I’ve been stigmatized by many people throughout my life because I involuntarily do things they often criticize me for because they think I’m doing it all on purpose but I’m not.
People stigmatize me because they aren’t very accepting of me or they blame me for my actions claiming I should be responsible for them or they treat me like a regular person who they think tolerates what they call discipline even though they don’t understand.
What do I think? At the end of the day, it’s all about what you believe in: nobody’s wrong about anything, everyone could’ve handled it better even if they’re doing the best they can, and personally I think other people don’t define who you are whether they know you or not because it’s hard to tell anymore what is right or wrong…at least that’s what I’m told.
Even arguing with my parents produces stigmatic responses because I did something unusual in front of them: everyone I run into does that, and I didn’t even do it on purpose.
But they do tell me some good advice though, and while they’re not perfect they’re not bad.
I bring this up because I argued with my father at home before we calmed down and apologized to each other and made up for it.
No other person has that deep a relationship besides some friends and families I know from another place, and while religion is unpopular on Lemmy I follow Christianity which gives my life a purpose and a better meaning than just personal success like everyone else.
No one’s perfect, but everyone’s fine that way.
Who else faces autism stigma daily like me?
I don’t blame you either.
I think most of the discrimination I get comes from my teachers from elementary school who would stigmatize their special needs students and do things like scream at them or make them watch them throw away their favorite foods like cake because they claim they don’t cooperate with them even though they’re all different people in same classroom.
And while my life has been problematic already, other people still get under my skin.
I once ruminated about missing earbuds in a treatment facility unit and a staff there set me off so badly another one snapped at me for it.
Years later, I would try an autism program that despite touting autistic adults working jobs while living in apartments, they still treat me no different than anyone else because they have no idea why I behave the way I do there.
I’ve done some outlandish things in my life and people still have no idea how my autism works even though I’ve been a special needs person neglected by the public all the whole time.
And my parents still think I can just improve and they took me back home with them because I eventually did the right thing and called a crisis center because the program I was in put my life in danger and people still scolded me for it because I mishandled it.
I have what everyone calls ‘high-functioning autism’ but my life is perpetually broken.
And because people claim to be helpful all the time, I’m told to accept that or no one will.
There are so many people I reject because of it and seemingly no one believes I’m different because everyone wants me to change so I can be good in their image and be a successful person in general like the others.
It just seems like everyone has a lack of empathy or knowledge of how autism works instead of philosophy, discipline, and generally no respect for how so many of us work.
And that’s exactly how I sought help twice in the first place and I’m still not happy about all the people in my life whatever I or they do.