About a week ago I received a formal written diagnosis under the DSM-V that I have an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Previous versions of the DSM would have put me as having Asperger's Syndrome but under the latest revision, this expression is no longer used. Instead in most cases people are placed generically on the Autism Spectrum and I am ok both with this revised classification and the diagnosis itself.

I therefore identify variously, depending on context, as having autism, having an ASC (the formal medical diagnosis), living with autism, having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and being autistic. I know the latter is not universally favoured amongst the autism spectrum community but, used appropriately, I feel it to be empowering. In using this term I do not wish to offend others on the spectrum who dislike the word; your identity is yours alone and I will adhere to it. This is just an identity I personally accept for myself.

I do NOT accept the expression "suffering from/with autism". I am suffering, currently very badly, from the effects of my autism and the ignorance & poor awareness of autism among the wider population. The latter is what disables me under the Social Model.

Autism is part of who I am, just like my other formally diagnosed impairments and identifications; it is not all that I am.