I would appreciate a diagnosis or classification of autism that isn't described as a disorder

You do realize the word has a meaning?

“an illness or condition that disrupts normal physical or mental functions”

Generally people are born with 4 limbs because that is the normal, if you are born without them it’s abnormal you need to use words to classify things, the world operates on the norm… it wouldn’t make sense to make all cars be only able to operate for people who were born without limbs

Saying that, just because you have a disorder doesn’t make you any less of a person, anyone that thinks that is a moron.. basically don’t get hung up on a word, you had no choice in your biology/birth you just got what you got

They way you describe it as being oppressed or marginalized you are gonna be well on your way to always being a victim if you want to frame your worldview that way

As a person with ADHD, I totally hear you.

You're right that in a different world, built for any particular neurodivergence, the balance of challenges would be different.

For me though, I've learned to acknowledge that no fictional world-building could make me better at remembering names, faces, birthdays, the stories I've already told someone, or keep me from burning out my interest in new passions.

At the end of the day, despite people thinking I'm "smart" and getting along well with others, I'm constantly exhausted by the additional effort it takes and nobody sees the excessive downtime it takes for me to recharge.

I always think of GATTACA and how in a world of genetically modified rich people, a man has to hustle hard to blend in. It's a constant effort 24/7 just to create the illusion that I'm operating the same as everyone else.

The other thing is that most of the socioeconomic changes that would benefit me, would also benefit everyone else. Which is good, but means the balance would not be dramatically changed.

I've realized my internal discomfort with acknowledging my condition as a disability, stems from believing a disability makes me lesser. What has alleviated that discomfort is realizing that's not how people see each other in real life (in general).

My sense of being lesser, of unfair struggle, comes from capitalism exclusively valuing persons/things that best grow the wealth if those with capital.

I'm not lesser because I'm a bad person, or a stupid person. I FEEL lesser because the world I live in let's people die when they can't afford a hospital visit, and only values human life to the extent that it makes rich people richer.

It doesn't even matter if you bring greater value to the world with your art, if capitalists can't monetize it for themselves.

As capitalism's stranglehold tightens on everybody exponentially, the rest of the world is starting to get a taste if disenfranchisement for themselves. As more people recognize the root of so many problems, people will continue pushing for more radical change.

We might not live to see the best outcome of this fight, but know that you aren't fighting you struggles alone and your obstacles aren't your fault.

Generally speaking, the DSM classifies things as “Disorders” if they affect your ability to function day to day. It’s language that helps justify accomodations to employers and to otherwise justify that help is needed.

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Its a disorder, not calling it one is not making it any less of a disorder.

I don't disagree that neurodivergent people would have a way better time if people/society took them into consideration more. But I am low support needs and still consider it a disorder. My boyfriend has ADHD and agrees. While there are a lot of things that would be fixed by having sensory friendly environments for example, there are still a lot of things about being autistic that hinder me that I wish would go away regardless of what accommodations exist.

Yes, atypical Brian’s or neurodivergence does not necessarily equal disorder. I hated when my ex used to refer to my “disorder”. I found it not representative and even disrespectful to be honest.

Maybe it’s because we associate disorder with non functioning, when’s it more “life on hard mode in the current social/cultural context”. It also implies there’s something wrong with the individuals rather than recognizing that the environment could also be adjusted to help the individual thrive.

Isn't Asperger's a syndrome? 🤔

Firstly we need to accept ourselves and be at peace with how we are, instead of trying and often failing to meet unreasonable expectations. We should be intolerant of abuse but tolerant of ignorance. We should play to our strengths and remind people of our important contributions to society. We aren't very homogeneous and socially connected by nature but any effort to organise as a group will help. We should talk about the things that help us and promote them. A basic education in psychology is important. Meditation and access to psychiatric services is essential.

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I posted something similar as a comment on the ADHD magazine and got an equally negative response, as you seem to be getting. I'm not sure why there is a resistance from some about not labeling these neurotypes as a disorder, but I find it really interesting.

The comments you are receiving seem to come down to these neurotypes aren't normal and therefore any associated difficulties therefore constitute a disorder, which is fascinating and completely misses the point you are making. If Western society wasn't structured in the way it is, those who struggle so much would not, as had been the case for years prior to the definition of autism. I'm not sure why that is a controversial statement but apparently it is.

Side note, the bizarre, ableist mention of "moron" in the top comment is really interesting.

Also, if you are going to comment or disagree with what I write, that's fine, but please don't be aggressive or offensive. I get enough abuse and adversity from allistics, I don't need it from autistics, too. This should be a safe space to discuss things that interest us, it's a facet of our neurotype after all.

I believe that you have good intentions with your post but this line of thinking is alienating to the autistic people who have difficulties that cannot be merely attributed to societal discrimination, but require support for their disability to allow them to live and thrive at all. Using terminology that is only derived from the social model of disability removes the agency from autistic people, particularly people with moderate-to-severe presentations, to communicate their difficulties clearly.

"However, many individuals would function quite well in a setting that was designed to raise, educate, and accommodate autistic brains."

Environmental accommodations do not eliminate the presence of autism as a disability. A disabled person is still disabled when they receive accommodations. The fact that we need accommodations distinct from allistic people is indicative of its status as a disability.

As you are a leader of an autistic community, I suggest for you to consider the implications of these statements towards autistic people with moderate-to-severe presentations and to be inclusive of them when discussing the social model of disability.

I feel like this is just a step toward throwing out the classification and description of individuals in terms of social norms and averages. Like, however it came to be (and I'm skeptical of your assertion that society has somehow been fashioned - presumably on purpose? - "to meet the needs of [so-called] allistics"), the society in which we live has bell curve distributions of many personality traits and capabilities and interests and on and on.

There is such a thing as the middle of the bell curve, the 1 standard deviation from the mean, etc. It's useful to call that something. We've called it "normal" or "typical" or whatever. And so people in the 2 std dev and higher bands are increasing magnitudes of "abnormal" or "atypical." So what?

Well, since time immemorial, being different could be dangerous to the survival of the group. So being different became pejorative. Only in the past couple hundred years have we began to appreciate that creative genius is almost always associated with "atypical" people. (Destructive genius, too.)

I think we're going through a time now where we're acknowledging that maybe more people have always been "atypical" but they concealed it for various reasons. I see my kids' generation as being particularly open to the variation that's apparently pretty natural in our species (or driven by microplastics and forever chemicals).

I don't think doing away with statistical analysis of populations is the way to go, though. A better approach, to my mind, is to do away with the negative connotation that still accompanies the diagnosis of being 2 or more standard deviations away from the mean. Certainly it's not coming up with a slew of new terms to replace "normal" or "typical."

I think it's probably helpful to put words like 'normal' into their proper context- it's a statistics term, not a baseline from whence deviation is morally fraught or anything.

We're different, not worse.

Consider, if you will, the hypothetical in which you, a normal healthy human, visit Krypton and discover that the doors to their buildings are all high up, no need for stairs because *normal *people there can fly. In this sense, you are not accommodated in exactly the same way that a wheelchair-bound person is not accommodated when the stairs into our buildings aren't accompanied by a ramp.

On Krypton, you are handicapped not because of how you are, but because they don't accommodate that. On Earth, the wheelchair-bound person is handicapped because we don't always accommodate their needs. In neurotypical culture, being different only becomes a handicap when the people around you are unable or unwilling to accommodate you being you.

We didn't get the same degree of neural pruning when it was time for neurotypicals to get that, and it means we tend to process substantially more information- and the things our brain picks out as interesting aren't always the normal, expected ones.

The 'disorder' arises only when other people can't meet you halfway, it's not you.

A disorder is something that makes it hard do function in current society. There are some autistics who would have difficulties in nearly any society but one could argue that it's mostly due to comorbidities. Now the key to not being disordered for the rest of us is changing society so that we can live without being disabled by our environment. That change won't happen without massive organized protest and it won't be easy.

I would appreciate classification and diagnosis of more neurotypical quirks as disorders.

A flip in mentality, where common behaviors that are more or less detrimental are actually seen as disorders and not just the common baseline that you can either be worse than or better than.

Like you struggle to properly understand technical/nerdy things? That's a disorder. Oh, you're superstitious? That's a disorder. Of course, we'd need to also frame the entire thing around a different word than disorder, as it just means different from normal and despite the actual colloquial understanding it's technically not supposed to make a value judgement.

I'd be very interested to hear your suggestions on what could be seen as a neurotypical disorder/flaw.