Published on 12, July, 2020
There's another question that sprang to mind this morning.
What defines your autism?
I have noticed that most of the posts on the forum appear to be about our vulnerabilities.
So, is our autism defined by our vulnerabilities?
Certainly the sensitivities and communication difficulties can make us more vulnerable to stress and isolation.
Any positives anyone?
I'm still thinking about that one.
There is a lot of food for thought once we have obtained recognition either personally or professionally.
In general it is easier to assign negative traits to being autistic, as they are the ones that are used in diagnoses. Wouldn't it be great if the various diagnostic guides included some positive traits indicative of autism?
Positive traits that I possess that may be connected to my autism: an eye for detail, my ability to solve problems from unconventional directions and my joy in pursuing something I find fascinating.
Just how the DSM works unfortunately. It's very negativistic, but if it weren't imagine all the people getting an Autism diagnosis simply because they are smart (the described positive traits) and not negatively affected in any way. It's all quite subjective really, I've met people who say that Autism makes their life difficult and others that say it makes their life more fun!
However, with groups like this awareness can be brought to the positive symptoms of ASD (no link to the positive symptoms of Schizophrenia, of course!)
The negative traits would have to be retained, obviously. The wording could be made to read less negatively for some traits, 'highly focused interests' sounds less negative than 'restricted interests', though the phrases amount to the same thing. However, it is in the interests of clinicians, therapists, and other vested interests to medicalise all aspects of autism.
I get the impression that criteria was written for diagnosis in children, the ADHD criteria is the same. On the flip side, many mental health conditions include criteria relating to intimate relationships despite being conditions that can be developed as early as 12.
Luckily the ICD seems a lot less biased, but I haven't seen the new criteria for Autism. So, yes I agree with you 100%.