Autism isn’t a disease; I don’t need your stupid cure.

Maybe it’s nothing, maybe it’s something, but still: it hurts.

It hurts when people belittle autistics, it hurts when people ask me for proof of one’s autism, and it hurts when people call autism a disease.

I really don’t care what the DSM says. They change their diagnostics all the time, and they’ve given Aspies the umbrella diagnosis of “autism”, whether it does or doesn’t adequately portray others with autistic symptoms.

I really don’t care how non-autistic scientists see autism.

The non-autistic research is really insulting. It’s all about experimenting with autistics on “what works” and “what doesn’t work” and all that mess, and it’s so insulting to see what they’ve come up with that it literally makes me lose faith in humanity. It’s really bad, and it sucks, because THAT is where a lot of people find information about autism. What people in my family know about autism comes from research done by non-autistics, and it’s so unfortunate, because the best information one can gain about autism is from those who have it themselves.

I mean, there are blogs by Aspies: Dude, I’m an Aspie.[1. I don’t favor his blog, as I don’t agree with a lot of his content, but someone might like it, so.~], Musings of an Aspie, Everyday Asperger’s, Inside the Mind of an Aspie, and Yes, That Too, to name a few.

Obviously, they’re going to have information and the direct perspective of what autism — Asperger’s Syndrome in particular — is like.

There is also Penelope Trunk; she may be a familiar face/name for you. Maybe, maybe not.

When you call something a “disease”, you’re implying it’s something that needs to be cured. If deafness is impairment of the ears, is that, too, a disease? I’ve met people who are deaf who find the “disease” label an insult.

Sure, both may be a disability, but they’re not diseases.

I function quite fine, even if I don’t function as per the society’s norm for my age. As an Aspie, I’m more like a child, yes, but in the places I excel, it’s as if I’ve been practicing for those interests for years and years. My special interests make me an expert in those fields — what may take a non-Aspie a decade to learn and master may take me at least 90% less than that to master and learn, simply because special interests in Aspies are also known as “obsessions”, and Aspies become obsessed with their special interests. I have to keep a hygiene routine I cannot break at all in order to continue to have good hygiene, but what child doesn’t? I can work and work without you hovering over me, watching my every move, and hand everything in at perfect quality, even if someone nearby has died (provided I’m not sucked into the sadness). I can separate myself from a producer and consumer’s point of view easily, looking at things on both ends of something, because I’ve been on both ends before, and also because it’s just easy for me. I can review a company honestly from a consumer’s point of view and a developer’s point of view and point out the flaws and strengths without coming off as biased.

I mean, bias views come from how one feels about something, yes? I think first with logic, and emotion usually comes with that logic, e.g. kittens are tiny and fluffy, therefore they’re adorable, and I love them. “Tiny and fluffy” are factual, whereas “adorable” is a biased response, and my love for them is an emotional response.

I’ve learned so much about blogging and webhosting that I have categories of information in my head pertaining to these special interests, and I’ve decided to make a blog about it just to keep myself from overloading my brain even more, as when I’m not blogging, I’m spending countless hours furthering my research.

I tend to know more about certain topics of interest to the point that I do, indeed, correct people as if I’m a know-it-all, because I’ve spent hours and hours researching these topics of interest to the point that, yes, I typically do know more. An example of this is when I went to the Dallas World Aquarium and pointed out an error a person made when calling the Jaguar a “cheetah”. As mentioned previously, it’s not uncommon for Aspies to feel the need to correct people.

Whilst finding someone to marry is something I’d like to do, I’m not interested in sex. It’s probably not going to change. Really, all I care about is someone who will loyally be my best friend and live with me for the rest of my life, and the more I’ve about asexuality over the past few months after discussing with a friend about how her fiance’s an asexual, I’ve realized that hey, maybe that’s for me, because it seems more applicable to my needs and desires. Just an asexual man who would rather adopt a child or two, not at all picky of whether said child(ren) has/have any disabilities, etc. going on is likely all I really need to be happy. Because I don’t care about the physical stuff. Knowing what I want makes me more confident in deciding whether I’ll continue allowing a horny straight man around my age to flirt with me, all the while knowing very much that he wants to have sex with me and kiss me, and all those things that actually annoy the hell out of me to hear and/or realize, because it helps me understand that, since I know what I want, I could very likely find/run into someone who fits the description.

I can alphabetize things quickly, and lying is so hard for me.

I’m an Aspie, and that’s totally fine. I’m autistic.

As House put it, your diagnosis depends on the doctor you go to. In other words, different doctors have different opinions.

If you go to an environmentalist, they’ll tell you Asperger’s/autism is environmental. If you go to a geneticist, they’ll tell you it’s genetic. If you go to Autism Speaks, they’ll tell you it needs a cure and ask for your donation to finding a cure.[2. NO ONE on the board of Autism Speaks is autistic at all, by the way. #boycottautismspeaks, mkay.] If you believe the puzzle symbolism for autism is a GOOD thing, you need to research why it’s actually an insult.

This is a very unorganized rant on autism being defined as a disease, the desire scientists have for a stupid cure, and the positives about being autistic.

Maybe another day very soon I’ll have a rant up about how being related to an autistic does NOT give you valid “personal experience” of autism, as it only gives you valid personal experience of knowing one autistic person.

…and perhaps another on my perception of neurotypicals and their closed-mindedness, thinking the physical appearances of a person throughout communication matters a lot when it actually doesn’t, how too many rely on body language to justify one’s words, and a skit/story I wrote about a world where autism is the norm and being an NT is different.

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[…] also ticked about how they’re looking for a cure for autism. They talked about it some on the news. Why do most people have only one idea of what it is […]