boofle wrote:
we would NOT be where we are today had it not been for me knowing what he had. fact.
I know it's common to talk about autism as something people "have," but it's not a disease, that invades the body and rides along as a parasite.
Since it actually involves prenatal configuration of the brain, it's less something we HAVE, than something we ARE.
I know to many, it's just hair-splitting, but while autism
is my condition, I
AM autistic. There is no separating me from my brain. I
AM an autistic personality. To eliminate the autism would destroy my identity, and my personality (which are what they are, because of 24/7 immersion in an autistic point-of-view for years on end).
Without that constant experience of living inside an autistic brain, my personality would have developed into an entirely different individual.
boofle wrote:
you don't have a disease. you just think differently to me.
Even more than that -
we literally experience the entire world differently than you do, all day, every day, from sunup to sunup. And for that reason, I cannot imagine making any effort to hide who I am, to someone I WANT to know me. It's going to be difficult enough for them to make heads or tails of my behavior as it is, and I already have issues with disclosure, when it comes to expressing how I really feel (I know, Wrong Planeteers may find that difficult to believe, but it's true).
I always tried to tell anyone I ever dated up front that I was weird and difficult, even before I knew exactly why I was like that, but seriously, it's not like they couldn't see that from a mile away. To pretend otherwise would only have made me seem dense, and lacking in self-awareness.
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"I don't mean to sound bitter, cynical or cruel - but I am, so that's how it comes out." - Bill Hicks