What could I make my first post about? How about one of the most important things to me this month: my autism.
For April, groups like the Autism Self Advocacy Network are sponsoring Autism Acceptance Month. This is important to help people understand that autism is more than just a childhood thing; adults have autism, too. We don’t grow out of it.
What does an autistic adult look like? Pretty much like everyone else. We just think a little differently and have trouble in social situations. But we can still be productive members of society, as long as people make small allowances for some odd quirks from time to time.
I had a little trouble with this when I went to my current job over a year ago. However, after some of this trouble, I decided I had to let my supervisor and the HR manager know about the diagnosis. Since then, we’ve worked together to help me fit more in. And now, a year in, they are both quite impressed with my progress.
Now, why then Autism Acceptance Month and not Autism Awareness Month? Aren’t all the autism things supposed to be blue? Well, that’s only if you want to support Autism Speaks. (I’m not even going to link to them like I normally will do with any organization I mention.) This is an organization that believes that autism is a terrible disease that is horror for families and needs to be prevented and cured. Frak you! I don’t want to be cured, and I don’t need to be cured. Some of the more extreme cases of people almost totally withdrawn into themselves need some therapy help, but mostly we need to be understood and accepted as people like everyone else.