Labelling

My name is Hannah and I am autistic.

We are all labelled, its a part of our identity. I am female, a student nurse and also autistic but what does a label mean to me in relation to being autistic. 

Sadly in the society we live in today the way to access the best support is though getting an official diagnosis so that the label is there to verify the support. To me this seems so wrong. We should be able to offer people the support they need regardless of a diagnosis. I have experienced both the positives and negatives of having a 'label' of being autistic. 

Negitive:

I have found that the word autistic often comes with negative thoughts about can't do. I have often faced barriers of things that people think I can't do simply because of this label of autism. This makes me cross. In a world were we are striving for equality in other areas such as gender why is it different for those with Autism. One example that sticks firmly in my mind was when looking for universities me and my mum attended an open day at this particular university. For me the student support was one of the most important things to get right so this was the first place I started. Me and Mum went up to the student support stand and I explained I had a diagnosis of autism and asked what support my look like for this. The answer I received was well you'll never be able to be a nurse with autism so your best looking a different courses. safe to say we left the open day straight away and took them off the list! I can't imagine a situation where anyone could say this about any other label. Can you imagine them telling me the same because I was female or British. I don't think that would go too well for their advertising and image...! 

I experienced another side of this in school the funding that was suddenly unlocked to the school as soon as they had a diagnosis on a bit of paper made such a difference. It was able to fund me the 1:1 Learning support assistant I needed. Pre diagnosis... nothing, despite the fact my needs were exactly the same both before and after I was diagnosed. Suddenly put the word autism in the picture changes the picture. Lots of politics and policy involved I'm sure and not something I want to go into here mainly because it is boring, makes me cross and I don't really understand it so lets leave that and move on.

Positive:

As mentioned above once I have got the diagnosis of being autistic the support and funding that became available made such a difference to both me and my family. I also found that all of a sudden people understood me. There is a difference between having a child that is naughty and doesn't fit in and makes you feel like a bad parent to having a child who is autistic and simply doesn't understand the world they are forced to live in. 

I have found more as I grow up the more I have appreciated this 'label'. The control has been in my hands to decide what support I need. It has been down to me when I want to disclose this and know that when I do there is a legal duty for reasonable adjustments to be made. I have been able to access support throughout my degree that has been a really help (support that non autistic students have commented they would appreciate). Some times it is good to take a small advantage of the many challenges I face playing the autism card can be a great thing to do!! for example boarding a plane at the start of the line, not queuing when we went to the London Olympics. These are things I probably could cope with but if the option is there to take some extra support I'm not going to say no as it certainly wont be unhelpful to be out of the business!!

I find great satisfaction in being able to tell people the things that I have been able to achieve that they have said I can't do because I am autistic. I may be described by some people as stubborn but I think this is a great thing to have. A no to me means I want to do it even more. 

I am proud to say I am autistic. I don't see it as something I have like I have a broken leg as this makes it seem like something is wrong with me and needs fixing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with me and while sometimes a label of autism can be a noose around my neck I am slowly learning it is a part of what makes me.

In a recent talk that I gave an initial activity was to ask people to share one word ideas about what autism is to them (a group of health professional students - some autistic but mainly neuro typical people). I thought to end this post it would be great to share this with you all. I was overwhelmed by the responses people shared. It was a real encouraging to me that not all things associated with autism are Negitive and I really hope that whoever is reading this can realise that too.