Note For Anyone Writing About Me

Guide to Writing About Me

I am an Autistic person,not a person with autism. I am also not Aspergers. The diagnosis isn't even in the DSM anymore, and yes, I agree with the consolidation of all autistic spectrum stuff under one umbrella. I have other issues with the DSM.

I don't like Autism Speaks. I'm Disabled, not differently abled, and I am an Autistic activist. Self-advocate is true, but incomplete.

Citing My Posts

MLA: Zisk, Alyssa Hillary. "Post Title." Yes, That Too. Day Month Year of post. Web. Day Month Year of retrieval.

APA: Zisk, A. H. (Year Month Day of post.) Post Title. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://yesthattoo.blogspot.com/post-specific-URL.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

There is no such thing as too successful to be autistic.

Really. There isn't. Know why? It's actually pretty simple. There is such a thing as so good at the things you can do that no one cares about the non-essential stuff you can't do. The level of good that it takes seems to be much higher if people KNOW you have a disability, which is completely wrong. But as long as no one with authority to set standards for performance know about it, that level of good is pretty achievable.
And if you're trying to argue that someone is too successful to be autistic, chances are that other people have thought the same thing, assumed they were just weird, and been OK with their autism-related deficits because of that. It's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way.
In the end, being successful and autistic in the society we live in depends a lot on passing. Not necessarily on passing for normal, which I can't actually do, but passing for not disabled, which is different, and which I've been doing for years . Passing for "just weird" lets a lot slide, and people being willing to let the non-essentials slide is all it really takes for any person with disabilities to be successful by their own definitions of success.
And as far as autism-specific goes? Passing for "just weird" isn't that unusual as far as I can tell. And there is no limit when the things we aren't so good at are allowed to slide, except perhaps the limit of what we are actually capable of doing. That's not so much a limit on success as a limit on which paths can be taken there, though.

1 comment:

  1. I'm a self-dx Autistic, and I've been reading all of your blog (yes from the beginning). I was thinking about how I don't have these problems, and beginning to doubt myself and my right to claim the Autism label. This is exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you. <3

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