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Are you autistic - The Inquest

Trainspotter

The channel four programme had a pretty good go at showing autism, more specifically what used to be referred to as Aspergers.

But where were the more mature autistic people. Those over 45? Those over 60? And I know I may have dropped off a bit during the programme so will have to watch it again,but there didn't seem to be a 'control' for the tasks. Just saying they had problems when presented with change. I would like to have seen how a neurotypical  behaved and coped in these circumstances. To me, as someone autistic, I still don't know how a NT picks up when interrupted, when I take ten or 15 minutes to get my thoughts focused again.

There also was an over representation of females although I know part of the raisin debtor was to show women are under represented in diagnosis. The speed dating bit I didn't get at all apart from to show that autistic people don't have green skin.I can make a good job of pretending I'm something I'm not for ten minutes if I keep to a script but sooner or later the script will vary to another play for which I haven't learned the lines and then the problems will start..

Yes, generally we do look like everyone else. However until people are not judged on appearance and superficial traits we will always have a problem in society. A society that supposedly welcomes truthfulness and open speech is greatly phased by someone autistic who tells it as it is.  And until this can be addressed we will always have a problem in the NT mind.

Parents

  • I know of 5 people who took part in that survey.  Our results were 1 entirely NT, 1 slightly less NT, 1 just in the range that Autistic people are found in, and 2 very high scorers in all parts of the survey - one of whom already has a diagnosis.  We'd have liked to see more analysis of that data in the show!

    Myself, my wife and NT daughter watched it.  We enjoyed it, although as the show progressed I got more and more angry with the local NHS trust - as almost every thing they wrote in my non-diagnostic letter was negated by the programme.  The two people up for diagnosis both had normal speech patterns and intonation, were in relationships, coped with life.  The 'coping with unexpected change' sandwich task struck a chord with me: at work, if I'm in the middle of processing one order and the phone rings with another order, I stammer and mutter and tell them they'll "have to wait until I'm finished otherwise I'll get in a pickle". And as for wanting to change an order... Argh.  But I'm the quickest person in the office at doing the work unless I get interrupted.

    I found the term 'a lost generation' a little misleading.  It implied, given the presenters, that people in their 20's have missed diagnosis, whereas in reality, people much older than that are more likely to have missed out - more than one generation.

  • in reply to capers123

    The several referrals to 'a lost generation' bothered me, too. When I talked to my mother yesterday (before the show) to tell her of my strong suspicions that I'm autistic, she said she'd often suspected it about herself too. That's two generations in addition to the 20s/30s generation I think they were referring to.

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  • in reply to capers123

    The several referrals to 'a lost generation' bothered me, too. When I talked to my mother yesterday (before the show) to tell her of my strong suspicions that I'm autistic, she said she'd often suspected it about herself too. That's two generations in addition to the 20s/30s generation I think they were referring to.

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