Are we disabled?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=A1AUdaH-EPM

This video also deals with that subject: she is trying to change the paradigm of disability from the medical model to the social model - turning it from a noun (Disabled person) into a verb - to be dis-abled.

My opinion is that I'm not disabled. I see disability as something that affects a person all the time, like blindness or being in a wheelchair. Those things cannot be changed.

The environment can be changed - why can't shopping malls or large stores stop playing music or doing loud announcements over tannoys? It doesn't benefit any of their customers. There is no reason why companies can't have quiet areas for staff to work in, and there are now more options for working from home if it suits an employee.

Also, there is no need to go to shopping malls any more - . I have my groceries delivered, so I don't need to go to a large store, and most other things can be ordered online.

Public transport is the most challenging for me, but most people don't like it - that's why they learn to drive. But you can wear headphones, read a book or browse the internet, and once when a bus was too crowded I got off at the next stop and waited for one that was less crowded. Everyone has challenges, and some NT people would prefer things to be more the way that suit autistic people.

I am going to die at a relatively young age and no one will even know. Should I be all happy clappy about my lovely neuro divergenceness?

No.

There is no positive in this.

Oh yes, that, I was give a handout showing how to do that when I went to the local groups for autistic adults, seeing as I'd been doing it for such a long time and had worked it out by myself, I found it a bit patronising to be honest. It's the same whenever I go for help, I was told by the pain clinic that I could teach them stuff and how on earth had I done all this on my own? I told them I'd read bits of it in womens magazines and the rest of it just made sense if you know anything about how the body moves, having spent years doing yoga, martial arts and learning to be a massuer it all seemed pretty obvious. I had what they call accupuncture, which is non traditional and created during the cultural revolution in China to "modernise" it, it fits well with the NHS models of treament. My body spat the needles out before the nurse had finished putting them all in and this was supposed to be a good thing as it showed my body working! Apart from easing the stiff neck that I'd woken up with before one session I can't say that it did anything for me. I've been discharged twice from two different pain clinics after they've decided that the damage to my spine is to wide spread for anasthetic injections and as I'm allergic to all legal pain killers except paracetamol there was nothing they could do for me, they couldn't off me any psychological support either as I was doing it all and more anyway, then they had the nerve to ask me how I felt about it? I told them exactly how fed up I was, all the things I'd been doing and learning since my teens to stay out of a wheelchair, had come back to bite me in the bum and now i, '..was too resourceful' to be helped by them. I didn't say it to them but afterwards as well as feeling depressed and in pain, my responses had a lot of words with F in them.

Very well put Martin. 

Are you aware of the fact that you are part of the top 1% of autistic people?

Not really sure. Disabled is a bit of a strong word. But then again I’m not sure

My autism has not prevented me from doing and achieving things that I really wanted. It has made it more difficult and narrowed the range of things that seemed possible. I cannot say that autism has disabled me, but it has limited me. I'm aware that other autistic people have greater problems than I do and think that, for official use, autism should remain classed as a disability.

I am disabled across many definitions of disability.

I am disabled by society, due to noise and social expectation.

And I am disabled regardless of society, my body doesn't tell me what it needs and as such managing eating, drinking and toileting is considerably harder than for most people and the affects on my body are real and can be severe. 

And this is just from autism

I am not ashamed of being disabled, I am happy to tell people I am disabled, the label of being disabled is what gets me support in many things I need help with.  

When I was a teenager I heard from my step dad that I’m somehow socially disabled. He said that in a malicious way to hurt me (he has many narcissistic traits) however I think he was right in Some way. But it’s very subjective. Am I unable to make friends? Or am I unable to make friends with neurotypical people… I remember having good contact with few neurodivergent people. 
I could say Autism is a disability when compared to the “norm”, some people are affected mildly, others - severely. I’m the one affected mildly, so I don’t need external support for my essential activities. But others may need it. I just manage my life the way that I feel better and do my best to protect my fragile mental health. 

Just by being part of this autistic community you are socialising and sometimes building relationships!

Yes, in a word, autism is a neurodevelopmental condition. In which impairment can cause our cognition to differ from the typical. This causes us to develop differently overtime, cause us to have different triggers to psychological distress, and causes us to use the cognition we’ve been spared to seek-stimuli or sooth-stimuli in more-basic ways that a neurotypical may.

This is an off-the-cuff description, as I find that books and references can provide official definition, I prefer to use my own words and contest criticism to my understanding.. that way I learn and absorb understanding better over time..:)

Glad you agree about Wikipedia!

TheCatWoman said:

I just wish people would stop associating disability with being in a wheelchair and recognise that there are many of us "walking wounded" and that very few of us are stupid.

Yes I completely understand that, the reason why there are such assumptions made is because most people don’t understand the complexities of for example in your case fibromyalgia and how many of these experiences can be fluctuating. For example, the fatigue and brain fog that you mention can be really significant some days and not others.

Have you heard of energy accounting or Spoon Theory?

The CV issue is a challenge for everyone, not just NDs. My LinkedIn feed is full of employers, recruiters and individuals moaning about how broken the CV and interview method of recruitment is.

I agree about wikipedia being an unreliable source.

Different countries classify disability differently and I think you really have to go with the classification of your home country.

I was diagnosed at the age of 50, it was a relief after years of struggle and trying to find out what was wrong with me. I believe you can't have power with that which you can't name. 12 years ago it was a very different picture for ND's particularly female ones, so little was known, let alone accepted. For many things I found ways around, like prefering to be self employed rather than working for others, I found I was more comfortable in customer facing roles when I was behind a desk or counter. When I was younger I used drink and drugs to help me cope, but then there was a big drinking culture among my working class age mates, I would of stood out if I hadn't been drinking.

Poor mental health and excessive hormonal swings disabled me for many years, then after a hystorectomy came fybromyalgia, this does disable me physically. I've gone from being the annoying person who can work and play hard gt up the next day and dig 70 foot of potato trenches on my allotment and then go home and cook the hunglover slugabeds sunday dinner, now I'd be hard pressed to dig 7 foot of potato trenches. Various health niggles have all ganged up on me and I sometimes feel under seige from my own body.

As we get older our health needs change, I really think for women a lot of health conditions get burried by the medical professions short sightedness in thinking that as a woman of child bearing age, everything must be hormonal and can be cured by going on the pill or having a baby and if those dont' work or you refuse them, then you must be "mad" for refusing to fit the norms of the patriarchy. I wonder how many health problems women have are being burried by medical short sightedness and only come out in later life?

I do now class myself as disabled and have for a while mostly due to serious back pain, but the fybromyalgia has really put the tin lid on it, waking up with aching feet and still feeling tired after a good nights sleep, with terrible brain fog and feeling physically like I ran a marathon in my sleep do me in. I can feel like this for days weeks or months and then have a time when I'm back to something nearer my old energetic self. For me autism is the least of it.

I just wish people would stop associating disability with being in a wheelchair and recognise that there are many of us "walking wounded" and that very few of us are stupid.

Essentially we are "different".

There are some tings I can do that most normies cannot BUT there are a great many ways that normie society places what appear to be unreasonable hurdles in our way.

Trying to write a C.V. with adequately nuanced levels of dishonesty is a challenge that kept me out of the job market an awful lot YET when someone else wrote my C.V.  the barrier disappeared and I was sucessfull in the workplace, but instantly returned to unemployabilty when I lost that persons goodwill.

That has the EFFECT of a disability but it's EXTERNALLLY IMPOSED on us by the majority. 

My autism frequently disables me. I have it combined with ADHD, OCD, and anxiety, all together can be particularly disabling. Some days I can hardly function and other days I can function, and I can go in to work but this will usually cause exhaustion and anxiety, and then the next day or the next several days will be difficult to function because I need time to recover.

Autism = anxiety = depression = disabled me. 

It's so challenging and it's something not many people really understand as they don't experience it. I do experience it and I don't even understand half of it. I just know it hurts and it stops me functioning.

I wish there was more support tbh. It's hard getting through life.

I think everyone should be free to identify as they want. Disabled or not disabled- whatever helps you and those around you the most. I’m not sure how I feel about it personally because I don’t like the idea of ‘being disabled’ just because I function differently and find some environments difficult to operate in- in a way labelling myself as disabled can be disabling as it somehow feels like iit is putting a limitation on what I can achieve. On the other hand sometimes, I think it can be helpful to acknowledge that I do have a hidden ‘disability’ and that some things are more difficult and I need to be kind to myself and I am entitled to ask for adjustments I need to function. I think it’s up to everyone to identify the way they feel comfortable and there are many ways to define disabled. I don’t really like this rigid labelling of language.

I am not denying your experience. However I would question whether what you state about friendship and love could be because you have not found your own tribe yet who you truly connect with?

There are many different types of relationships, which often look very different for us autistic people, just because the way you interact with others is different to non autistic people does not mean you can’t find friendship or love, it will just look different. For example, many of us value online connections as friendships as evidenced by this space.

Very appropriate quote, Luke Beardon’s golden equation: ‘Autism + Environment = Outcome’.