TREAD: Ooookay then. Seeing as #AutismAwarenessMonth seems to be going exactly the way many #ActuallyAutistic thought it would, with people being told they "can't be autistic", "aren't autistic enough" etc it's time for another jolly personal thread. Oh good. Isn't this fun? 1/

Look, this is only my personal experience. I'm not speaking for everyone here and never would. I am, however, formally diagnosed, you know by actual professionals rather than a random person on Twitter, so I kind of feel I'm allowed to call myself an autistic individual. 2/

Here's the thing though, and this is a biggy, it wouldn't make a difference if I was formally diagnosed or not. Self-diagnosis is the only way a lot of people to have get any form of diagnosis, due to multiple factors, time, costs etc. It's also fairly accurate nowadays. 3/

Over the course of my life I have trained as a special education primary school teacher, worked as a journalist in more than one country, been a newspaper and magazine editor, hosted two tv shows, worked in PR, marketing and fundraising and set up a human rights consultancy. 4/

That's not a brag, far from it, a bit of consistency would be nice. It is however a point to be made, because there are a lot of people out there who would say my CV alone means "I'm not autistic", when in fact being autistic has contributed to it. Both in good and bad ways. 5/

I am married to a wonderful woman, I have a daughter and I love both of them very much. I also have a cat and two degus, but that's not overly relevant, although the cat may disagree. Point is that I can have relationships, something which some say means I can't be autistic. 6/

It's not all sunshine and roses though. I've spent quite a bit of my life, in school and work, being bullied, mainly, but not only, because I do struggle with some social interactions. Simply put, I just don't get people. They rarely make sense. 7/

For some reason though it always seems to be #ActuallyAutistic individuals who are told that we have to fit in with everyone else. I don't need to attend an office party to be good at my job, as a random example, yet have been told I must attend to show I'm a "team player". 8/

Even when it comes to asking for fairly minor adjustments, such as being allowed to wear headphones or sunglasses to avoid additional stimuli, I have been told I "don't look autistic". As if there is a way we are meant to look. 9/

The point is this. Not everyone is on the autistic spectrum, please stop saying that, but when someone is it's not a clear cut line from x to y. You can't tell by looking, or what job we do, or our relationships status. Stop gatekeeping a community where people need support. 10/

And for those who've faced such gatekeepers, don't listen to those telling you "aren't autistic", or aren't "autistic enough". I was put off not only a diagnosis, but then accepting it for years because of being told this and it left some deep scars. You are always enough. 11/

Oh and one final point, despite my use of the # in the first tweet, can we please stop with the "awareness" when every single time it ends up with people gatekeeping and talking over autistic individuals? What's wrong with year round acceptance? #AutismAcceptanceMonth 12/