[maxbond]

I'm under the impression people who have autism take issue with pathologizing it and calling it a "problem" or "illness," and want to be accepted as people who are simply different. The people I know with autism diagnosis are just people, they aren't ill. They might interact with you in a way that feels overly blunt and awkward - but when you understand that's a problem of mismatched expectations, similar to interacting with someone from a different culture who unintentionally comes off as rude, it stops being a problem.

I've been told I'm probably autistic (no formal diagnosis, no interest in pursuing one, I don't really see how that would benefit me and my therapist isn't really interested either) and certainly am neurodivergent in a variety of ways, and when it causes me problems it's usually because I'm a round peg which society wants to shove into a square hole. Not because there is something inherently wrong with me.

[temp-word-hose]

I do not have autism or ADHD, but a significant number of people in my family do* such that the behaviours popularly believed to be associated with autistic people are the cultural norm in my family, it took me a few years, and many missteps to adjust to the wider cultural norms, and even now after decades as a functional neurotypical, there is a joy, and a sense of slipping back into speaking my mother tongue when I find myself in conversation with someone who speaks and acts with the patterns of my childhood. When for example, last week - an 11 year old was barely able to meet my gaze begins arguing a strongly articulated position on the nature of mosquito consciousness or my work colleague who cannot bare turning on his webcam, leaps straight into a discussion of the relative merits of different data structures.

*in my close family - two women - both formally diagnosed as autistic, and at least 4 men among the family elders who trained as mathematicians or engineers are assumed by other family members to be on the autism spectrum, but I am not privy to any formal medical diagnosis.

[zug_zug]

Don't mean to offend -- my intent there with the slash is to convey that I give each individual the right to independently label it as a problem if they feel it is, or to label it as a mere phenomenon if they feel it isn't.

[maxbond]

Gotcha. To be clear I don't take offense, I just thought it was worth pointing out.

I do see what you were going for there, but it is sort of undone when you seem to compare it to eating lead immediately after. I understand you weren't intending to do that, you never draw a direct comparison, but the juxtaposition seems to imply it. The lead thing was what tipped the scale and made me decide to write a comment, I was on the fence about it.

[faeriechangling]

>I'm under the impression people who have autism take issue with pathologizing it and calling it a "problem" or "illness," and want to be accepted as people who are simply different.

If you're talking on Hacker news, this is correct, don't pathologize autism or you are condescending to and infantilising your peers. It is obvious autism played into the success of many in this field, treating autistics as if they simply have an illness is unfair.

This is CONTEXT DEPEDENT though. If you're talking to a mother of an 8 year old who is having problems with their child damaging their brain by smashing their head on the wall repeatedly to self-stimulate, and they say to you "I wish we could cure this disease of autism", that's when you go with the flow.

[atlas_hugged]

Context dependent indeed!

My nephew and I both have it.

I just seem like a weird guy to the average person, and sometimes people will even get offended if I mention that I’m autistic.

My nephew, on the other hand, is what people think of when they think of autism: Arm flapping, making stimming noises/hums, echolalia, etc.

And boy do I just adore that kid.

His sense of humor is one of a kind.

Anyway… I wish there were subcategories like there are for Depression or ADHD.

People getting mad at me for misunderstandings gets old.

[faeriechangling]

There are "levels", but people ignore them. The status quo is that everybody gets put in one bucket called "Autism" regardless of if they're unable to live independently or are multi-billionaires like Elon Musk.

That is not socially useful.