It’s really unlucky to be autistic, isn’t it? If one in a hundred people is autistic, you’d have had to get pretty unlucky for you to be the one, wouldn’t you? And some families seem to get it particularly bad, having several?! Well – no. That last part’s probably nothing to do with luck because autism seems to be quite genetic and therefore runs in families. But as to it being unlucky to be autistic? Well – there’s some nuance to that. Disability is not a tragedy – as a society we need to move on from that idea. But it can be a bothersome nuisance not to be able to do things that the majority of society can do. Being different is only a superpower in the right circumstances.
[I made a half-humorous New Year’s resolution to write this blog in limerick form (occasionally!) and I enjoyed myself too much with limericks earlier in the week so I’m sticking with it. Friday the 13th needs all the cheering up it can get. Nuance of meaning is likely to be limited, for which apologies.]
My brain wants to see black and white;
Making things either sadness or light.
But my autism’s mixed;
Both between and betwixt.
It’s neither all gloom nor delight.
–
I’m not here to be inspiration
To some, nor to offer frustration.
I’m different, yes
But need not have distress
There’s room for all sorts in our nation.
–
What matters is banging the drum,
For acceptance and knowledge to come.
Neurodifference is not
A shame or a blot
It’s only unlucky for some.
–
A lifetime of people know-how
Has helped me to function somehow.
But how poor my prognosis
Before diagnosis;
How lucky I am to know now.
It’s difficult to express nuance in limerick form, but if nothing else I’d like to emphasise that an autism diagnosis is not a tragedy; it’s more likely to be a liberation. Knowledge and freedom are risky, and being different brings dangers of its own, but it’s so much better to understand why you’re different than not. Being autistic is neither lucky nor unlucky – but being autistic and not knowing it is bad fortune indeed.
Autistic Civil Servant 
You are so right when you state that misfortune lies, not in being Autistic, but in not knowing you are.
Without explanation we are left to be battered about by the judgement and assumptions of the world, not to mention the sometimes harsher self judgements we make.
Knowing is everything…it’s our only chance to carve a path that suitable and supportive and a chance to reframe a narrative of ‘broken’ to one of ‘different’.
Self identification and then a following diagnosis was quite literally life saving for me and re-routed me from a path of shame and pain onto one of assurance and advocacy.
My awakening to myself (as a late diagnosed adult) and my subsequent learning, resulted from the shared stories of other late diagnosed adults.
May we always stand in a boldness that allows us to speak our stories, so that we may pass that true gift of realisation to others.
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