I don’t like being referred to as a “person with autism”. I can’t just set it down, it’s not something I can remove. It is fundamental to the way I interact with the world, right down to how stim enters my brain. If my brain has types of inputs no allistic person can even approach, and methods of processing inherently different, it is an existence no allistic person can reach. There is no version of me that is not autistic.
A “cure” is the same as shooting me and replacing me with someone else.
The type of person I am is autistic. I am autistic.
I know it is a big trend in anarchist spaces to use person first language, but in many situations that just sounds like eugenics to me. Personhood is not some distinct universal experience. There is no “ideal human mind” floating out there in the aether for them to recognize in me.
I get that person first language helps some people recognize that thoughts happen behind my eyes, but if the only way they can do that is by imagining I’m them, I don’t care.
This language long predates whatever “spaces” you’re taking about, it even predates the “spaces” idea.
The medical communuty, especially psychology, was making this switch multiple decades ago, because it’s more useful.
Within CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), it’s a foundational element to say “I have condition X”, rather than “Condition X has me”, otherwise there’s no hope of learning new ways, new perspectives, on a given condition.
I refuse to say “I am X”. You may choose that, but I’m not going to be constrained to such limiting, ossified, internal dialog.
And CBT is widely known to not be effective (and in fact often harmful) for autistic individuals. There is no “winning” over autism, you can only learn to live with it, and its limitations.
I used to have the mindset of “not letting autism restrict me”. It led to two rounds of severe burnout, depression, cPTSD, and anxiety, lasting multiple years, as well as severe skill loss.
Uhm I don’t know your cultural background but at least around where I am the “own limitations” part is a crucial element of the therapy aspect. Accept your own limits to and work with your strengths.
Managing and accepting restrictions is what is thought here for therapists (at least the fields I’m in closer contact with.
This “widely knowing” people are at least not scientists as the last meta study I am aware of basically says “not enough data”: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7265021/
That said: there is a high risk of discussing local variations on various therapy approaches and it’s even highly likely I’d guess that you’re absolutely correct for your medical cultural background and my lense is highly dissorted (from your pov) by my own.
A lot of CBT is built around ‘cognitive distortions’ this is the main crux of the issue as a lot of autistic people will be telling a therapist their experiences and then the therapist will think it’s a cognitive distortion when it isn’t.
There are newer types of CBT that are autism friendly/aware, but it’s unlikely for your average therapist to 1; be trained in them and 2; be aware of, and able to spot autism in a patient.
I’ve had multiple therapists and psychiatrists where, despite them having many years experience I was their first autistic patient.
Perhaps it is different elsewhere in the world, but that’s how it is in Denmark.
That’s very good to know, thank you for sharing! I have only insights into the behavior therapy arm of occupational therapy due to personal contacts there. I can imagine what you describe though because I heard more than one story of “what’s wrong with that doctor/therapist, sending that kid with (insert ridiculous diagnostic)”.
The difference between referring to "<discussion-relevant adjective> people"and referring to people as “<an adjective used as a noun>” is one of those things you can’t unhear once you start hearing it, too. It reduces people to a particular facet as though it’s the only thing that matters about them.
When somebody says something like “the thing about blacks is…” or “I work with a bipolar, he always…” it makes one clench: the thing about to be said is definitely going to be ignorant and possibly hurtful or bigoted. Just say “<adjective> people” or “people with <condition>” if you don’t want people to automatically assume that you view people only as what you perceive as their most important attribute.