Tag: actuallyautistic

bogleech:

Many people know that vaccines were linked to autism by a fraud and con artist who just wanted to sell his own alternative vaccines.

What a lot of people DON’T know is that he had no reason to choose autism for this scam except that it had JUST started entering mainstream consciousness and was still barely understood by most people. He took advantage of ignorance and confusion already surrounding a hype train and it could have been anything but it happened to be Autism at that particular time.

That’s how fucking meaningless the connection is.

“But how can you KNOOOOOW you don’t like the food if you’ve never TRIIIIIIIIEEEEEEED it?????”

jayranwritesthings:

  • by looking at it to make texture predictions
  • smelling it to make taste predictions
  • poking at it with a fork to ascertain the flexibility and chewiness
  • considering its similarities to other foods I’ve disliked
  • considering its differences from other foods I’ve liked
  • knowing that there is an ingredient in it that I hate
  • trying to chop it with a knife and feeling the gristliness and hearing that telltale horrible creaking noise of gristle and noping right out of that situation
  • this is how humans naturally decided whether or not to eat unfamiliar foods in the wild thousands of years ago
  • our senses interact with each other to protect us, so your nose alerts you to an incoming bad taste before you put it in your mouth so you don’t end up eating the bad thing and dying
  • this is how we survived as a species
  • it is perfectly rational
  • it makes perfect sense
  • so stop

slimeandsensitive:

It’s completely wild that a therapy exists that essentially poisons autistic children with vitamin c so that they get sick to their stomachs and therefore relieving themselves of their autism… What’s even more unbelievable is that it’s called CEASE therapy aka Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expressions and that people actually believe in their “theories.”

These CEASE therapists only undergo 3-5 day long training sessions before becoming a CEASE therapist. These therapists tell parents vaccines, toxins, microwaves, sugar, and various other day to day items are the cause of autism.  Even after the proof of vaccines not causing autism they still cling to the harmful myth recommending parents not to vaccinate their children.

Additionally, according to Dr. Tinus Smits’ “personal theory and experience”   autism is developed or caught from chemicals, food, and environmental factors often and most frequently after birth. Autism has been proven to be something people are born with and not something you can get rid of or catch. Autism is present in a child long before traits begin to surface. A child often doesn’t show visual traits or signs of autism until they enter the typical period of speech and social development.

CEASE therapy claims detoxing the child and keeping them away from metal pans and processed foods will cure autism and make autistic kids more social, more willing to make eye contact, and healthier overall… When in reality the child’s ‘change’ in autistic traits is likely because they are in excruciating stomach pain with little to no energy. Also, it’s most likely the child is afraid not to comply or else they’ll be made violently sick again.

There are over 500 CEASE therapists in 47 countries around the world. In the United States there are 124 and over 120 in the United Kingdom. 

While this isn’t the most popular harmful therapy used on autistic children it is still completely disturbing and affecting people’s lives. Additionally, Autism $peaks supports CEASE therapy and has resources on their website which isn’t surprising considering their track record.

Overall, children can’t just poop out their autism, yet these therapists think that is the case and cure. The phenomenon that any sort of disorder can be expelled from the body is extremely outdated and similar to abusive practices in psychology’s history like trephination (removing pieces of the skull), lobotomies, and the theory humorism. It is unbelievable that therapies like this exist and that people actively think it is beneficial.

Sources: CEASE therapy website 

              Article on CEASE Therapy

autistics-speak:

karadin:

stimpoweredgiraffe:

i was ranting about ableism on twitter and.  i realize a lot of people genuinely do not know this and dont mean harm. so please know this and cause less harm. you will make my life and the life of other autistic people just a little bit better.

and people can gain new skills over time, where you are now is not where you will always be.

Also, what skills and needs an individual autistic person has can vary a lot over time (even day to day or hour to hour!) depending on lots of factors. When I am not putting my energy into dealing with sensory overload or making the effort to seem neurotypical to judgy people, I’m able to cultivate a lot of abilities that I just can’t maintain when I’m under heavy stress.

So, it’s Autism Acceptance Month, and April 2nd! This year I actually wanted to talk about my experiences as an autistic person 

I’ve seen there’s a sort of month-long thing and I’d like to try it, even if I’m late! Days 1 + 2 of 30 Days Of Autism Acceptance under the cut, ‘cause it’ll likely be pretty long.

Day 1: Introduction
Hi! I’m Ruby, and I’m 18. I was professionally diagnosed as autistic at age 15, and everything kinda… Clicked into place. I’m not the best at introductions, so… Moving on!

Day 2: What I Love About Being Autistic Is…
Oh! There’s so much to love. I could never list everything, we’d be here until, like… September. Like, have you ever tried a new dessert and discovered a completely new level of sensory heaven, or combined your favorite stims with your current special interest? For me it’s singing, so I really like singing things I associate with my special interests. Seriously! There are things that aren’t so great about being autistic too, obviously, but I love being the way I am! And, since I spent so much of my life thus far undiagnosed, I really like having explanations for why I exist the way I do.

autisticliving:

April is Autism Awareness Month, launched by Autism Speaks, an organization masquerading as a charity that has harmed autistic people and spread misinformation about autism for the last 10 years. Instead of supporting Autism Speaks and their campaigns, take some time out of April 2016 to educate yourself on why you shouldn’t support Autism Speaks and spread the word.

This is a serious genuine question: why are autistic people against finding a cure for it? I understand if they personally don’t want it to be cured, but why do they feel they don’t want a cure at all for anyone? Thanks!

blue-author:

askanautistic:

When people talk about curing autism they seem to have the idea that autistic people are basically ‘neurotypical’ people who HAVE autism (they view it as something separate that they’d like to remove to make us ‘normal’). But autism isn’t a separate thing that’s been ‘added on’, or an illness. It’s just the way we are. 

People also often seem to assume that anything negative we experience is because of autism, and anything positive we experience is despite autism. If you’re autistic, everything you experience is basically filtered through your ‘autisticness’, if that makes sense. So if you were to magic away that autisticness, it wouldn’t just remove negative things, and because autism is complex there can be traits that have both positives and negatives (for example, sensory issues: some sensory input might bring massive amounts of joy and feel really amazing, but then some sensory input might cause lots of pain and make you feel ill – sometimes I’ve thought I’d be happier with more normal sensory reactions to things, but ultimately I like the good feelings and I’d rather put up with the bad (and be able to try to find coping mechanisms to deal with the bad) rather than miss out on all the good).

Autism is inherent. You can’t remove it/cure it. So it also seems a waste for people to focus so much on that instead of focusing on our current wellbeing. Also, the knowledge that people do so desperately want to basically get rid of us (as we are) is obviously very unpleasant!

The idea that there should be a cure suggests that there is something wrong with us, and makes it very clear just how strongly a lot of non-autistic people feel about that. So even if there was a cure and we would (genuinely) have a choice as to whether we received it or not, it’s still not really pleasant to be told that you are something that needs curing, that there’s something so wrong with you that there should be a cure for it whether you want one or not. A lot of our difficulties would be somewhat diminished if we received adequate support (which most of us don’t – probably because all the resources that would go towards providing support are being spent on trying to find cures).

Realistically, if there was a cure, it’s likely that autistic people often wouldn’t get a choice. Parents would choose to cure their children (and that would include dependent adult children). Adults who were able to reject a cure would probably still get a lot of pressure to accept a cure (by family, doctors, possibly even other people like employers or colleagues who all just think that, “Life would be so much easier, why wouldn’t you want to be cured of something as terrible as autism?”) which would either result in people unwillingly ‘consenting’ to a cure, or would just cause lots of autistic people to live pretty miserable lives constantly being told how much better they’d be if they were just… not the way they are… and how much more wanted they’d be if they weren’t autistic… and likely that they’re not deserving of support because they could have ‘fixed themselves’. Thing is, we’re not broken. Having difficulties, even significant ones, doesn’t make us broken versions of real people. We’re real, we’re here already, and we could have really great lives and opportunities if people actually took the time to learn more about us and to embrace our differences.

As touched on above, if there was a cure, those of us who didn’t want to be cured would probably lose access any support we do already have. Why put money/resources into supporting autistic people if there’s a cure that makes that support redundant? Why would anyone (particularly those who thinks autism should be cured) support people who haven’t chosen to cure themselves?

The people who want to cure autism also want to find ways to prevent it, and lots of autistic people fear that if it was possible to screen for autism in the same way that people can screen for other conditions before birth, people would decide to terminate a pregnancy if they’d been told that their child was likely to be autistic. Basically, if you’re autistic, you’re constantly being warned that you don’t really deserve to exist. We are constantly trying to fight against that, trying to explain our experiences to people and trying to convince people that we are worthwhile human beings as we are, but the damage that’s already been done (by companies like Autism Speaks, and people like Andrew Wakefield) is really hard to undo. So I think most of us would expect that, if cures or preventative measures were possible, there would eventually no longer be any autistic people. And the ones who slipped through that ‘net’ would still suffer because the world would be even less inclined to want to support autistic people/there’d be less autistic people around to make them feel less alone.

Even the idea that autistic people can be cured is dangerous. That rhetoric is linked to fear-mongering, and the idea that autism should be hated and eradicated. Lots of children have dangerous ‘treatments’ forced on them, and  are basically abused under the guise of being ‘cured’ or ‘improved’. Lots of autistic people are murdered by their caregivers (and the reports are usually more sympathetic to the caregiver than the murdered autistic person). Lots of people refuse to have their children vaccinated, which also puts those children at risk of serious illness and possible death, and also risks the lives of other children who aren’t yet vaccinated, or can’t be vaccinated for some reason. There are parents giving their children potentially lethal bleach enemas, because risking their life and their health is somehow acceptable just because they’re autistic? 

It’s a massive waste of resources! We’d rather people spent time and money on trying to improve services for autistic people! So much money gets wasted on research into the causes, all with a view to eradicate us. It would make a much bigger difference to autistic people if the money went towards services to support us.

Often, people claim that those who don’t want cures are trying to speak for/over those who have more obvious difficulties, or have specific presentations (for example, being completely non-verbal). They’re making assumptions, though, because there are lots of non-verbal people who communicate in other ways and have made it clear that they wouldn’t ever want to be ‘cured’. I know that some autistic people dislike being autistic and would want to be cured, but no one really asks why. Is that purely because they’re autistic and that makes their life hard/miserable, or is it because of lack of acceptance, lack of support, etc. Considering all the history and negative experiences autistic people have (often not actually because they’re autistic but because of how other people perceive us, or how things are structured to cater to allistic people), that does make me wonder whether with more genuine acceptance and with more effort going into support rather than ‘cures’ the people who do dislike being autistic might actually be much happier. It is hard to see so much negativity surrounding who you are and to not start to feel like you are somehow wrong or a burden. It’s also hard to have difficulties and see information that focuses purely on positive aspects of being autistic (which are often there to fight against the negativity, but can alienate people who are having a hard time). Basically, we either get told how awful our lives are and what a burden we are (which can hurt all of us), or we get told how gifted we are and what amazing contributions we make (which hurts the people who aren’t gifted, and who don’t feel that they contribute towards anything in any way). More recently I think there’s much more balance, and if that can continue we’d all be better off. 

My personal view is that if I have to change myself that drastically to be able to live a happy life then it’s not really me living it, anyway. So I’d prefer if if resources went towards letting me be me (and enabling me to have a good life), and if people wanted me to be able to be me, if that makes sense? 

We want to be accepted. People can’t accept us and want to cure us at the same time. It just doesn’t work because autism is inherent/intrinsic. You either accept us as we are, or you clearly don’t accept us.

When people are focused on trying to ‘fix’ us, we’re basically in danger, because the ultimate goal outweighs our wellbeing. When we’re viewed as ‘broken’ we’re viewed as less than human, and that means people think they can treat us however they want (because we’re not really real people until we’re ‘cured’).

We need the focus to switch in order to be able to live full and happy autistic lives, and to protect our community (including the next generations) from all those potential harms.

The idea of an autism cure is pod people levels of terrifying.

What if we could, you know, end you, but your body is still alive? What if the person inside your body were different? What if this person were in some way more convenient for us? What if this person were more in line with our thinking of how a person should be?