Working With My Hands: A Man Who Is Autistic

The neurodivergent community has created a sub-culture which praises, celebrates, and honors a lack of development and immaturity. Spend any amount of time in an active neurodivergent group and you’ll see varied discussions about someone’s “current hyperfixation” or listing of disabilities like scouting merit badges. Their identity has become the disability they argue isn’t a disability.

Autistic Identity

Over the last year, I “self-identified” as autistic because, well, truth be told, autism explained my life history perfectly. All of the “just” excuses became neatly explained behind autism. In spite of this, and at great personal expense, I pushed for a formal diagnosis because I needed to know for sure.