• xantoxis@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I started at a point of “vaccines obviously don’t cause autism, that’s absurd.”

    I transitioned through “even if they did, there’s nothing wrong with being autistic”

    These days I’m at “autistic people are way better than NT people and I wish vaccines caused autism”

    • flerp@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      No. I’ve come to terms with who I am and even like some aspects of it that I would miss so I wouldn’t give it up if I had the choice, but it’s a disability for me, has been a very hard struggle, and I don’t even have it as severe as some. I wouldn’t wish this on more people. (Unless it was 100% of people because most of the struggles I have with the tism come from trying to live in a world designed by NTs that probably wouldn’t exist in a world where everyone had tism)

      • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Oh, I getchu. I would say a huge component of the disability, probably almost all of it, is because of the ways society is structured to punish anyone who isn’t a NT majority-demographic person. (Which means it literally would be better if it was 100%).

      • Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi
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        11 months ago

        Ok, that’s not 100% true as autism is a spectrum. Sure there are some parts of the spectrum that does make independence difficult.

        As someone who is on the spectrum, I have trouble with social situations, including sarcasm and taking things literally - I struggle to take a hint and unless you make it extremely obvious I won’t notice flirting… I don’t even notice myself flirting tbh - I try not to use that as an excuse. but I’m reasonable with money management, and I do quite well on my own (I spend more time by myself on my computer and technology than I do with my parents, and we live in the same house.) I have a full time job (still trying to work out how I managed that tbh) with an upcoming pay rise due to a contract buyout. (Let’s fucking go!)

        Not all autism is the same, and sure there are some higher ends of the spectrum that people require assistance, and then there’s everyone in between. I needed more assistance in school - I never finished an exam before my extended time limit , and I had regular extensions on assignments. But aside from that I got through it mostly on my own.

        I wasn’t diagnosed until after my first semester of uni, as public service autism assessments had a waiting list and going private was incredibly expensive.

          • Wisely@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Sadly a lot of that isn’t necessarily about ability to work, but ability to get through a job interview.

            The whole interview process is going to weed out the candidates who aren’t as sociable, outgoing, charismatic, etc. They are going to look at body language and eye contact while doing small talk. A lot of soft skills like that are more important to pass a job interview than actual technical knowledge. Even when the job has no customer facing requirements.

            They also tend to not have the connections that get your foot in the door.

            It’s bias in an interview process that isn’t designed with autism in mind. Many who have high IQ with attention to detail, technical skills and are hard workers are still unable to get a job offer because they come off as disinterested or awkward.

            • Piers@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              It isn’t just the interview part. The entire job application process is discriminatory against neurodivergent people. For example pretty much any time a company does one of these hokey “personality tests” as part of it’s employee selection it heavily selects against people with autism. They aren’t allowed to refuse to hire disabled people but they certainly do their best to make it a forgone conclusion anyway.

    • SphericalKat@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Me and my girlfriend are both autistic and we would never wish this on anyone. Our child will most likely be autistic, and while we’re more than fine with that, we’d love if the kid didn’t have to go through the same shit as us

      Make no mistake, I love who I am, but being ND is a disability and struggle for the rest of your life

    • Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      This comment stinks of someone without a disability having wishful thinking.

      Yes, it’s true my daughter is the sweetest, most loving, perfect child on the planet. But she also didn’t get potty trained until age 6. She will never be able to drive. She’s only going to be able to hold the most basic jobs. She’ll likely never be able to live independently.

      There is definitely nothing wrong with autism and she is easily way better than any other person I’ve ever met. But she also faces some real challenges in life, and I don’t wish that everyone in the world had that.

      • twistypencil@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Thank you for pointing this out, many people are not aware of what real autism is like, and associate mild adhd or just distraction as a result of to much internet as autism.