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Would you ever wear a t shirt with the word 'autism' on it?

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babybird
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16 Oct 2021, 9:34 am

Mountain Goat wrote:
I would not wear one unless it was to some sort of planned event that was designed to bring awareness of autism, and then I would want it to be semi descreet.

I would not want to display it normally (I am assuming I am on the spectrum as I write this) as I would want it on a need to know basis.
I do face a dilemma with shutdowns. A few days ago I had one outside the dentist. It was about 85 to 90% deep in that it nearly was a full shutdown except that I was able to retain my sight, though I was on the floor managing to half prop myself up on my remaining strength with one arm so I could partly lean on the side of the building. I try to do this because if I am totally lying down people who see me panic so I try to look less shutdown but like my Mum says, "It is not normal to be slouching down on the floor" which is why when the dentist reception lady was concerned.
The problem is that I am kinda forced to need to speak when I don't want to as I need to stay quiet and wait for me to recover. When the lady says "Do you feel unwell? Do you want me to call an ambulance?" I have to talk because for me an ambulance would be bad due to the smells of hospital being a very powerful shutdown trigger, and the first thing hospital staff do is to try to force me to talk which will cause me to go into a shutdown, and each time I pull out of a shutdown they try to follow the same proceedure again and again by trying to get me to talk, so I end up in shutdown after shutdown after shutdown which is absolutely exhausting and energy robbing, and not a very pleasant experience.

I do carry a thing in my wallet to tell people what to do but I am not in a state to think to bring it out, but at the same time, a lanyard around my neck is too invasive, and I am not so keen on the idea unless it is more descreet, but as I am not assessed yet, I am in a predicament in a way because I am making my own things which are not really ideal. (Condensing information down to bullet point form is not my strong point. I can do it but I tend to write round the world and back).


It is absolutely ridiculous that you are having to wait so long to be assessed MG. Is there no way of speaking to your doctor to hurry the process along. It sounds like you need a lot of help with all of this. I have never experienced such a thing and I hope I never do do.


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naturalplastic
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16 Oct 2021, 9:39 am

Would you wear a T saying...

I am an autistic

I am a ret*d

I am a pedophile

I am a tobacco industry lobbyist

?

Would wear any of the above (whether they were the truth or not) for a large sum of money?

How much would you charge to advertise each of the above messages?



Mountain Goat
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16 Oct 2021, 9:53 am

babybird wrote:
Mountain Goat wrote:
I would not wear one unless it was to some sort of planned event that was designed to bring awareness of autism, and then I would want it to be semi descreet.

I would not want to display it normally (I am assuming I am on the spectrum as I write this) as I would want it on a need to know basis.
I do face a dilemma with shutdowns. A few days ago I had one outside the dentist. It was about 85 to 90% deep in that it nearly was a full shutdown except that I was able to retain my sight, though I was on the floor managing to half prop myself up on my remaining strength with one arm so I could partly lean on the side of the building. I try to do this because if I am totally lying down people who see me panic so I try to look less shutdown but like my Mum says, "It is not normal to be slouching down on the floor" which is why when the dentist reception lady was concerned.
The problem is that I am kinda forced to need to speak when I don't want to as I need to stay quiet and wait for me to recover. When the lady says "Do you feel unwell? Do you want me to call an ambulance?" I have to talk because for me an ambulance would be bad due to the smells of hospital being a very powerful shutdown trigger, and the first thing hospital staff do is to try to force me to talk which will cause me to go into a shutdown, and each time I pull out of a shutdown they try to follow the same proceedure again and again by trying to get me to talk, so I end up in shutdown after shutdown after shutdown which is absolutely exhausting and energy robbing, and not a very pleasant experience.

I do carry a thing in my wallet to tell people what to do but I am not in a state to think to bring it out, but at the same time, a lanyard around my neck is too invasive, and I am not so keen on the idea unless it is more descreet, but as I am not assessed yet, I am in a predicament in a way because I am making my own things which are not really ideal. (Condensing information down to bullet point form is not my strong point. I can do it but I tend to write round the world and back).


It is absolutely ridiculous that you are having to wait so long to be assessed MG. Is there no way of speaking to your doctor to hurry the process along. It sounds like you need a lot of help with all of this. I have never experienced such a thing and I hope I never do do.


To be fair, the Welsh Assembly decided to dedicate a lot of extra funding to mental health and so the waiting lists have come down to half the length they used to be.


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Last edited by Mountain Goat on 16 Oct 2021, 10:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

Velorum
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16 Oct 2021, 9:55 am

No


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16 Oct 2021, 1:09 pm

There’s not nearly as much shame in being autistic than in being a “ret*d.”

There’s not nearly as much shame in being a “ret*d” than in being a pedophile.



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16 Oct 2021, 1:13 pm

As long as it doesn't have anything to do with Auti$m $peak$.


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babybird
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16 Oct 2021, 1:14 pm

It would only take someone who is considered as being really cool in the public eye to wear an autistic tshirt and the whole world would be wearing them.

Personally I wouldn't have a problem with wearing a top that said autistic on it. I've wore worse things in public and got away with it.

I mean it's not what you wear it's how you wear it.


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16 Oct 2021, 1:16 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

Would you wear a T saying...

I am an autistic

I am a ret*d

I am a pedophile

I am a tobacco industry lobbyist


Pedophilia is illegal and hurts people. Tobacco hurts people. Being mentally ret*d usually means the person has a lower IQ. These are all different from Autism. I don't have a low IQ and I'm sure people can see that when I'm out in public in my tshirt.

It seems a lot of autistic people have internalised ableism and internalised self-hate?

How are we supposed to educate the public if we keep hiding or being ashamed?


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babybird
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16 Oct 2021, 1:53 pm

I was thinking along the lines of a tshirt that's plain at the front and then when you're walking away from people the back reads something like: Officially Autistic.

Or you could have a tshirt and on the front it says: I'm autistic

And on the back it says: so f**k you!


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16 Oct 2021, 1:59 pm

I'd wear one to a medical convention or some place I was planning to do advocacy. Taking one home from an event to wear, as I do with many others is much less likely.



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16 Oct 2021, 2:10 pm

I should add I don't mind the idea of wearing a shirt like that, I just legitimately do not think that I need to wear one to let people know I have some sort of "issue". Though it'd probably let them more specifically know what "issue" I have. Either way, if I did wear anything like that I'd prefer something like a bracelet or whatever.



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16 Oct 2021, 3:42 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
Would you wear a T saying...

I am an autistic

I am a ret*d

I am a pedophile

I am a tobacco industry lobbyist

?

Would wear any of the above (whether they were the truth or not) for a large sum of money?

How much would you charge to advertise each of the above messages?


ret*d is an offensive word and if an intellectually disabled person was wearing a t-shirt that said that everyone will think some insensitive person made them wear it. If you're not intellectually disabled and you wore it, people will think you're making fun of people with intellectual disabilities.

Paedophilia is shameful, disgusting, nasty and illegal, so going around with "I am a paedophile" written on your t-shirt will be very embarrassing and even offensive.

Autism is not offensive, and is only embarrassing from a personal perspective, not factually. Like I wouldn't be embarrassed if I was out with an autistic person who had a t-shirt saying "I am autistic" on, but I couldn't wear one myself because I'd feel too embarrassed. I like to keep my AS to myself and I don't want other people's pity or sympathy. I just want to feel normal.


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naturalplastic
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16 Oct 2021, 3:51 pm

Joe90 wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
Would you wear a T saying...

I am an autistic

I am a ret*d

I am a pedophile

I am a tobacco industry lobbyist

?

Would wear any of the above (whether they were the truth or not) for a large sum of money?

How much would you charge to advertise each of the above messages?


ret*d is an offensive word and if an intellectually disabled person was wearing a t-shirt that said that everyone will think some insensitive person made them wear it. If you're not intellectually disabled and you wore it, people will think you're making fun of people with intellectual disabilities.

Paedophilia is shameful, disgusting, nasty and illegal, so going around with "I am a paedophile" written on your t-shirt will be very embarrassing and even offensive.

Autism is not offensive, and is only embarrassing from a personal perspective, not factually. Like I wouldn't be embarrassed if I was out with an autistic person who had a t-shirt saying "I am autistic" on, but I couldn't wear one myself because I'd feel too embarrassed. I like to keep my AS to myself and I don't want other people's pity or sympathy. I just want to feel normal.

I apologize. They arent the same thing as "autistic". I just got into a train of thought about - what message a person would stoop to wearing for money.



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16 Oct 2021, 4:00 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:

Would you wear a T saying...

I am an autistic

I am a ret*d

I am a pedophile

I am a tobacco industry lobbyist


Pedophilia is illegal and hurts people. Tobacco hurts people. Being mentally ret*d usually means the person has a lower IQ. These are all different from Autism. I don't have a low IQ and I'm sure people can see that when I'm out in public in my tshirt.

It seems a lot of autistic people have internalised ableism and internalised self-hate?

How are we supposed to educate the public if we keep hiding or being ashamed?

The OP was not suggesting wearing the message in order to "educate" or express pride, like a gay pride event.

He was suggesting using a T shirt like a medical bracelet, or like a "be patient, I am a student driver" bumper sticker. As a plea to accommodate him.

Even if it didnt make you a target it wouldnt really do much for you. I cant imagine wearing such a thing. Even when I was younger I dont see how it would have helped because my autism didnt manifest in obvious ways that folks could accommodate even if they wanted to. If you were low functioning enough that your autism effected you on an overt day-to-day basis then you would probably be institutionalized anyway.



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16 Oct 2021, 4:12 pm

Thanks np. It's not that I'm trying to show pride. I just think it's OK for people to see me in the shirt and wonder a bit. I don't look like I have low IQ. I don't look like I have a physical disability (other than my stroke), either. I assume most people would just ignore it and that's fine, but maybe in a perfect world someone would google to find out exactly what autism is? I've had a couple of people tell me that their niece or nephew is autistic and it's started some conversations but again it's not very frequent.

My main problem in public is that I have meltdowns quite easily from sensory overload. I don't recall ever having a meltdown while wearing the tshirt, but I guess in an ideal world people would start to learn Autism isn't just a social difference; it's about sensory as well.

I know I'm a dreamer. It's not like I wear the shirt to educate anyone or to signify pride / political motives. I just liked the shirt because it reminded me of "Anarchy". I wore it around the house when I first got it, but later decided "what the hell ...." and started wearing it (occasionally) when I go places.


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16 Oct 2021, 4:13 pm

If there was some symbol that would improve the odds of good communication with trained professionals, I'd consider it, but so far, any request for special consideration just inspires people to punish me if I "refuse" to conform. If the pros are hopeless, I assume the general public is as bad. However, I am male, and basically disposable. Women's emotions are usually respected, so they may have better results with a special shirt or other apparel.