How Can Anyone "Be Proud" of being autistic?

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i agree

I'd take a cure if one was offered to me, even if it would cut a decade or more off my life, as long as it would leave me functional in the remaining time.

That doesn't keep me from noticing that there are positives to this damn miserable disease.

Doesn't keep me from taking pride in what I have accomplished in spite of it (or sometimes because of it).

I HATE THIS DAMN DISEASE. And they tell me I'm so damn high-functioning that I barely qualify for a diagnosis.

I can choose to like myself, ASD and all, anyway. Why would I want to do that?? Because the years I've spent liking myself have been, by and large, the years when I wasn't filled with rage, intermittently struggling with suicidal ideation, unproductive, and allowing people who have no right to dictate the terms of my existence to do so anyway.

I'm always weird. But there's BAD, and then there's WORSE. Shame and self-hate make WORSE.

It's not a "scourge of the earth"--but it is not delightful, either.

I think we should be "proud" when we overcome obstacles placed our way.

For me, it challenges you immensely and relentlessly, this world is hard enough to persevere in without having complex issues hindering you, just getting through each day can be a monumental achievement with this specter bouncing off your bones and colluding with whatever else is grinding you down. The condition is ingrained within each of us and manifests in myriad ways and the development process has been profoundly affected and fractured, we are decorated by having navigated the labyrinth and sway of life with this thing swelling through our brains, we don't know any different. If one is proud of oneself, and identifies as an autistic person, and accepts all the degrees and depths, then we can be proud of being who we are, which is autistic. If one identifies as a person suffering from autism, who does not see it as anything but a curse and sickness, it is not the same concept of course. Every human being has a right to feel proud of their path in life and what they do to remain breathing and gaining whatever successes they can manage irrespective of what conditions they possess or do not possess.

Well, I would not say I was proud, but I am not ashamed.

What I would say is I am less ashamed of who I am since I got my diagnosis.

Being proud of being autistic is kind of ridiculous, being ashamed of it is ridiculous as well. It's neither a badge of honour or shame. It just IS.

Op I was feeling bad about a friend but your op made me feel better. Didn't expect a laugh out of it but grief, take a step back. Just slow down

I am neither proud nor embarrassed of my diagnosis. It is a part of me that cannot be changed but can to an extent be managed. At 41 years old i have had one girlfriend and two good, true friends in my entire life and I'm ok with that. I work low wage jobs, but my needs and wants are not grand or expensive. I don't see myself as an "aspie" and i see people who aren't autistic as "NT's." Life is what you make it. People are who they choose to be. I choose to be me, to be just George, and that's what I'm proud of, not a diagnosis.
Thank you for listening.

-I can do paperwork 400% faster than everyone else.

-I notice different things and patterns.

-I do not think anyone (not nearly as often as I would like) plans beyond "let's do work" . . . my crazy brain is capable of planing things better than that.

-I can work 12-14 hour-days with laser focus. My co-workers are like "I don't want 1.5 pay and commissions, I need to do stuff that does not pay me." I am like "do that crap after the season is over . . . why are you not obsessing over this?"

-I noticed that the phone forwarding turned off at EXACTLY 4:00 PM everyday and made our call volume drop like 80-90% for 3-5 hours per day . . . during the crazy all-the-overtime-you-want time of the year. Nigh everyone I told was all like . . . people are eating, or they are in traffic, or we are still getting calls, or that's not my problem. I mean how damned fool silly is this problem? Fixing this little stupid thing could end up making us crazy cash come the crazy season.

-But it does suck when people think that I am up to no good, think that I am lying, or think that I am stealing. Being misread is a real pain.

-Having oddball motives sucks sometimes.

So it sucks sometime, but it can be useful.

How can I be proud of being autistic? Hmm, let's see...

I see a specialist psychologist every month or so, who told me I can do amazing things, things he can only dream of being capable of. He said someone ought to write a book about me.

Not content with wanting someone else to do a half-baked job of it, I took up his challenge that evening.

6 weeks later, I have a 65536-word (no, I'm not making that up!) manuscript, in which 13 of my 14 chapters cover in pretty intense detail those things that I can do (the other chapter's the introduction). It comes out to 101 A4 pages, and only about 3 or 4 of that total are about "negative" things like meltdowns... the rest is about the strengths my autism has given me.

I've done this while still managing a full-time job, transitioning back to living on my own (which means shopping and cooking, harder for me than most given I have a large number of intolerances to deal with), and renovating my house.

Oh, and about my job? Nearly everyone on my 40-or-so member project team look up to me (the ones that don't have issues with *everyone*, so it's nothing to do with me. For once!). The team manager, who is two levels above me in leadership, comes to me for advice because she knows she won't get the spin like she gets from the others, and she knows I only ever give considered, thoughtful advice based on experience with detecting and managing risks, etc. (which is one of the skills I have from my autism).

I am seeking for my book to be published, I'll maybe post a thread about it closer to the time after it's had a round of editing by someone other than me (that's to make sure the NT's who read it won't get too confused).

Regarding my autism, I'm coming out loud and proud.