I thought I would recreate discussion on this programme as it has been replayed tonight (and also aired yesterday).
The individual films of each autistic participant are great however there are few issues with the programme in general and Chris Packham:
Firstly, Chris Packham is not immersed in our autistic community enough in order to reliably represent us.
Secondly, Chris describes the majority of our nonspeaking members of our community as having a learning disability which is false- many of our nonspeaker members are apraxic (brain/body disconnect).
Our dedicated interests are described as obsessive- this is unnecessarily pathologising instead our interests are passionate and specialised.
Masking is portrayed very simply and inaccurately. In my opinion, autistic advocates such as Kieran Rose describe masking brilliantly.
They’ve been repeating this the last two nights. I saw the first episode the first time it was aired, not long before I was diagnosed.
I feel quite sad watching it, because it reminds me of how many layers I’ve developed over the course of my life to cope. At the same time seeing the young people on the programme, I want to tell them and their families that things can get much better for them.
Thanks for the heads up. Amazing to think there might be a programme for people with brains like me! Mind you I find him quite annoying, but I also find and and dec annoying, LOL! Will give it a go.
