Simon Baron Cohen

I also have some interesting quirks but they don't compensate the suffering. The inability to function socially, to find friends, well paid job etc. It does not compensate being told constantly by everyone that there is something wrong with me.  

There are autistic people,  who love being the way they are (at least stayed that) and they say, they would never change or cure their autism if there was a medication to that.

For me, I'm not proud of who I am, who I was born.  I'm only proud (sometimes) of my achievements. 

There are various views, some people emphasise the "super powers" others get angry because of autism being romanticised. I lack strong opinion, but agree on that autism is a disorder,  disability,  not just a quirk and causes many people lifelong suffering. 

The superpower thing, does bug me, but so does the idea that it's a quirk, it does cause difficulties some more disabling than others, it depends on how you're effected. I just wish there'd be more acceptance that all autists are different, we're not all bouncing around with our pants on the outside of our trousers brandishing our superpower, we're not all seriously affected either, most of us just bob along getting on with life.

To me it looks like there is a neverending conflict around the spectrum going on and I don't know if it's gonna be ever resolved. Going back to old diagnoses would hit those, who do not fall exactly under this or other diagnosis, these whose needs change over time. But the spectrum as it is seems to be often confusing. 

I think people have problems with all spectrum "disorders", not just autism, spectrums are messy, they can't be easily categorised, they can't be easily diagnosed with a tick list of symptoms and they tend not to go away either and can't be treated, just managed.

I'm not happy with the idea of a spectrum, I know there are other discriptors and models, but I'm unsure what they are and wonder if they wouldn't just add more confusion?

Autism along with other long term conditions seem to have become a political football, in part this about reducing the benefits bill and workers rights protections. We're an easy target, people feel that we don't "deserve" to be allowed to be different, that we should "just buck up" or something equally unhelpful. Another side to this benefits angle is the one that politicians really don't want to talk about, that there are more people in work in receipt of benefits than there are those out of work and this is what we're caught up in and being used as a whipping post for. The numbers of people officially to ill to work in this country is shocking and on the rare occaission anyone asks why the answer always seem to be laziness and punishment is the cure. It's never that we've had so many years of austerity and the NHS is overwhelmed and waiting lists so long that people who start out with something like needing a hip or knee replacement are waiting so long that other issues are occuring because of lack of mobility. The NHS and government is also very bad at looking at alternative treatments such as osteopathy for things like bad backs.

Most of all I think so few people actually listen to us and when they do, what we say ends up moderated through so called "experts" who have ideas and positions that often don't match what people are actually saying, so you get confusion and nobodies needs are met.

I think people have problems with all spectrum "disorders", not just autism, spectrums are messy, they can't be easily categorised, they can't be easily diagnosed with a tick list of symptoms and they tend not to go away either and can't be treated, just managed.

I'm not happy with the idea of a spectrum, I know there are other discriptors and models, but I'm unsure what they are and wonder if they wouldn't just add more confusion?

Autism along with other long term conditions seem to have become a political football, in part this about reducing the benefits bill and workers rights protections. We're an easy target, people feel that we don't "deserve" to be allowed to be different, that we should "just buck up" or something equally unhelpful. Another side to this benefits angle is the one that politicians really don't want to talk about, that there are more people in work in receipt of benefits than there are those out of work and this is what we're caught up in and being used as a whipping post for. The numbers of people officially to ill to work in this country is shocking and on the rare occaission anyone asks why the answer always seem to be laziness and punishment is the cure. It's never that we've had so many years of austerity and the NHS is overwhelmed and waiting lists so long that people who start out with something like needing a hip or knee replacement are waiting so long that other issues are occuring because of lack of mobility. The NHS and government is also very bad at looking at alternative treatments such as osteopathy for things like bad backs.

Most of all I think so few people actually listen to us and when they do, what we say ends up moderated through so called "experts" who have ideas and positions that often don't match what people are actually saying, so you get confusion and nobodies needs are met.