Neurotypical Person: “Applied Behavioral Analysis really helped him. He doesn’t even seem autistic anymore. We can go places without people asking what’s wrong with him. Caring for him is a lot less of a burden than it used to be.”

Autistic Person: “Applied Behavioral Analysis traumatized me. I have to constantly put all my effort into pretending to not be autistic, even if I’m around people who would accept me for who I am. I can’t tell the difference between someone calling me out for hurting them and someone bullying me for being weird, because I’m used to everything I do being criticized. I’m easily abused because I’ve been conditioned to not say no and to care more about other people’s feelings than about myself. But no one realizes this, because everyone listens to the neurotypical person’s opinion instead.”