autasticanna:

It seems that most of the argument on curing autism and other disabilities is that people “don’t want anyone to suffer it”

But here’s the thing about autism. We’re born autistic. We don’t know anything else. And as long as I have access to my coping methods, I’m totally fine.

I’ve been autistic my entire life. I didn’t know it until a couple years ago, but I’ve been finding my own ways to deal with sensory issues since I was born. It’s not really a problem to me. I have soundproof earbuds to block out extra noise. I have a necklace full of perfume in case of a bad smell, stim toys in case I get anxious. I know ASL in case I have a nonverbal shutdown. I know how and where to seek out accommodations for myself if I need them. My autism-related problems are hardly problems at all. They’re just life for me.

So here are the reasons I suffer due to my autism:

• when I get overwhelmed but can’t leave the room because people accuse me of being rude
• when I can’t plug my ears if there’s a sound I can’t deal with because people accuse me of being rude
• when I get ridiculed for stimming in public
• when I get ridiculed for whatever my special interest is
• when people force me to eat food I can’t eat
• when people force me to use spoken English when I’ve gone nonverbal
• when people talk down to me because I’m autistic
• when people try to force me to do things that my brain can’t handle under the assumption that I can do it if I believe in myself

Notice what all those things have in common? They’re all problems caused by people who don’t try to understand that our brains are different.

We don’t suffer because of our autism. We suffer because of YOU.

So don’t give me that “nobody should have to suffer the burden of having autism” crap. If you actually cared about autistic people, you’d let us be different and try to understand the way our specialized brains work. You don’t care about us. You just don’t want to deal with us.

I’m a visually impaired person. I think that if a person wants to make their lives easier in any way, they have the right to do that. Including acclimating to those around them. I agree all people should have autonomy and respect, but if they want to be able to change their circumstance and we have the capacity to do that for them, we should.