Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi again,
I always find myself looking back on my diagnostic procedure and feeling quite traumatised. It was so embarrassing, what person in their mid-teens or in adulthood wants to mime brushing their teeth and read picture books and tell a story with a paperclip and answer all kinds of personal questions? I just found it really infantilising. I've reflected on it a lot recently, and particularly as I've read more and more material that says autism isn't a disease and we don't need fixing or curing [I still don't know where I am on this, I'm still on my journey] but it just seems really weird that we go to some kind of professional who is usually neurotypical to be labelled after answering their questions and doing their tests. I mean, I don't know how else diagnosis could happen, unless only autistics were allowed to diagnose autism which is just silly and would never happen, but... What do other people think?
I'm also tired of neurotypical people not listening to us. I'm sorry to say this - as I said before I don't do conflict - but I've been lurking on this site for quite a while and I've even seen examples of it on this site, autistic people saying that they're uncomfortable with things neurotypical users [parents etc] have said and the neurotypical person then responding by getting offended and talking over them and using emotional blackmail against the autistic person rather than listening and bettering themselves. I'm not going into specific occasions but I kind of just want to say that if a member of a minority group that you aren't a part of expresses they're not happy with something you've said then you should listen to them rather than getting defensive and making them look like the bad guys. You're the one with the privilege, even if you are close to someone who is autistic, you still aren't autistic yourself so you have allistic privilege. Rant over.
Hope you're all having a good week,
Scarlett
The people who often have a problem with what those of us Autistic have to say are "ableists" and instead of caring about the autistic person's well being, they're more concerned about having the relationship they expected. So if we tell them a son or daughter may be uncomfortable with hugs because of their sense of touch, ableist parents would have a go at us because the truth we share doesn't fit their expectations.
The reason I don't see Autism as problematic as others is because just about everything labelled "autism trait" is done by non-autistic people as well, most so called traits when treat separately are actually ordinary human behaviours.
On some YouTube videos involving ABA I see parents torturing their children, when I spell out how traumatizing and distressing it can be to bombard an autistic person oversensitive to light and sound with bright lights and loud noises, they get so angry with me when I point out it's just plain insensitive and abusive to force someone into such distressing situations that can be avoided.
Perhaps I should begin to diagnose neurotypicals ...