Autism, From Someone Who Is On The Spectrum

Female on the Spectrum: The Superpower in Hiding Instead Of a Disability (2019)

Part 1 of 3

"Autism Acceptance is realizing I am normal version of me and not some broken version of normal."-Unknown

April is Autism Awareness Month. World Autism Awareness Day is April 2nd every year since 2007. Autism Speaks calls it "The Light Up Blue Campaign" because more boys are affected than girls. The statistic shows 1 in 37 is diagnosis rate for boys versus 1 in 151 diagnosis rate for girls as 2014. Most of Autism community does not have much support Autism Speaks because they want to cure for Autism. There is no cure for Autism because it is neurological disorder that effects people's lives for years after their childhood years. But most of the Autism community started to make April in Autism Acceptance Month and make April 2nd into World Autism Acceptance Day.

"Just because I don't LOOK Autistic that does certainly not take away from my constantly elevated sensitivity levels, the ongoing CHALLENGES and struggles I experience each day or my constantly elevated anxiety levels. Actually, if anything, not LOOKING Autistic make existence even MORE challenging because no ever assumes how very much I'm struggling each and every day."-Unknown

This quote is how I feel many times over the last 20 plus years during my journey to come to terms with my Autism diagnosis. Every time I have gotten to the point where I accept I am Autistic, there is someone clueless about Autism. Especially when I hear most of my life, you can be Autistic because you do not look Autistic or you are more verbal than most people with Autism. But in social situation I have taught myself how to more outgoing than I am so many time leads to a meltdown or shut down growing up after being people who do not know I am Autistic because I have learn to fake being "normal" in social situation. Over the last 10 years, I have been educating many people what is like to have Autism, at least for me. In order to understand why I am talking about Autism, you must get to know me, first.

Autism was not first diagnosis for me, I diagnose with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at 5 years old. Think about the irony about that do you know any 5 years old who is not hyperactivity. So, the doctors put me on Ritalin (Methylphenidate) at 5 years old. While I was not on Ritalin the whole time it was in the same family of drugs. It was until 2 years later, I actually got the diagnosis for Autism. My formal diagnosis was PDD-NOS which means Pervasive Development Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified. It is the diagnosis given to people, who are on the Autism Spectrum but do not fully meet the criteria for another Autism Spectrum Disorder. This is a common occurrence for those on the Autism Spectrum, whose have symptoms or signs for both disorders. Autism Spectrum Disorder is more sensory related than Attention Deficit Disorder. There is overlap in symptoms and signs for both disorder and doctors have not found a way to tell whether a child's issues are sensory related or other like Attention Deficit Disorder.