11 Things Not To Say To An Autistic Person

10 'I rather have a sick/dead child than an autistic child'

Just to be clear: I have never heard anyone say it just like that. But the point I want to go to is actually a sequel to the whole 'vaccines cause autism' thing.

Regardless of what your opinion is about whether vaccines cause autism or not (they don't) lets take a closer look to the parents who use that as an argument to not vaccinate. What they are basically saying is that they rather risk having a very sick or even dead child than having an autistic one. That's just sad.

'We are not a fate worse then death,' I once heard someone say about this and I couldn't agree more. I have no other words for it.

Not long ago there was a girl in a near town that died of measles. I didn't know her or anything. She was not vaccinated because of religious reasons (so not because her parents believed vaccines cause autism). It was on the news so my friends and I talked about it suddenly one of my friends thought it would be funny to say: 'At least she didn't have autism.' Yeah, that kinda hurt. I almost wanted to stop her by asking: 'So you'd rather be dead than be like me?' But I didn't say anything. I didn't really know her for that long and I was afraid of ruining the small friendship we had built up by telling her I have autism.

Silly now that I think about it cause if she can't handle having an autistic friend I don't even want to be friends with her. Not that I think she would judge me for being autistic, it was just a thought that slipped through my mind.