Thread by @mightbeautistic

As an Autistic psychotherapist,
I’d like to break down the diagnosis of autism through an Autistic lens.

Translating the DSM-5 language into Autistic experience really highlights the deficits 🙃 and bias.

#ActuallyAutistic 🧵

DSM🩺 1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.

Autistic 🌕 1. I don’t have deficits in social reciprocity. I socialize in my own autistically normal way. I love discussing topics that I’m interested in and prefer deep convos to banal chit chat or small talk. I don’t always read NT social cues & they often miss mine as well.

DSM🩺 2. Deficits in nonverbal communication, ranging from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.

Autistic 🌕 2. My non verbal communication is fine but I don’t use it to be fake. I use it to communicate what little actually needs to be “said” that way. Eye contact hurts my head and hinders communication. What’s so holy about playing at shallow interaction? Let’s be real.

DSM 🩺 3. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.

Autistic 🌕 3. Having tons of friends and acquaintances feels exhaustingly superficial, it’s a NT value. I value connecting to improve the world or share special interests or with a few close friends. I value time to process and relate to information, animals, collections, etc.

DSM 🩺 4. Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypes, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).

Autistic 🩺 4. Do you know the joy of having your same favorite repetitive way of doing things, of straightening things out, of stimming joyfully? Idiosyncratic is a compliment. I’m interesting and the ways I move through the world shouldn’t be dampened to make you comfy.

DSM 🩺 5. Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat same food.

Autistic 🌕 5. I love my routines. They make sense and feel great. I’ve picked many of them for joy and efficiency. Why do we have to jump from one thing to the next? Think deeply, do deeply. Rituals and routine create a safe framework so I can delve deep with my mental energy.

DSM 🩺 6. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests).

Autistic 🌕 6. Stop pathologizing our wonder! Do you know where the world would be without people who went all in on their curiosity? Stop insisting we shallowly skimming life. You can do that, but my special interests give me life and make me an expert in many cool things.

DSM 🩺 7. Hyper or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in the sensory environment (e.g. indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement).

Autistic 🌕 7. I’m sorry you can’t hear electricity or have weather salience. I’m sorry you don’t feel with the super sensory level that I do, that doesn’t mean you have to either choose to deny that I do or devalue my experience. I’m synaptically different from you, not less.