Share your morning stories
Smokers here don’t know how to use ash trays. Today’s mood is sponsored by this song;
A colleague of mine asked my sister if I was autistic yesterday. I was annoyed by it because... My brother is autistic... I know there’s a spectrum; and chances are I’m in it in some way or another... but it’s not something this 19 year old colleague could notice.
I take it as an insult to my brother, because he has some serious disabilities that need addressing. Someone saying I’m autistic because I’m not eager to participate in some social interactions sort of undermines the pedagogical challenges the disorder presents.
I didn’t need special help; but someone deeper in the spectrum might... throwing the word around to describe someone who is not particularly sociable but doesn’t present any obvious symptoms of the disorder undermines the disorder itself; like loudly declaring you cannot eat gluten and also not having celiacs disease.
Truth is my brother is going to require intense preparation for college... which is why I don’t want people to assume being diagnosed with autism is some sort of rite of passage in the 21st century. Or that being strange makes you autistic, again... it undermines the actual, observable, disorder.