From the moment when Meriton publicly stated that his son is autistic, dozens of portals did their job by reporting the news, but unfortunately, we noticed that they were wrong in many cases, emphasizing in the headlines that Meriton's son "suffers from autism ”, so we believe that it should be clarified that autism is part of the life of autistic people and in fact, they do not suffer from it, but simply have it.
People in everyday conversation use the term "suffering from autism", although in fact, these people are simply called "autistic", without words that indicate suffering and hardship. So we all know that words matter, especially when it comes to people on the autism spectrum, because that's how they understand how we see them and what we think of them.
Why shouldn't we say "suffers from autism"?
First, because it is not suffering, but a way of life. Autism is part of the lives of these people, who, even though they may have it, can still function best in society.
Second, because we cannot put the "disease" before the person. For example, no one introduces someone and says, "Hey, this is my brother, who suffers from diabetes," or "This is my mother, who suffers from heart disease." Autistic people live life just like us, without being separated from the autism spectrum.
So when we say that a person "suffers from autism" in a story, we are treating them as if they have a chronic disease, implying that they need a "cure" to get well, when in fact, they don't. a specific cure. Autistic people have their own unique ways of seeing and exploring the world.
How should we address autistic people?
As we have addressed several times throughout this article: autistic people! In an article published on the Autism Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN), the author of the article clarified: “I am not a person with autism; I'm autistic," further explaining:
"When we say an 'autistic person', we mean it as a disaster or as if an accident happened and made this person autistic. In fact, we imply that autism is detrimental to this person's value and usefulness, so we separate his condition with the word "with" or "suffering." Ultimately, it would be better to simply refer to an "autistic person", as this is how we recognize, affirm and validate the identity of an autistic person. We recognize that he is a different person than non-autistic people and that is not a tragedy, and we do not mean that we are afraid or ashamed to recognize this difference.
At this point, the debate again rests on the "suffering from autism" part.
For the expression "person with autism" or "autistic person", it is better that the autistic person himself chooses how he will be called and referred to. Experts and organizations do not choose a certain side in this case and use both phrases: "person with autism" and "autistic person".
The problem remains with the saying "suffers from autism". However, it is advisable to ask the autistic person if he is uncomfortable addressing him as "person with autism" and to absolutely avoid sentences that express pity and suffering for autism.
