THIS IS AUTISM and its really quite (complicated and) great

Written by An Anonymous Newtown Autistic

Originally published at That Autistic that Newtown Forgot

 *A quick note on today’s flashblog ~ This is Autism.  In response to Suzanne Wright’s upsetting and fear-inducing letter entitled A Call for Action  a Flashblog has been organized to take back the phrase “this is autism”, which Suzanne Wright used several times in her letter that was posted on Autism Speaks’ website, the organization she and her husband Bob Wright created eight years ago.

(Flash blog explanation borrowed from http://emmashopebook.com/ )

This is Autism:

this is a life that sometimes catapults into hours of screaming but at other times amounts to hours of ruthless obsessive study of certain phenomenon

this is meowing in the hallways, moving hands up and down and walking without clear balance

and drawing for hours to try to capture the feelings which one had hours ago

This is Autism

this is having an outsider’s perspective on socializing, always ducking into a book or behind a laptop screen

this is experiencing not too little, but too much

being a devoted observer of background noises, of bright things behind people’s heads while they talk to you, of street signs, of birds and squirrels and trees

This is Autism

this is a culture of people who have little difficulty communicating with one another because they expect people who are autistic to never hold back the truth but to always ask before touching one another

this is a culture of those who think sitting on floors, flapping one’s hands and not making eye contact make perfect sense

this is a culture of people whose skills and abilities do differ and all of us come from differing circumstances,

but all of us know extreme levels of anxiety;

all of us are in tune with parts of the world that others routinely ignore;

all of us are well springs of emotion that are often poorly expressed;

almost all of us know the feeling of being lost and having no one to whom we can express very well the truths of our worlds

This is Autism

many of us can’t “speak” orally

many of us don’t know what the hell those faces your making are supposed to mean

but our minds are fountains:

fountains that sing with new and interesting thoughts

fountains full of ideas and possibilities

and even when we can’t vocalized

be assured that worlds are turning behind our eyes,

things are being thought,

knowledge is present

Suzanne Wright doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about

her autistic child has not grown up

if Mrs. Wright had not been drowned in medicalized discourses

to the point that she thinks a few differences in her child make it worthwhile to radically alter that child

perhaps she’d realize that her child has a future ahead of them!

A grand future!

Every one of us autistic individuals has a future and has contributions to make.

Autistic is not just a diagnosis turned into an identity, it’s a culture, it’s a way of life and it is a real community

To all who should ask:

This is Autism

in all of its complexity

This is Autism

they can never simplify it

we are not holes in the floor

or silent gaps in the conversation

This is Autism

even if we don’t have any idea what you meant to say

or even if we said the wrong thing in the wrong situation

This is Autism

and its really quite great!