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From Autism Awareness to Autism Acceptance [1]

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Date: 2023-04-30  

For me supporting autism acceptance is a deeply personal issue. When my son was diagnosed as autistic last year, I did what I always do when faced with something new. I vacuumed up all the information I could about what autism is, how you talk about it, what impacts it can have on both autistics and those who care for them. And along the way, it became very obvious to me that while I've never received a formal diagnosis of autism myself, I have absolutely no doubt that if the diagnostic tools and knowledge about autism that we have now, had been available when I was a little kid in the 1980s, I would have been diagnosed as autistic.



Without turning this story into a confessional because that’s way outside my comfort zone, and the fact that this isn’t about me, suffice to say a diagnosis of autism would explain so much, and would fit in just so perfectly with many issues and difficulties that I have dealt with in the past and that I continue to, struggle with. As a personal choice, out of deference and respect to people who have received a formal diagnosis, I don’t refer to myself as autistic, even though I most assuredly am. Be that as it may, in trying to learn the best ways to support my son, I learned something profoundly important about myself.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/30/2166724/-From-Autism-Awareness-to-Autism-Acceptance

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