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Does anybody here feel like they actually understand what it means to be autistic?

Oran G. Utan

I was diagnosed a little over 20 years ago. I've spent pretty much my whole life trying to figure out what being autistic actually means. I still can't really define it even for my own sake. I talked a little to an American autistic person today. It was a bizarre experience, because they seemed to really understand their own condition. For me, autism has always been treated like an utter enigma even to professionals. I believe I am autistic, and I've been formally diagnosed. But I couldn't begin to explain what that means, or how it affects my life. I just know that I don't cope with stress well at all, and prefer living in a bubble to having varied life experiences.

I was asked what kind of autist I was, as if that's something I could possibly know. I feel like I've been living in a fog, and am only now learning that it might not be because autism is inherently vague and mysterious, but because I was never properly educated on what my own condition is. I'm realising that at 32 years of age, I don't understand the first thing about myself. And that maybe that's not the universal experience for autists that I thought it was.

Parents

  • I think one of the difficulties is that we're all products of our upbringing, if we come from families that are emotionally open and honest, who encourage each other then we be a bit better off than those who's families are less open and honest. How we were educated and where will have its effects, where in the country we were brought up, what social class we come from. Like it or not social class does play a part in how we will be treated by teachers, medical professionals etc, if our parents are motivated to get the best from the system on our behalf, then at least we will grow up being heard, for others they will not have even this basic thing, being heard is so important and I believe can have big impacts on our life chances and our emotional state.

    I think this on of the reasons why so many professionals struggle with us, we dont' fit neatly into pigeon holes of class, educational ability or anything, we just are, and we struggle not only with our own feelings but with the perceptions of others, often others who have th power to radiacally change our lives for better or worse.

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  • I think one of the difficulties is that we're all products of our upbringing, if we come from families that are emotionally open and honest, who encourage each other then we be a bit better off than those who's families are less open and honest. How we were educated and where will have its effects, where in the country we were brought up, what social class we come from. Like it or not social class does play a part in how we will be treated by teachers, medical professionals etc, if our parents are motivated to get the best from the system on our behalf, then at least we will grow up being heard, for others they will not have even this basic thing, being heard is so important and I believe can have big impacts on our life chances and our emotional state.

    I think this on of the reasons why so many professionals struggle with us, we dont' fit neatly into pigeon holes of class, educational ability or anything, we just are, and we struggle not only with our own feelings but with the perceptions of others, often others who have th power to radiacally change our lives for better or worse.

Children
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