No one is “struggling with autism”
The struggle is never a struggle with autism; the struggle is a struggle like everyone has in the many aspects of life. ...even for children that seem to “struggle”. If we were all told to carry two buckets of water to the back of the house, some people would struggle and perhaps suffer; but we will not say: he or she is suffering from life. Many people, especially care givers and parents, need to start trying to look at autism that way. Diagnosis… is insight into the reason the autistic individuals do not do what is expected of them, perhaps the reason they "suffer", but in very social, and medical terms - Autism in itself, without demand and expectation, is certainly NOT something anybody "suffers" from or with. From the perspective of an autistic individual like myself, there is no separation between being alive, and being autistic, being a person and being autistic - and if that is suffering, then I suffer from being human - assuming that being autistic does not...
