“The difference between people diagnosed with autism and the rest of the population is shrinking. ”

This article is everywhere atm! As already mentioned, it's been doing the rounds on facebook. The writer of this article is an 'Autistic self advocate'. Autism is a spectrum condition, different people suffer from different amounts of different symptoms, everyone presents differently and yes there are those of us that can hold down jobs, have families and be active participants in the local community BUT we all have in common the presence to some degree or another of social communication disorder and restricted and repetitive behaviours. Therefore, our apparent ability to 'function well' comes at a cost. When I am at work, I have to mask all day and deal with a variety of unpredictable situations. By the end of the day I am mentally exhausted and just need to be on my own for at least a couple of hours. I love my 3 daughters but my middle daughter is the one who is definitely not autistic and she is so overly tactile, I can deal with cuddling my children but I can not deal with her stroking me, fiddling with the ends of my hair or kissing my arms and I move away very sharply when she does so. I feel so much maternal guilt about this as I know she is just a child being affectionate towards her mummy, but I can't handle 'light' touch, neither can I handle her shouting at a certain volume and pitch as it goes right through my head! I get a lot of meaning and a feeling of being involved in the local community from being a Beaver Scout Leader but, you try being autistic and stuck in a room with a group of noisy, screaming children for an hour, my brain is so fried by the end I have to be on my own for at least a couple of hours to recover. Is this vague and invalid? Do non autistic people get exhausted from social masking at work; feel guilt because they can't handle their child touching them; have to spend hours on their own to recover from noisy children? Why has an autistic individual even written such an article?

This article is everywhere atm! As already mentioned, it's been doing the rounds on facebook. The writer of this article is an 'Autistic self advocate'. Autism is a spectrum condition, different people suffer from different amounts of different symptoms, everyone presents differently and yes there are those of us that can hold down jobs, have families and be active participants in the local community BUT we all have in common the presence to some degree or another of social communication disorder and restricted and repetitive behaviours. Therefore, our apparent ability to 'function well' comes at a cost. When I am at work, I have to mask all day and deal with a variety of unpredictable situations. By the end of the day I am mentally exhausted and just need to be on my own for at least a couple of hours. I love my 3 daughters but my middle daughter is the one who is definitely not autistic and she is so overly tactile, I can deal with cuddling my children but I can not deal with her stroking me, fiddling with the ends of my hair or kissing my arms and I move away very sharply when she does so. I feel so much maternal guilt about this as I know she is just a child being affectionate towards her mummy, but I can't handle 'light' touch, neither can I handle her shouting at a certain volume and pitch as it goes right through my head! I get a lot of meaning and a feeling of being involved in the local community from being a Beaver Scout Leader but, you try being autistic and stuck in a room with a group of noisy, screaming children for an hour, my brain is so fried by the end I have to be on my own for at least a couple of hours to recover. Is this vague and invalid? Do non autistic people get exhausted from social masking at work; feel guilt because they can't handle their child touching them; have to spend hours on their own to recover from noisy children? Why has an autistic individual even written such an article?