What is Autism?

Let’s start with what Autism is not.

Autism is not:

• A disability in itself (being around people that don’t support you diables you and you can also have disabilities that go with autism).
• A disease that needs to be cured.
• A Mental Health condition.
• A learning difficulty/disability.
• A disorder.
• A mental retardation or a lack of intelligence.

Many refer to autism as a disorder; I do not agree with this categorisation either. It often isn’t easy for someone new to autism to understand the differences, though. For example, I don’t believe autism in itself is a disability, because when not around others, many autistic people are fine. It is different, however, if they have disabilities as well as being autistic, i.e, if someone is autistic but also has dyslexia.

Autism is not a mental health condition like OCD. It is also not a disorder, as there is nothing wrong with autism. Whereas OCD, for example, tells sufferers of the disorder to do things that they don’t want to do. Put in the most simplest of terms, autism is mainly based around truth and logic. Autism is often comorbid with conditions such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, and various anxiety disorders.