April is coming up, and it is Autism Awareness Month.

As a person on the spectrum myself, I would like to ask fellow vizzed users to spread the word? Nobody talks about it, and people (like myself) who have autism get brushed aside by society so very easily. So many people say it would be better if we were all dead, so we're not being a burden on our parents or "suffering" because we're "defective".

This includes Autism Speaks. Please don't support that organization; they would rather that the parents of autistic kids kill their kids than help them. They honest-to-goodness support murder of autistic children and adults. Even those of us who can't really pretend to function in society don't deserve that. We are people too, and we deserve to live.

Autism Awareness Month is supposed to help make people who aren't on the spectrum aware of those of us who are, and how we're not the 'burden' most think we are. Some of us need more help to live than others, yes, but we're not better off dead. We're not "suffering this life" and unable to enjoy it. We do, we just enjoy things a bit differently from the rest of you.  It's time society as a whole stopped believing the lies about autism and autistic people, and started listening to those of us who actually have it, so they'll learn the truth. 

So please. Listen to autistic folks like us. Pay attention. Help me spread the word, please?

Yunimori : Person I will spread the word calling people like you defective is bulls**t and it makes me mad that people even say that you are. You are a person just like the others and just because you don't think like them does not mean your defective so yes I will spread the word because you matter wether you are autistic or not :3

I'm very glad that you made this thread, because I'm on the Autism Spectrum myself. I have Aspergers, so I don't think I have it as bad as some people do, but I get emotional a lot and it's hard for me to socialize. Again, thank you so much for making this.

Yes. YES! We need to mobilize, rise up and slaughter the NTs! We'll show them who's superior!

Oh yes, I'll order and distribute the AK-47s right after I finish my "stimming" session. Might take a while and afterwards I might forget what my one job is but it's on the list. I'll just need to find the list. Now where did I leave that list? Nah, I'll just play Pokémon and find the list later. The chores can wait until I have a Pikachu. Ho hum.

LOL

I'd better not play too long. My mum might walk in and demand a list of my daily accomplishments. Never does that with my bro and sis. It's just assumed that they'll be fine. Very important for an autistic man to have daily accomplishments as though Rome was built in a day.


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Thanks for the kind replies, guys. It's nice to know that there are others willing to help a bit.

...though... 

Postman3 : Somehow I think you're making fun and not in a good way. I'm sorry, but I don't really appreciate that. If I'm reading it wrong, then I apologise, because I tend to not be very good at that. 

I ask that people don't make fun. Please. I am not asking to be mocked. 

In advance, I would like to give my appreciation to all the autistic users of the site. We will not forget or ignore you. Hope you have a splendid April.

Yunimori :
No, not at all. It's all in good fun. I am a very good-natured person. I did perhaps voice some resentments about certain perceptions people tend to have about autistic people.

Apology accepted. In case you didn't read between the lines, I also have autism. I would never mock you or any thread you make. I believe the best way to approach life and adversity is through humour so I do that a lot.

Have you seen this thread I made?: https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=85777

It's pretty funny, I think. I made it to cheer up a friend.

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Postman3: Okay then. Sorry, like I said, I'm not very good at reading tone, whether in text or in actual talking. I try, but I tend to fail more often than not.  The 'attack' part of your post is what did it, I think; made me wonder if you were trying to be mocking, because I have had that happen before. 

Sorry for mis-reading!  Today's been kind of a horrible day in general, so I've probably been more prone to not understanding properly and getting the wrong idea. Thanks for clearing it up for me.

And actually, I did see that thread. Some of the 'bogus' things you brought up are actually true things, so you might want to get rid of the 'totally' bogus and just put it as 'mostly' bogus. That first bit especially. 

And yet again attempting to summon hates me.

Postman3 :  

Yunimori : Oh, not to worry. I can always use "bogus" for popularity's sake. The way Bill and Ted use it is always relevant when people are looking for something cool to read. That's how I'll make my bread.

So I won't be sticking like glue to the dictionary definition of the word. I'll just leave it there for poops and Snickers.


Anyways, we've gotten a little off topic here. What people need to know is "it's hard out here for a[n autistic] pimp!"

It's kind of like learning disability racism. People don't even know us but make broad impersonal assumptions about our behavior and abilities across the board. There is not a single description out there of someone else's autistic behavior or descriptions of their own thought processes that fits me like a glove.

My older sister might also be autistic and just a little bit less than me but because she began school in our province before they started assessing learning disabilities and pulling suspect children out of classrooms to give them testing, she was given a chance to succeed in school before being found out and she was never diagnosed. Living with the label is not easy. When teachers find out that you were labelled defective years ago, they don't bother explaining anything to you. How could I have been expected to understand anything anyway? They just send you into a small room to play board games with a learning assistant. Voila! Without saying it directly, the teacher has made it known to all that I don't belong in a classroom.

Meanwhile, my undiagnosed big sister's slighter disability has been made irrelevant because she becomes a highly motivated individual (what girl wouldn't be if she was the only daughter in a house full of boys) and she applies a strong work ethic to everything she does. Teachers(especially female ones) are thrilled and praise her high value as a student. Nobody sees a remote possibility that she might struggle in her later academia(which she eventually did). My sister received support at elementary school level that is supposed to be offered to all students. That same support would have evaporated if she had given off the slightest whiff of a learning disability before she had a chance to accomplish anything of note. I am very proud of my sister. She has proved to me that a person with an unknown disability thrives if motivated to succeed and not separated from the pack.

So is identifying people with non-apparent disabilities early in life and treating them remarkably differently really the answer? It's not a clear cut issue. My province has made autism the only "broad spectrum mental disability" that they award Person's With Disabilities subsidies for. People with much more serious mental difficulties are simply diagnosed with autism in the interest of gaining those benefits for them. For all we know they may also have autism but they definitely have down syndrome in some cases and are generally quite mentally retarded which does NOT describe most people on the autism spectrum. This "funding fiasco" has degraded the label of Autism(which I didn't want in the first place!) and extended the view among outsiders to the condition that we are all mentally equipped about the same as "Rain Man" played by Dustin Hoffman.

Then there's the issue that they don't share the information they've collected on you or ever discuss it with you that you may be autistic. My first clue that the reason I was being discriminated against had a name came in the 8th grade when a well-meaning but nosy teacher gave me a sealed envelope that she had prepared which I was to give directly to my parents. This was highly unusual so naturally I opened it at school in short order. It turned out to be a bunch of printed out references about my presumed condition which hadn't been discussed with me ever and a few pamphlets about aid resources which I can tell you are quite worthless to me. Miffed, I angrily rejected the notion that there was something wrong with me and lost those papers in my room. I eventually decided to broach the subject with my parents later that month. What's autism?

I'm still not sure why so many different unique behaviors and idiosyncrasies are still categorized under one condition. I could chalk it up to child psychologists being the laziest jerks to be awarded PhDs but that would be way too obvious. Not a single behavior or unique response to anything is seen across the board for everyone bearing the label of being autistic and most of these things the professionals look for aren't even exclusively indigenous to people who are seen to have autism.

I wish we could ditch the label for good. It has gotten into our language and we've started referring to ourselves as autistic or having autism. My sister is quite correct when she calls it a label but fails to realize the label's wide-spanning impact on people tagged with it. I'm not entirely sure identifying with it is the right path. Being brave and wearing the label of autism like a badge of honour might be admirable but perhaps also quite stupid for me to do.

When I chat with people face to face and they see me as autistic, they second guess my responses. Someone tells a joke and I don't laugh, then it's automatically assumed that I don't get it. Instead of explaining why their joke is funny, I wish they would just tell a joke that's in better taste or at least lives up to my high standard of humour. BUT NOOO. It is always put upon me to "understand"(as if I don't) their often crude or lame comedy.

That is my story and those are my gripes. Critique if you must and please do bring up an opposing view if you have one. Every autistic experience is different just as no two human beings are the exact same person. We all deal with our own baggage in our own way.


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I'll spread the word. Man, I just read about that hate group... I get so pissed off about stuff like this... And that stupid bill in California that wants to let you murder gay people legally? What the hell! What's up with this s***!