I recently felt the need to correct someone for describing one of their colleague's children as 'having autism' - as opposed to 'being autistic' - but since then I've noticed a lot more examples of people describing others and themselves as 'having autism' so I'm starting to wonder if it's just a matter of personal preference or whether it's a regional difference or an Americanism that's spread - or whether it's another example of a lack of awareness of what autism is?
Thoughts?
I prefer to say that I am autistic. However before I started frequenting forums such as this I was largely guided by the terminology used in the NHS, whom I sought my diagnosis through.
The terminology 'has / have' and 'suffers from' derives from the pathological medical environment. There is a widespread lack of awareness and understanding, that seems to be extremely common among medical/mental health staff in particular.
My GP wrote a letter recently and stated "Unfortunately x suffers from autism...." 
Well done for correcting people on it. The autistic community has to try and educate to improve awareness and understanding. However we are fighting an uphill battle when GPs, whom most people will assume knowledgeable, continue to use such terminology.
