When you say "people tell you" do you mean everyday people in the street, or medical professionals?
If you're talking about people in the street then I agree with you. That must be infuriating. If that's what you're talking about please do ignore the rest of this post because it's not relevant at all.
But if you're talking about medical professionals, especially those with LD and autism specialism:
Your lack of understanding of autism isn't a particularly good reason to chose to use a word that doesn't fit just because it makes you feel better. ASD is not learning disability, although people with austism can have learning disability as well.
Your stigma around autism is a poor reason to chose to use the wrong word for a condition.
Importantly there is no cure for autism, but there are treatments. By rejecting the autism diagnosis you risk rejecting useful treatments.
> As such I find the term Autistic, which assumes that he doesn't care about human emotional attachments. And assumes that he's somehow 'sick' to be extremely insulting.
There's quite a lot bundled here. About the word sick - what's the difference between retarded (a medical condition) and autism (a medical condition)?
About the social stuff: That's not true, where did you learn that? That's a caricature of autism.
People with autism have trouble with human interaction; they can have trouble understanding emotions in other people. That does not mean that they do not care about other people or that they do not crave friendship and relationships.
One of the reason that suicide is higher in people with autism is because they desire human interaction but haven't been given the skills to acheive those.
> And frankly you're never going to get off the euphemism treadmill.
Retard is an imprecise euphemism. It has been used to deny people segregate people from society; to experiment upon them without their will; to deny them medical treatment; to kill them. Learning disability (or autism, if that's what someone has) are more precise, and more neutral, terms.
Feel free to call your brother what you like. Just don't be surprised if it causes strongly negative reactions in people you meet.
If you're talking about people in the street then I agree with you. That must be infuriating. If that's what you're talking about please do ignore the rest of this post because it's not relevant at all.
But if you're talking about medical professionals, especially those with LD and autism specialism:
Your lack of understanding of autism isn't a particularly good reason to chose to use a word that doesn't fit just because it makes you feel better. ASD is not learning disability, although people with austism can have learning disability as well.
Your stigma around autism is a poor reason to chose to use the wrong word for a condition.
Importantly there is no cure for autism, but there are treatments. By rejecting the autism diagnosis you risk rejecting useful treatments.
> As such I find the term Autistic, which assumes that he doesn't care about human emotional attachments. And assumes that he's somehow 'sick' to be extremely insulting.
There's quite a lot bundled here. About the word sick - what's the difference between retarded (a medical condition) and autism (a medical condition)?
About the social stuff: That's not true, where did you learn that? That's a caricature of autism.
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autistic-spectrum-disorder/Page...
http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/introduction/what-is-a...
People with autism have trouble with human interaction; they can have trouble understanding emotions in other people. That does not mean that they do not care about other people or that they do not crave friendship and relationships.
One of the reason that suicide is higher in people with autism is because they desire human interaction but haven't been given the skills to acheive those.
> And frankly you're never going to get off the euphemism treadmill.
Retard is an imprecise euphemism. It has been used to deny people segregate people from society; to experiment upon them without their will; to deny them medical treatment; to kill them. Learning disability (or autism, if that's what someone has) are more precise, and more neutral, terms.
Feel free to call your brother what you like. Just don't be surprised if it causes strongly negative reactions in people you meet.