Division and Generalizing Amongst the Autism Community

It drives me crazy. You almost always do not find it amongst other communities involved with disability or illness, either. The autism community is so madly divided. I hate conflict as a whole, always have.

 

Here I Stand

• My husband and I both have autism. His official diagnosis is Asperger’s syndrome and mine is PDD-NOS. Our two youngest daughters are currently diagnosed with autism or PDD-NOS depending on whom you ask, and our eldest could qualify for an Asperger’s diagnosis though there is for the time being not a need for her to receive a diagnosis. In 2013, excessive labels will be obsolete and autism will simply be called autism. I am in favor of this, however

• I am not in favor of autism being divided up into clear-cut functioning levels. People are too complex to be so pigeonholed. You don’t know what goes on in a so-called “low-functioning” person’s head. You don’t know all the trials a so-called “high-functioning” person has, including trials identical to a “low-functioning” person’s trials or trials that said “low-functioning” person has in fact overcome. Furthermore, people fluctuate – daily. There is not a need for my eldest to have a diagnosis yet, but this could change at any given moment and she has yet to face the real world’s challenges. Furthermore, labeling people as low to high functioning makes way for inferiority and superiority complexes. I despise this.

• If people talk about their children smearing poop or having meltdowns, said parents deserves sympathy, not irrelevant nonsense.

• Autism has its bad points different for all, very bad points. These should not be ignored, especially not when spreading awareness.

• Autism has its good points different for all, regardless of whether these good points can be expressed by any given autistic individual.

• No one should be negatively generalized. Not autistic people, functioning labels regardless; not people of any opinions; not parents or any caregivers; not siblings; not teachers; not therapists; not anyone. Generalizing is wrong and negativity directed toward individuals is poison. Adding in the word “many” as an adjective is not going to kill anybody.