist who assessed me saw them, too. But I don't suffer from these "impairments", I am fine with them. And I have done better than many despite them. Mainly I have suffered from how I've been treated because of my differences.

It is not simply being different from NTs. Being different is not a clinical diagnosis or impairment in and of itself. It must cause problems of functioning.

You are simply presenting one side of the neurodiversity argument that autism is a difference not a disability without recognizing that you are actually getting a diagnosis because it is impacting your ability to function. To argue it is "just" social norms and so it is only about how people "treat" you is a disingenuous argument (and dangerous as NTs can simply claim a behavioral issue and autism is not a behavioral disorder). Autism is a social functioning disorder. We do not have the biology that allows us to function in society. Likewise, the biology of NTs is not magically going to disappear to accommodate us.

Yes, I can agree with the idea of a "difference not disability" in certain aspects of autism. Autistic people can be highly capable. But rejecting the impact the disorder has on us to function in society is marginalizing the issues facing autistic people. And the diagnostic criteria supports that impact.

I think that many who consider ASD as a difference / diversity rather than a disability,
do so in the context that ASD only makes a person disabled due to the present manner
in which how society functions.

In a world that took into consideration the differences in that people with ASD experience the world,
then ASD would no longer be a disability but just one of the many differences that members of the human race
experience as part of the their existence.

That said, as the world presently operates, I would argue that ASD does may us disabled in that
we have major challenges living as a person with the ASD "difference" in experiencing the world
while the world is presently does not cater for our various differences in the way we experience the world.

Being labelled as disabled can make us ASD sufferers feel a bit rubbish,
however on the positive side, it can help us in some areas, such as getting disabled benefits
and supported employment etc.

Sure, bit of a consolation prize but better than not being helped in any way, or worse still,
locked up permanently in an adult psychiatric clinic for our entire lives for being different.

Imagine that, as that is how some people with ASD spent their entire lives in the past.

Being disabled in this way isn't the worst thing ever, although, i am a late diagnosis person.
I wasn't really aware i was disabled until fairly recently, getting a diagnosis at the age of 44.
Strange to live my entire life as normal, to find out aged 44 that I am not.

But never mind, i never tried to be normal any how. Don't really care to be normal.
Most normal people are boring.

Difference doesn't mean impairment. I can be different and not be impaired. My being black makes me different from the majority of people I live around who are white. That is a difference but in no way, shape, or form, does the color of my skin prevent me from functioning. My sensory sensitivities prevent me from functioning. They literally shut my brain down. That is an impairment. The color of my skin does not shut my brain down.

I think the issue that gets missed by the "difference not disability" argument is that, while it is just a "difference", it can make a person less able to do the things they want or need to do. At that point, "difference" becomes "disability." A person who is paralyzed just has a "neurological difference" until they come to a building with stairs but no ramp.

Is the "wrong" skin color a disability? Lefthandedness? Being unusually tall or short? Aversion to cilantro? All can interfere with doing things you want or need to.

Obviously some people are disabled by autism. But in the version of autism I got and at the level of severity where I live I think calling it a "disability" is an overstatement. It would be presumptuous of me to expect to be treated as if I was disabled--it would be helpful to be treated as me. I am "impaired" at always behaving like an NT, but they would be impaired at behaving like me--we are different from each other. It appears to me I am considered "impaired" because there are a lot more of them and might makes right so I must be "wrong".

Well it`s good your happy but i think you`ll admit yourself you have mild symptoms, as opposed to someone on the severe end of the spectrum.

Autism is a 1940`s parking space for various disorders of the brain that science hadn’t found an exact cause for so they just gave it a name Autism.

There is plenty of official scientific evidence for the brain not forming correctly in the womb online if you choose to look for it.

Where it is diagnosed its nearly always a disability that can only be by-passed by avoiding key human living tasks.

It’s all very well living with your parents having them cook, clean for you, not working, picking up the disability welfare cheque and pretending your autism does not disable you.

It’s not a real-life stress test of your condition. If all that was taken away how would you fair? would you be able to go out into the world and get stuff? Get employment, manage your job, deal with people effectively, not allow your sensory difficulties get in the way? Manage your own money, pay your bills, be productive enough to your boss to not get fired?

Its why long-term prisoners sometimes prefer life back inside, life is easy, they don’t have to deal with stuff, its all taken care of.