Functioning Labels and the Language We Have Used Creates Stigma Even Today

(I know it’s been a while since my last post)

Reasons Why Functioning Labels Do NOT make any Sense:

1) Everyone at some point during a day functions at a high or low level.
2) Just because someone is not speaking, does not mean they don’t have anything to say. Let everyone’s voice flourish!
3) Functioning labels does not allow a person to grow with self-determination instead the person becomes stagnate and ridiculed their whole life instead of growing.
4) Functioning labels make no sense since everyone grows and learns to function more over time.
5) Functioning labels make no sense because when you see someone who may seem ‘High Functioning’ or ‘Low Functioning’ does not mean they are that way every day. People who say others are ‘Higher Functioning’ don’t understand that those people were able to compensate to cope better because they were given the chance from society to do so.
6) Functioning labels in society says one person is more defective or defeated than others, by using them, you are creating levels of functioning that can happen to everyone everyday.
7) Levels of Functioning exist from all of us every day, so why stigmatize some people by saying what they can’t do, when every one CAN do anything they put their heart and mind to.
8) Using functioning labels to describe people is not being a supportive inclusive community in the world.
9) Functioning labels and Person-first Language does not allow others to make the choices for themselves and taking responsibility necessary as the person they are.

People who may seem not to be doing well in their life need to find new coping mechanisms, adapting to society, and finding more supports in order for anyone to improve with their own self-determination. Just because someone may seem ‘Higher Functioning’ does not mean they have overcome or defeated their neurology. Our Neurology is our neurology of who we are! Let’s help and support each other by allowing everyone to find their voice however they know their voice can be heard and listened to.

We need to allow everyone to IDENTIFY with EVERYTHING that IDENTIFIES them because ANY ONE has that right as a HUMAN BEING. We need to support IDENTITY First Language because everything is a part of what makes you the person you are including our disability because disability is a part of the human experience.

No one should be ashamed to say “I’m Autistic” or “I’m Aspie” or “I’m a Disabled person” or whatever or however you may describe yourself. The society we live in needs to remember that by saying everything that makes you who you are to contribute constructively and make a difference, you are becoming your own person with self-determination. People have their own way of what makes them a person. No one should be influenced from the world to describe themselves they way others want them to. We live in the world to strive for our own success and our own way of doing things for ourselves. That is why it’s not right to label people with levels of functioning and separating different parts of a person with person-first language. We all are a person once we have been given the chance to describe how we want to identify ourselves without functioning levels.

Think before you tell any person they are either ‘High Functioning’ or ‘Low Functioning’ and Do NOT tell people to separate anything that makes them the person they are today. Everything you are today is what you either experienced in your life and/or made you who you are right now. No one should be ashamed of who they are or their experiences. We live to experience who we are and sometimes people know right away while other times people need to learn through experience. Learning what your mission is and what you are here to do is vital to move forward every day. Everyone needs to learn to accept themselves, the past, and what they want to build their future moving forward while always learning from their past. That’s self-determination!

“There is no such thing as ‘IMPOSSIBLE’, the very word itself says ‘I’m POSSIBLE’!”

Positivity


OUT, J

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