Published on 12, July, 2020
I watched a Horizon programme about Autism.
What I liked about the programme was it made clear that most people do the things that Autistic people do. It is just that Autistic people do those things more than so called NT people. I do not know what NT means.
There are plenty of people with Social problems who are not Autistic.
There are Mentally Ill people.
If one is blind or deaf it must be more difficult to have Social Skills.
It also said that one gets diagnosed if the clinic you goes to agrees that you are Autistic. It is a question of chance. I got my diagnoses as when I was nineteen a Consultant Psychiatrist visited us and said that I was Mildly Autistic. That was in 1976 and that was the equivalent to Asperger Syndrome.
David
Hi there,
I too had issues with this program as I often do when neuro-typicals pretend they know about autism.
The issue Longman has picked up about Cohen. Cohen said it was sometimes a matter of clinical judgement whether to tell someone whether they are autistic or not. This is appalling. In no other medical situation would this be acceptable so why is it here? My diagnosis was a healing. I knew I was always 'different' but not in a negative way, and learning I was autistic was a revelation and I felt good. I was me and I was autisitic. I am me and I am autisitic. I choose who I tell and who I don't. I understand me so much better now and have come to enjoy being me. My autism is who I am and there are aspects of it that I love - like my mental arithmatic skills and memory power.
This leads into the other issue I had with this program. The people who had extreme skills, like mental arithmatic and the young chap who could name days for dates - these are fantastic skills but I felt they were made out to be a bit freakish because of this. No one would make out an athlete was a freak because of their superior ability to run or swim or cycle faster.
There needs to be more integration for autistic people (if they so desire it) and this program once again (BBC typically) seperated us as being odd and too different to fit in.
I feel I can offer society something and although I will always be reserved and slightly apart from others, I do want to take part and I have lots to offer.