Changing the View of Autism

My daughter, Alyssa has autism. She has severe non verbal autism.

This means her autism comes with all the bells and whistles. She has severe anxiety, apraxia, limited diet, OCD like behaviors, weak receptive language, difficulty communicating, regulating emotions, and a hard time deviating from her routine or what is expected.

She is autistic. It is not who she is. It is not all she is. It is however a part of her. A huge part. It is like the colors of the rainbow, it encompasses her. It is everywhere but it’s not tangible.

I can tell you one thing for certain; autism adds color to our life, lots of color.

I used to hate autism, resent it. I blamed it for stealing my little girl.

If I am honest there are still days it frustrates me. These are the days where the struggles are the highest. The days I want autism to go away and simply let my daughter be.

I have learned to embrace it because it is a part of her. I love every inch of her, every part. I will admit there are some colors I would leave in the box but it’s not the way it works.

I realize now, although autism brings a lot of hard, it also brings a lot of beauty.

Her eyes are mesmerizing, they are filled with wonder. The intensity in the way she takes everything in, notices every detail.

Her smile is infectious. You cannot look at her smile and not smile yourself, it’s impossible. She is the happiest person I know.

She is so innocent, knows no evil, and that creates a certain kind of vulnerability. Even though that scares me, there is something so pure about it.

The beauty that autism creates knows no bounds.

It is 100 percent authentic, what you see is what you get.

She is intelligent and perceptive, she finds ways to communicate and understand despite her struggles.

Autism has a lot of stereotypes, and though some autistic people may have these traits or parts of them. They don’t have all of them. Every single individual is different including those on the spectrum.

Although my daughter has classic autism and she has lots of typical traits that go along with that, she defies the cookie cutter image of autism that society has created

She is the most lovable person you’ll ever meet. Although, she’s very selective in who she chooses to share this part of herself with.

She is very social. She loves to observe people. She is a joy to be around. She loves to laugh. She can always make everyone around her laugh as well. Autism Is not linear, it affects different people in different ways.

These differences make it harder for them to navigate through life, through the life that society has determined what is acceptable, what is expected and what is normal.

Just like colors of the rainbow shine bright, so does autism, it’s beautiful, complicated and colorful.

Written by Kim McIsaac of Autism Adventures With Alyssa