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Do You Think Everyone Is Autistic?

Daniel

I often find myself come across people claiming "I'm a bit autistic" saying everyone is a bit autistic.

I point out to them so many things they refer to as "autism traits" are not autism traits at all but is just general human behaviours by all people, but when an autistic person does it it gets described negatively.  

Stimming as an example, I see nearly everyone stim, so many people tapping their foot on the floor, some picking their nails, some just twirling hair etc. because they do something an autistic person does they assume they're a bit autistic. 

When I tell them doing something labelled "autism trait" doesn't make them a bit autistic, that people are either autistic or not, I back it up asking "I sometimes say a metaphor, does that mean I'm a bit neurotypical?" I point out to them autism is a neurodevelopmental condition. 

I say "people with bipolar have mood swings, I hear most people have mood swings, so does everyone have a bit of bipolar disorder?" 

They still go claiming everyone's a bit autistic. Do you agree with the people who say everyone's a bit autistic?

Parents

  • If autism is a spectrum, human traits and behaviours are an even larger spectrum, containing all traits, both neurodivergent and neurotypical .There is a growing trend towards thinking of the autistic brain as being just part of the continuum of human brain architecture and function, which I would certainly agree with. It follows, that there is a cut off, definitely variable and often clinically ambiguous, that separates those diagnosed as autistic and those not. If this is the case, then the people just on the neurotypical side of this cut off, by the application of logic, must have some autistic traits. They are just not sufficient in number or severity to garner a diagnosis. Whether such people are regarded as 'a little autistic' or not, is just semantics.

    Having said that, people who are obviously neurotypical claiming to be 'a little autistic' is annoying.

  • in reply to Martin

    Martin,

    I agree with The Neurodiversity Movement, that all brains are equally valid and valuable. When scrutinizing applying pathological/psychiatric to someone's natural neurodevelopment it falls apart quite easily and has no scientific basis.

    As we know, all neurodivergent people have areas of the brain that function more than than those areas in a neurotypical brain, there's no valid way of saying that a NT is low functioning in that area or a ND is over functioning. So we cannot say either is wrong scientifically. 

    There's no scientific formula to determine how far away from average to be classed as disabled, so it's entirely based on cultural prejudice. In the history of science we found LGBTQ+ called psychiatric health disorders, that makes it even more evident that scientists automatically class diversity as pathological/psychiatric, no scientific basis to it.

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  • in reply to Martin

    Martin,

    I agree with The Neurodiversity Movement, that all brains are equally valid and valuable. When scrutinizing applying pathological/psychiatric to someone's natural neurodevelopment it falls apart quite easily and has no scientific basis.

    As we know, all neurodivergent people have areas of the brain that function more than than those areas in a neurotypical brain, there's no valid way of saying that a NT is low functioning in that area or a ND is over functioning. So we cannot say either is wrong scientifically. 

    There's no scientific formula to determine how far away from average to be classed as disabled, so it's entirely based on cultural prejudice. In the history of science we found LGBTQ+ called psychiatric health disorders, that makes it even more evident that scientists automatically class diversity as pathological/psychiatric, no scientific basis to it.

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