I know that this thread will get taken in different ways by different people. I ask you to read to the end before commenting positively or negatively.
How often do my #ActuallyAutistic comrades with less support needs interact with those with more? AND vice versa?
How many of you late dx folks identify with those who were dx early? How many of you autistic folks who are Levels 2 & 3 according to the DSM can relate to those who are Level 1? Do you see us as all autistic or something else?
While there may SEEM to be a huge chasm between these groups, I believe that this is due to the insistence of NT society along with the medical, educational, and psychological industries and decades of indoctrination and internalized ideas of what is or isn't autistic.
We have a lot more in common with each other than we are led to believe. Of course, not all of our experiences are the same and not all of us can relate to the same things as the other. We have vastly different experiences and understandings of ourselves and what autism is.
Some of us will not be able to relate to the positivity and the ideas of autistic joy, while others of us cannot understand why people can possible think that autism is a not disability. Some have been masking their whole lives, others don't know what the concept even is.
Some will get extremely angry when we speak about our struggles, and others equally angry if we speak about the positive aspects of being autistic. Some argue that those of us who work cannot understand those who don't, and vice versa. That our struggles aren't the same.
continued in the replies ---
@theautisticcoach @actuallyautistic @actuallyautistics can you explain to me what level 1,2 and 3 means. I was diagnosed before all that changed and I haven’t kept up with new terms / developments. I was just diagnosed as classical autism
https://www.lanermc.org/community/lane-health-blog/the-3-levels-of-autism-explained
I wasn't diagnosed originally with any of these, but Aspergers Syndrome. Only years later when I had to be diagnosed AGAIN in a different country from where I was born post DSM-5 did I receive this diagnosis of Level 2. Which is ironic, of course, in that people often equate "aspergers' with "level 1".
@theautisticcoach @Uniflame @actuallyautistic @actuallyautistics
I correspond to Level 1 on that, but my "support" is rigid routine. I've worked out systems that ensure everything is done by following a script. If I get interrupted or things happen out of order, it all falls apart.
