#MHSN autistic here

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Also having a high empathy does not make you a good person and vise versa. who tf cares about your empathy levels.

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There are many things wrong with this block of text. From saying autism has no downsides, to saying it makes you have more empathy so you’re trustworthy.

There are multiple things wrong with this so let’s break it down.

There ARE downsides of autism. As a higher support need’s individual, most days there’s more downsides then there are upsides. Yes, I wouldn’t have changed my autism (although some people would), yes, autism is sometimes great! But saying it has no downsides is downplaying the struggles that autistic people face, over and over again. From being assaulted, to ableist comments and treatments, to neglect and abuse, to support needs, to being killed. All of these are downsides of having autism and I’ve not even scratched the surface. You do NOT get to say that autism has no downsides.

The next thing, that autism makes you have more empathy. Are we forgetting about the people with no to low empathy? Are we forgetting about the autistics who experience no empathy due to their autism? Autism can make you hyper-empathic. But it can also make you Hypo-empathetic. There is no doubt about that.

Stop trying to erase that some people don’t experience the same things as you. Stop trying to downplay autism into this cutesy disorder. It’s not cool. Autism affects peoples lives, it makes their lives hard. It makes their lives miserable sometimes.

Autism has taken so much from me. From my ability to make friends, to my ability to effectively communicate. Autism HAS downsides and I can attest to that. Don’t erase the downsides.