I’m Autistic, and I’m Ironically a Writer…
I’ll let you in on a little secret- I’m autistic, as in I am somewhere on the autism spectrum. What’s that? You’ve already known due to my various amounts of articles stating that fact? Well, I’ll say it more loudly then.
I’m autistic, as in I am somewhere on the autism spectrum.
It’s even in my bio somewhere; how could you miss it? It affects me in everything- my art, my ideas, my beliefs, and my writing. Autism is a part of who I am, whether I like it or not. It’s not something I can control, and it’s not something I can change. It’s just a part of who I am.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, what are some common signs of autism? A lot of people think autism is not being able to talk or socialize and stimming while being blissfully unaware of what’s going on around them (and films like Music are not helping debunking these claims). But that’s not really me at all. Here are the autistic traits I have.
01: Difficulty understanding the rules of conversation
02: Gives spontaneous comments which seem to have no connection to the current conversation
03: Difficulty understanding jokes, figures of speech or sarcasm
04: Prefers to be alone, aloft or overly-friendly
05: Difficulty maintaining friendships
06: Finds it easier to socialize with people that are older or younger, rather than peers of their own age
07: Unaware of/disinterested in what is going on around them
08: Talks excessively about one or two topics (writing and art for me)
09: Minimal acknowledgement of others
10: Obsessions with objects, ideas or desires
11: Ritualistic or compulsive behavior patterns (sniffing, licking, watching objects fall, flapping arms, spinning, rocking, humming, tapping, sucking, rubbing clothes)
12: Unusual attachment to objects
13: Perfectionism in certain areas (or every area for me)
14: Feels the need to fix or rearrange things
15: Causes injury to self (biting my lips and fingers until I start bleeding)
I may have the same traits as many other autistic people, but I’m not like every autistic person. I’m just me. You’re not like every other person, are you? Of course not! There are almost eight billion people on this planet; it would be ridiculous to think that one type of person is just every other person who’s the same type. So why do we think this way?
Why do we think that everyone should be the same way as we are like some one-party dictatorship? Why do we act like we’re our own version of God and that the world revolves around us? And yet… neither of those statements are true. Not everyone is like us, and we’re not some version of God having the world revolve around us. Sure, it would be nice if they were true, but they’re not.
Yeah, it would be nice if the world was more accommodating to autistic people (quieter places, less eye-bleeding lights, being able to take our time with things), but it isn’t. Still though, is it a good thing to have everyone shut up in their houses with their only form of socialization being online like it has been for the past year? Is it a good thing to not reach out to people and improve on ourselves? The person whom we know the most about is ourselves, but would it hurt to know about other people? That’s how we learn about the real world, about many topics on this planet. If we only shut ourselves into our own worlds and consider other people’s points of view, then what exactly are we learning?
“Emily, what does this have to do with writing?” you’re probably asking. Well, my point is that humans are interesting! If everyone was the exact same, whether it be neurotypical or autistic, there wouldn’t be anything to learn from. Therefore, there wouldn’t be anything to write about. Just like how neurotypical people should learn about the autistic experience from an autistic person’s point of view, I want to learn about the neurotypical experience from their point of view. Having only one point of view is boring! Why would anyone want that- to make life easier? Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s always a good thing. We need to challenge ourselves, to better ourselves, to explore ourselves and others, and to learn about ourselves and others.
I know it’s a bit ironic for me to say all of this since autistic people are known for not being very expressive and good with words, but again, not every autistic person is not like that. Maybe I’m not the most expressive person on the planet, but I do like to use my words. But I am very passionate about writing, and strong passion about certain topics is very common among autistic people. And when I write, I need to research, and when I research, I learn. I don’t have to research by looking stuff up on the internet. I can observe people wherever I go to see basic human interaction- how all kinds of people work in certain situations. That’s what makes writing so fun for me.
And that is what it means for me to be an autistic writer.
