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“Everyone is on the spectrum somewhere” Needs to stop being said!

Mcguire-NAS85390

I can’t be the only Neurodiverse person who can’t stand it when neurotypical people say, “We’re all on the spectrum somewhere. No one is normal. We are all unique and different in our own way.”

Yeah! sure, I understand the concept but as much as this is true, to suggest that everyone can be equally categorized as neurologically different and unique like those who are on the spectrum is offensive, ignorantly incorrect, and completely disregards the struggle a Neurodiverse person (like myself) has to endure as we try to comprehend, comply and navigate ourselves through society’s dysfunctional norms just to get to the end of a day successfully (whatever successfully means). I wish I were normal. For me, because of how i’m treated, it’s not a privilege to be diverse. There’s no equality in being this way in society. Non at all. For example I kept my Autism a secret throughout my entire working life up until I lost my dream job because Im different. I was told that there was a pattern and the pattern was because of me. The pattern was that 3 independent colleges bullied me. After I was told that i had lost my employment, I finally got the courage to tell my employer that I have Autism. That’s why im different.

Now, they’re trying to tell me that I don’t have Austim and Im normal. Not only that but for the first time in my working career the word ‘overwhelmed’ is constantly being used to justify minor errors that are occurring do to a lack of information/instruction. and instead of giving me the opportunity to correct it like I was given before I told them I have autism… Now It’s just assumed that im overwhelmed and can’t handle the job. Gardening. I’m a Gardener. For my City. It’s not rocket science. And the more complex things are the more I thrive. So please Neurotypical people, Trust me! there is NO equality! 

And So No. Not “Everyone lands on the spectrum somewhere”, and this concept needs to stop being said. There is no such thing as more or less Autistic people. Either people have Autism and are on the spectrum or they are not. Period. The Spectrum is not a vertical measurement as in more or less/high or low, It’s horizontal as in there is only one equal level of Autism and the movement is left to right not up and down. The only difference is defined by the individuals personal autistic traits so an autistic person who is on the far left of the spectrum is equally as Autistic as someone who is on the far right the only difference is what they can and can not do. Some are verbals, some are not. Some can do math, some can not. Some understand facial expressions and social ques, some do not… ect.

Unique neurotypical personality traits,  expressed mannerisms and independent choices, decisions and responses is NOT the same kind of “different” as those who are different from have a Neurological condition like Autism.ADHD,Dyslexia,OCD, Asperger’s… It’s not even close.

Parents

  • philosophically speaking this is true of almost any continuum. lets take hight as an example. Where does being short end and being a (in the medical sense) dwarf begin? Statistically you might say. Well look everyones hight is clustered around a certain value so lets look at the shortest 15%, or 10% or what ever but how do you arrive at that number? Imagine a histogram, If there is a second mini cluster of values you could look for the valley between them and put the divider in the middle of that valley? But what if there isn't.

    In reality dwarfism is more about function than statistics. Below a certain hight it's just a pain to function in a world build for taller people. You can still argue about how dysfunctional is too dysfunctional but if you map hight vs disfunction on a graph chances are there is a steep drop off on the left of where most people cluster. That drop off is your obvious cut off point for dwarfism.

    So the same principal applys to autism. Lets imagine a graph with a y axis labeled social function and an x axis labeled social abnormality. As you graph that out most people are close to zero on the x axis and high on the y axis. as you go right the number of people dips but so does the average social function which basically falls of a cliff after a certain point. That steep dip, thats the logical place to say autism begins. Yes its a continuum but in another way no it's not.

Reply

  • philosophically speaking this is true of almost any continuum. lets take hight as an example. Where does being short end and being a (in the medical sense) dwarf begin? Statistically you might say. Well look everyones hight is clustered around a certain value so lets look at the shortest 15%, or 10% or what ever but how do you arrive at that number? Imagine a histogram, If there is a second mini cluster of values you could look for the valley between them and put the divider in the middle of that valley? But what if there isn't.

    In reality dwarfism is more about function than statistics. Below a certain hight it's just a pain to function in a world build for taller people. You can still argue about how dysfunctional is too dysfunctional but if you map hight vs disfunction on a graph chances are there is a steep drop off on the left of where most people cluster. That drop off is your obvious cut off point for dwarfism.

    So the same principal applys to autism. Lets imagine a graph with a y axis labeled social function and an x axis labeled social abnormality. As you graph that out most people are close to zero on the x axis and high on the y axis. as you go right the number of people dips but so does the average social function which basically falls of a cliff after a certain point. That steep dip, thats the logical place to say autism begins. Yes its a continuum but in another way no it's not.

Children