"I can’t speak for others, but through a lot of traumatic unlearning and all of the support I needed from actually autistic advocates who were also cured, I am no longer afraid of autism."

Carrying on with that, I’d like to mention, before I continue, the terminology that a huge percentage of autistic people would like to no longer be used. Starting with ‘special needs’. All humans have needs. Usually, the exact same needs. Eating, drinking, having shelter, keeping clean, sensory needs, social needs etc. We’re all the same. However, there are certain needs that are much harder for disabled people to meet because of the world we live in. They’re not special. They’re human needs that are harder to access. It’s a term that is often used to infantilise disabled adults and overall, dehumanise. It is often used when speaking down to people. ‘Special needs’ also communicates the idea that disabled people are somewhat special, extra and have a privilege, when in reality, we face a lot of discrimination to the point that we often can’t access things all humans are entitled to; our human rights have been stripped to some extent. Another thing we’d like to stop the use of is functioning labels. They were used to replace ‘severe’ and ‘mild’ but to be honest, they’re just as bad. Describing someone as ‘high-functioning’ completely dismisses any type of struggle and doesn’t recognise the amount of trauma that has taken place in order for someone to appear like that. It’s often used to describe someone before they hit life-changing burnout. Maybe high-masking is the word you’re looking for. Masking both a life-saving thing and life-threatening and life-ruining thing. ‘High-functioning autism’ also infers that you never expected an autistic person to look like they live a life like you. On the other hand, describing someone as ‘low-functioning’ is extremely offensive and communicates that you believe that this person is not capable of any kind of success. Autism looks different in everyone as usually the ‘autistic traits’ you see are actually just a result and a reaction to an extremely traumatic, inaccessible world. Also, let’s cut out person first language. Autism does define me and if you’re worried about that, maybe check your definition of autism. I’m not a broken allistic person. I’m not an allistic person with autism added on. I’m just simply autistic! Stop pushing your internalised ableism onto those who spent years of traumatic work to undo theirs.

One of the most beautiful things about autistic people is the desire to be accepting of everyone. In my personal experience, I’ve come to realise that allistic people are generally not. Anything different from them is perceived as a threat. But don’t worry, allistic people, I’m not going to write all about how much I hate that about you because I don’t; I understand it. Recently, I was hearing about generational trauma. I don’t know a whole ton about it, so I’m not going to try and educate people on it here, but I believe that it follows the same pattern as what I’m talking about. The general idea of generational trauma is that a traumatic event happened to someone years and years ago and they develop ways of processing/coping with/perceiving trauma from then on. In consequence, these exact brain wirings are passed down generations upon generations. These processes are caused by the actual person’s DNA. I haven’t done enough research to know whether it is a real thing and scientifically correct, however if it is, then it would make a lot on sense in this context. My theory, based on whether generational trauma is correct, is that, centuries ago, autistic people turned up and allistic people felt threatened for some reason or another and from then on, needed to protect themselves when autistic people were near. In that situation, autistic people processed it as: these people are very different to us, let’s learn and be accepting because we know how awful the feeling is when people hate us. These brain wirings have been passed down through each group of people. As allistic people are the vast majority of society, the trait of perceiving different people as a threat has never been changed as most people have it. I guess it’s either never been noticed or never been recognised as a bad thing.

There are a lot of things that allistic people do or feel that makes me think: but i’m still the disordered one? It just goes to show that neither groups are disordered when it comes to this. Also, an important thing that is commonly hard to realise and understand, autistic people don’t agree with/don’t relate to the allistic way of being just as much as allistic people not agreeing with our way. It’s definitely a two way thing. If you call me ‘special needs’, I call you ‘special needs’ as your needs are different and special to me. If you say I have mild/severe autism, okay, you have mild/severe allism. Oh I could go on and on. But, you see, I don’t do that and can confirm it’s a very easy thing not to do. I never see this talked about much, even in online spaces. I think allistic people need to lose this sense of superiority. I do apologise if it shocks you that I’ve said that but that is proving my point even more.

"One of the most beautiful things about autistic people is the desire to be accepting of everyone."