This is definitely a thing.

I know several people who have mental illnesses that have kept their children and not been treated like they are a potential danger. I’m open about my autism and always have been because I see it as a part of me. Nowadays, I’m open but closed off at the same time because of how people react to it. Others seem to have an unconscious fear of autism because they aren’t able to think in a different way like myself. It doesn’t help that there have been many cases involving autistic people who have done bad stuff to people. If I was going to harm anyone or be dangerous then , after all the things people have done to me , I would have snapped and done something by now. I’m not like that. I feel like the only way to ever be loved without conditions would be for me to strip myself of my autism diagnosis and replace it with a mental illness diagnosis. Out of the two options, that one carries less of a stigma. Autistic people are seen as having different abnormal thinking patterns. Mentally ill people are seen as having a normal brain that can be fixed with therapy. Autistic people are seen as not being able to be fixed. We are loosely tolerated and then ignored or excluded if we don’t act in a ‘normal’ way. I don’t want my autism diagnosis any longer. I’ve never felt autistic. I probably do have some form of mental illness caused by trauma. People have basically given me an autism diagnosis (which I’ve never felt fitted me) and left me to be trapped in a system that I absolutely can’t stand anymore.