I Used to Feel Ashamed of My Autism: Here’s What I Feel Now
Josh Friedberg shares his self-acceptance journey.
When it comes to my life, the part of my identity that I feel the strongest attachment to is my love of music. I couldn’t have learned so much about music history without Autism. I can name a musical event from every year between 1909 and today, and the fact is, most people’s brains are not wired to memorize that much about anything. When I was a kid, I memorized birthdays and later the order of the U.S. presidents. None of this, of course, helped me make friends, but even then, I had pride in things I could do that nobody else that I knew could.
I was diagnosed officially as on the Autistic spectrum around age 11, and up to that point, it was clear that something was different about me. I had no coordination, meaning gym class was hell; I was hypersensitive about everything; my understanding of language was hyper-literal, and I didn’t engage with others in conversation, only talking at people in a monotone about my interests.
It was also clear that despite my social difficulties, I exhibited enormous potential as a student. I had skipped third grade; my music teacher called me “a music whiz kid” in a report card; and despite difficulties with figurative language, I…
