Autism. Is. Not. A. Disease.

Okay, I'm gonna rail on semantics today, which is not something I usually do. In fact, I often get very annoyed when other people do the same thing I'm about to do. However, I recognize the power of words and how mere language can shape our perceptions. That being said, here goes:


I keep seeing autism in the writing of others, being described as a "disease". Ahem. Autism. Is. Not. A. "Disease".


I haven't looked any of the following up. It comes straight from my own beliefs and ideas. However, I believe we can all agree that certain words hold certain connotations, and the word "disease", to me, suggests the following:


1) A "disease" may be cured.
2) A "disease" may be contagious.
3) A "disease" is degenerative, often fatally.
4) A "disease" is the word we use to describe something in the body gone horribly, horribly wrong. Something insurmountable, alien, terrifying. Something that must be stopped.


Here is why, to my mind, autism is *not* a disease:


1) There is no "cure" for autism, no matter what literature or anecdotal evidence might say. Even people who have progressed to the point of having the diagnosis removed have the same brain and body they had before. And they must maintain treatment if they want to keep from regressing.
2) Autism is not contagious.
3) Although some autism presents as regressive (usually around age 3), sometimes quite alarmingly (Rhett's syndrome), actually having autism will not kill you. (The behaviors of a person with autism could, though (not responding to being called while lost or in the middle of the road, for example, or stimming by banging your head against the wall over and over).) 
4) This one is tricky. For years, I wanted to "cure" my son of this "disease" by "fixing" what was wrong with him. 


My son is not sick. He is, in fact, quite healthy and has a fairly thin folder at the doctor's office. My son, however, is strange to me, and probably to almost everyone else. I love him - deeply, irrationally - but his ways are strange to me. In the old days we might have called him a "changeling" and assumed the fairies took our kid and gave us one of their own. Since we seem to be raising one of the Good Folk, the logical course of action now, is....learn to speak Good Folk. And teach him our ways, while we learn his. 


So, what do we call autism? We are human, we need labels and names for things in order to organize our world and make it bearable to live in. It's not a disease, then what is it? Autism is a thing we live with, and is a permanent part of our lives, like it or not, and we need to know what to call it when we talk about it. 


For now, for lack of a better word, I've been using "condition", "issue", or even, "deal". As in: "Daniel's got some issues today, can we come another day?" "We've got some potty deals today...get more toilet paper" or "Autism is a neurological condition which impedes the individual's ability to interact socially with others". 


Oops, gotta go. Thanks for reading :). 


(Sorry for the pansy-ass use of "may" in my first list - I just knew there were diseases that were contagious, non-contagious, fatally degenerative and non-fatally degenerative and was pretty sure that if I was too declaratory it would come back to bite me in the ass.)