nekobakaz:

debigotizer:

nomorepuzzleprofits:

If you have at all thought of the phrase “But you’re so high-functioning! Don’t erase the voices of low-functioning people. You can write a blog post! They would never be able to write a blog post!”

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

You get to sit down and read why functioning labels are divisive and destructive before you get to continue.

http://k-pagination.tumblr.com/post/86615316874/please-dont-use-labels-on-me-and-us

http://www.autistichoya.com/2012/09/so-high-functioning-sarcasm.html

http://wearelikeyourchild.blogspot.ca/2014/01/dont-aspie-me.html

http://unstrangemind.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/no-you-dont/

http://www.snagglebox.com/article/autism-functioning

http://autisticadvocacy.org/tag/functioning-labels/

http://musingsofanaspie.com/2013/06/26/decoding-the-high-functioning-label/

And you know what? While you’re at it, read up on disability history and eugenics. See how human beings decide which human beings are not born equal

• Paige Studies Eugenic History

• Disability News and History

• The Arc of the United States (Facebook page)

• Ari Ne’eman of ASAN’s Talk at Emory on Autism and Disability

• Master Source List on Eugenics for Paige Studies Eugenic History

Now go read up

THIS WILL BE ON THE TEST

Figured I’d reblog this here in light of the recent discussion about autism and functioning labels. I found it really helpful and informative, so might as well share!

The AWN has two posts on functioning labels (one’s old and by me, but hey) 

http://autismwomensnetwork.org/whats-the-difference-between-high-functioning-and-low-functioning-autism/

http://autismwomensnetwork.org/static-bubbles-the-myths-of-functioning-labels/

geekhyena:

theseforgottenstars:

tamorapierce:

a-fierce-macaw:

tamorapierce:

soulpunchftw:

drejofvalenwood:

What the fuck?? They’re trying to throw MS into the ‘oppression criteria’ now? My mom was just diagnosed with MS and it was making her go blind on one eye and her memory’s shit because of it. What the fuck is up with the psychos on this site wanting life-threatening or impairing disorders just to feel special? It pisses me off.

I hope that everyone who pulls this self-diagnosing shit will live long lives. Without love or warmth, never knowing the barest human dignity.

Why on the gods’ earth would anyone want to self-diagnose a disease as life-terraforming as MS?  If you think you have any illness this major, you don’t self-diagnose, you get your ass to a doctor.  You don’t self-diagnose ANY major disease.  You ruin the reception that those who really have those diseases will get, and you ruin your own reception when you develop a real problem of your own—and you will, there is this thing called age.  Treat your body, your family, and your friends right.  Take the serious stuff seriously.

Some people can’t afford the time and money it takes to seek a professional diagnosis. In the case of mental health and developmental disabilities, some people cannot seek an official diagnosis because they would not be safe, for employment or child custody reasons, or because they have been abused and threatened by therapists previously, or cannot be officially diagnosed because of misinformation and ignorance within the psychiatric community itself.

Self-diagnosis — sincere, well-researched self-diagnosis, and I have never met anyone self-diagnosed who had not slogged through weeks of research and self-doubt — does not ruin the reception of people who “really” have those diseases. It does not prevent anyone from attaining services they need. Ableism does that. Self-diagnosis is not part of ableism. Sometimes, self-diagnosis is necessary because of ableism, because the medical community — which we are, allegedly, supposed to rely on for “legitimate” diagnoses — is horrifically ableist.

Self-diagnosis does allow people to understand symptoms that may have been frightening, confusing, and distressing when unexplained. Self-diagnosis does allow people to better take care of themselves, plan for their abilities, and seek help they need (which, I repeat, does not prevent those with official diagnoses from doing the same).

I am physically abled, so I can’t speak for a physical disability like MS. Perhaps in that case it is different. But you seem here to tar all self-diagnoses with the same brush, and that is simply wrong.

As an autistic person with ADHD, when I first discovered those things it was a massive relief. Because my life before then had been a hell of confusion and self-hatred, because I couldn’t understand why I was so different from my allistic peers, why I couldn’t do things that seemed so easy for them, why they couldn’t do some things that came so easily for me. I did later seek (and received) professional diagnosis, but professional diagnosis is not available to everyone, and every diagnostic process begins with self-diagnosis.

Self-diagnosis is both valid and extremely important for many people. Insisting that only professional diagnoses have value and are “real” is both classist and ableist.

I don’t believe I’ve ever been called “classist.” 

I do understand very well the limits placed on people by money and access, and I also understand very well that many professionals are flawed. America is presently brawling over the right of all people to have access to some kind of medical care, even if it is flawed, and the kind of testing that will get people past inadequate care to better care.  All we can do is try.  People—medical people—are human.  We cannot promise perfect care to everyone, but it would be nice to get some kind of care to everyone, and accurate tests and a process that will send people to better care.  If that’s classist, then we are all classist for wanting something better, for ourselves and for the next generation.

At the present time not everyone can sort out medical journals and reach the right conclusions—I know I am not—and forgive me, a-fierce-macaw, but when it comes to the bell-shaped curve, I am ableist.  That you were able to work out your real diagnoses is a triumph of your own intellect and persistence.  Many people could not work it out.  Hate me for that if you will.

I wasn’t at all offended by what you wrote.  I don’t agree with all of it.  I’m afraid I might have offended you again, and disappointed you again.

I’ve never really understood all this hate directed towards people who self-diagnose.  In my life, I’ve seen very few (read: zero) people pretending to have disabilities to get attention/feel special, and numerous people who have disabilities accused, attacked, and harassed by people who think they’re faking it all because they don’t fit into some bullshit criteria created by able-bodied/neurotypical people of what a ‘real disability’ is. 

This whole ‘a diagnosis of a disability doesn’t count unless it was given by a medical professional’ is completely ridiculous.  There are so many reasons people wouldn’t want to/be able to got to a doctor.  Maybe these people who self-diagnose don’t have access to doctors.  Maybe they’ve heard the same stories I have of people who have self-diagnosed correctly only to be told by a whole bunch of people (including doctors) that they’re wrong and/or making it up before they can finally find the help they need.  Maybe they’ve been professionally diagnosed with other things previously and gone on to get absolutely no help or accommodations from anyone.

I am one of those self-diagnosed people who you people all claim are ruining the lives, reputations, and general credibility of the ‘real disabled people’ (maybe I should add that to my resume).  I am also one of those professionally diagnosed ‘real disabled people’.

The big problem I have here is that everyone seems to think that self-diagnosed people are just making shit up in order to feel special.  People always get angry at self-diagnosed people because “why would you want to have ‘x problem’.  I’m pretty sure that no one who self-diagnoses themselves with a serious illness/disability wants to be sick.  What they want is to find an explanation for their symptoms that can prove to themselves that it’s not all in their head, that they’re not trying hard enough to succeed, or that they should just suck it up and deal with it because we all get sick sometimes, all of which are things that people with disabilities/chronic illnesses (self-diagnosed or not) hear all the time.

So, long story short, self-diagnoses are not preventing disabled people from getting the treatment/accommodations they need, ableism is, and we need to stop confusing the two.

(Also, I just love how the OP calls people who self-diagnose “p**chos”.  Like, way to prove that you actually care about disabled people there. Seriously, if you have to critique self-diagnosed people, can you at least try not to use ableist terms while doing it?)

Self-diagnosis is often the first tool people have. A lot of times, doctors just put you in a category and refuse to listen to anything outside of that category, and that goes double for women/PoC/neuroatypical people. I have a friend who was misdiagnosed with juvenile arthritis but self-diagnosed as having EDS because the symptoms made much more sense. For years her doctors wouldn’t believe her, until she finally got a referral to a genetic counselor who confirmed what my friend had self-diagnosed as. But this wouldn’t’ve happened had she not had the time and money and health insurance to fight the doctors and get the diagnosis she had, which is a pretty rare combination of factors.

Hell, I had to fight like mad to get treatment for ovarian cysts, as the gyno the school insurance paid for wouldn’t believe me when I said how much pain I was in, and accused me of exaggerating it, DESPITE HAVING HAD CYSTS REMOVED BEFORE AND BEING TOLD THEY COULD COME BACK. I used my mom’s insurance to get a second opinion and lo and behold, hey, cysts! And now I’m getting treatment for it. Again, this wouldn’t’ve happened had I not had access to my mom’s insurance and the time and spoons to argue with the doctors. 

And that’s not even getting into the issue of self-diagnosing mental health issues – plenty of studies have shown that where white kids get an ADD or ADHD diagnosis, PoC kids get shunted into juvie and the prison to school pipeline. Lots of doctors still don’t believe that women can be autistic, ditto PoC (because the diagnosis criteria were formulated based on looking at upper/upper middle class white males). 

The blatant ignorance and ableism of these posts…..*flails*  I love Tamora Pierce as an author, but when she gets something so important SO WRONG…..*FLAILS*

geekhyena:

abadeers:

if amanda bynes had depression, everyone would be hailing her for being ‘so inspirational’ and ‘lliving with such a tragic illness’

but because she’s schizophrenic, she’s mocked and humiliated by the media and by society for ‘outrageous’ and ‘hilarious’ behaviour she can’t control

this is why it’s dangerous to leave schizophrenia and psychosis out of your disability activism – because people still think it’s okay to say they support people with mental illnesses, but really only mean the mental illnesses they deem ‘normal’ enough to support.

THIS. SUPPORT -ALL- MENTAL ILLNESSES, NOT JUST THE CONVENIENT ONES.