I Am Not a Person With Autism

The majority of the autistic community, including myself, prefers identity first language over person first language. This is because you cannot separate Autism from the individual.

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What do I mean by this? Well, Autism is a disability because of the world and the culture we live in. Our environment actively disables us. Autism is also a neurotype.

There are neurotypical brains and neurodivergent brains, and each function in different ways. Ways that largely control how a person acts, thinks, feels, and processes the world around them.

I am autistic. It is a large part of my identity because it affects many facets of my life. Autism is how my brain functions. It impacts how I process emotions, how I communicate with others, how I react to new things, and familiar things.

Autism is not like depression. It is not a mental health issue that can change and be overcome. You cannot ‘cure’ autism. You should not cure autism.

Depression is not a healthy state to live in, and it is possible to change. Autism is a perfectly normal state to live in and cannot be changed. This is why I am Autistic. I am not a person with Autism.

I think back to how wrong I felt. To my core, my soul, I felt wrong. In truth, to my…