There’s a very popular way of talking about autism as “explaining” or providing a “why I am different,” that to me doesn’t make sense: https://intellectualizing

There’s a very popular way of talking about autism as “explaining” or providing a “why I am different,” that to me doesn’t make sense: https://intellectualizing.net/2015/03/31/not-explaining-autism/ https://intellectualizing.net/2015/03/31/not-explaining-auti... There’s a misunderstanding that diagnosis of autism is finding a cause for some traits. The reality of the DSM is that autism literally is a list of traits - a shorthand renaming of the list. There’s no implication that it’s a single condition, or a discrete condition, or has any known cause, or explains anything. https://intellectualizing.net/2013/12/17/book-rethinking-autism-variation-and-complexity/ https://intellectualizing.net/2013/12/17/book-rethinking-aut... Naming or categorizing isn’t the same as explaining! Anyway kind of a pedantic point I guess but maybe autism explains the need to make those :-) I do think there’s value to finding kindred spirits and community, which categories and names can help with.