What really annoys me, is that people treat words "mental illness", "mental disorder" and such, as some kind of terrible stigma. It's not. It is just a satement, that something in the person's psyche deviates from normal status. Obviously, I don't see that as a ground for prejudice against those people, but fuck me if autism isn't a deviation from norm. It is a pathology, that affects your mental status. I can totally understand that autistic people want to be normal, as everyone do, but they are approaching the problem from a different side.
Oh my god, thank you for saying this. I'm so sick of people acting like having a mental disorder is a horrible thing.
On the subject of homosexuality vs. autism, we have to acknowledge that while there is no cure for autism, there are a lot of treatments and therapies for it to help those people become more adjusted to living in a neurotypical world. Homosexuals really don't need treatment for their homosexuality outside of maybe getting therapy for feeling self conscious, embarrassed or having trouble talking about it to other people due to stigma.
I think people really need to back off from their own stigma they inject into the word "disorder", I mean Christ, we have stuff like generalized anxiety disorder or bipolar disorder and most of the people who receive treatment for those conditions are pretty normal at the end of the day. And you know what, treatment really improves people's lives. If having a disorder can help me get treatment to help me feel better, then what's the problem?
I think also that autistic people need to just accept that they're not normal. And it's okay to not be normal as long as you try to adjust for those around you. This sort of stuff is a two way street, and we really cannot be expected to help you if you have no interest in being able to meet us at a middle ground either. A LOT of people aren't normal and we work around that by trying to find a middle ground between individuals, this is almost essential to effective communication and working with people.
It's like if you go to work and an autistic person says, "I need to have this tool in my cube because it helps me calm down when I'm having a bad time, but if I have this, I will be able to complete my work on time." That's accommodation, that allows the autistic person to function close on a neurotypical person's level.
But an autistic person who makes a ton of demands and fails to acknowledge other people's needs cannot function with other people. What is the manager supposed to do, keep paying someone who refuses to work with the team?
It just blows my mind that anyone would willingly force themselves away from society just because they're different.
