Thread by @motorclit, Gonna admit that I haven't changed my pinned tweet (treated as extended [...]

Gonna admit that I haven& #39;t changed my pinned tweet (treated as extended bio) cuz I wasn& #39;t sure what to put cuz of the damn character limits.

However, I& #39;ve been working on trying to stop calling myself an Aspie.

(Yes, this will be a thread, not sure how long; I& #39;ll signal an end) https://twitter.com/ZeroWrites/status/1390848116270772225">https://twitter.com/ZeroWrite...

https://twitter.com/ZeroWrites/status/1390848116270772225

To avoid misunderstanding: I& #39;ll indicate when the thread is done. (Again: damn character limits.)

If anyone& #39;s checking the quote-tweets & found this thread: hi there! I& #39;m self-diagnosed & hope to see someone for an official diagnosis so that I& #39;ll be able to have proper accommodations when I finally go back to school!

Now, onward w/ my thoughts on this.

After watching a YouTuber talk about his diagnosis & struggles, I saw myself in the stories & experiences he shared, & that& #39;s when I looked up every source I could find. I have a few reasons why, b4, I stuck with Aspie rather than Autistic in describing myself.

But despite the reasons, I didn& #39;t know about the whole n*zi thing.

1 reason was it felt or sounded like a term under the ASD umbrella. & another YT& #39;r (can& #39;t remember who) described Autistic ppl& #39;s different experiences w/ their symptoms & such as like different color palettes.

Another reason was that many who are not Autistic or don& #39;t think they are have a vision of an Autistic person in their minds as opposed to what they think is someone w/ Asperger& #39;s. The terms communicate different things to them.

For me, I kept the lable of Aspie becuz my experiences are more of the very-socially-awkward/energy thing & not so much of sensory issues (& I& #39;ve got some sensory issues, they& #39;re just not my dominant symptoms).

Ppl who aren& #39;t Autistic seem to get that idea.

The majority of ppl who I would interact w/ outside of my small circle of friends make that distinction, & it will be VERY exhausting for me to not only explain it to every1, but also to have to constantly remind them.

I have to constantly remind my parents of my symptoms (mostly dad) on just being on the spectrum at all. It& #39;s truly exhausting, especially since my parents are stressful ppl to be around (& that& #39;s w/o denying I& #39;m on the spectrum; they likely don& #39;t care enough to try & remember)

But my parents have that distinction in their minds b4 I brought any of it up to them between Autism & Asperger& #39;s. & they aren& #39;t the only ones who have made that distinction in their minds despite "Asperger& #39;s" being dropped, now.

No, I do not think Autism is a bad word at all, but I don& #39;t want to have to argue w/ someone who says why I& #39;m not Autistic & spend all of my energy doing that & by the time the argument is over, I don& #39;t have any energy left to interact w/ anyone.

& this is a huge problem.

For one reason or another, so many ppl seem to not want to listen to Autistic ppl & would rather "listen to the professionals" (WHICH BTW SOME OF THEM ARE ALSO ON THE SPECTRUM TOO), so educating ppl who aren& #39;t Autistic has been a pain in the ass for a lot of us.

I& #39;m gonna guess it& #39;s the stigma; maybe they wanna pat themselves on the back for some fake support but not wanna have to even look at us, let alone listen to us? Regardless, they& #39;re the ones perpetuating the feeling that "Autism" is a bad word n some way.

& of course it& #39;s not. & I& #39;m repeating that here to remind myself in case I& #39;m unaware that I may be treating it that way, too.

But these same ppl who treat it as a bad word don& #39;t seem to have as much of a problem w/ something like Asperger& #39;s, despite the term being dropped & those who would meet such a diagnosis are actually Autistic as well.

Which is making me wonder something...

Would it help at all if we created our own terms that signified "yes, I& #39;m on the spectrum, I& #39;m Autistic, but here are my dominant traits regarding that."

& I have a pic someone made, gimme a sec while I bring it up...

This one. (Don& #39;t know who made it, if someone does, please comment on this post who did! This helped my mom at least understand!)

So, this image is what made me wonder if the Autistic community could come up w/ our own terms. After all, we& #39;re the ones experiencing it.

But the terms would be in a way to communicate to those who aren& #39;t Autistic "hey, get rid of the stereotype in your head" w/o saying that phrase since saying that sentence hasn& #39;t done very much?

I can& #39;t give examples, becuz I don& #39;t know any terms that would work for anybody.

Habits can be difficult for me to drop, but I am definitely working on dropping the Aspie label (I& #39;ll simply use Autistic or ASD when I make a new extended bio pinned tweet).

Either we need a new way of getting word out that Autism is more than the (usually harmful) stereotype in a lot of people& #39;s heads, or we need to make some of our own terms (that hopefully also don& #39;t treat Autism as a bad word in some way).

Like... Some kind of.. not really a prefix, but an adjective before Autism, but doesn& #39;t involve shit like "high/low functioning."

An example of what I& #39;ve seen used would be verbal & non-verbal.

I& #39;m still unsure about how to communicate a lot of this other than my concern of not treating Autism as a bad word, but also defining what color palette of Autism so I& #39;m not exhausted by the time I& #39;m done explaining it & my energy for the day has been spent.

Also, apologies for not ending this thread yet. I normally blast thru threads, but I& #39;m trying hard to articulate myself in these limiting as fuck tweets while struggling to find the words to avoid a misunderstanding.

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