Are you autistic - The Inquest

I thought it was good, generally. It was titled "Are you autistic?" so I thought it would be for people who want to find out more about autism, to see if they think they are autistic - I waited for the bit that explained what it was in a nutshell, but the only bit I got was the woman who invented the play-acting, when she said that people with autism have difficulty intuiting what other people are thinking and feeling because they struggle with having a mental model of someone else. This gem was hidden away in the second part, almost an aside. It would have been brilliant if someone had said at the start "autism is x" and just delivered a few sentences about what it actually is. I felt that, if the intended audience was undiagnosed people, it wasn't made clear enough what it actually is, which is probably what they were waiting for. It was almost an unspoken assumption that everyone watching knew exactly what it was.

(I just read this back to myself and, lol, it sounds like I don't have a mental model of what other people actually want!)

When they did the speed-dating and they interviewed the men afterwards and said "all the girls had autism, could you tell??", the men didn't explain to us what they understood autism to be, so I didn't really get how they would have "detected" if the girl had autism or not.

I really liked the two people they were following around. The part I found most enjoyable was when they were being interviewed and especially the final section where they went for their diagnoses (also it doesn't escape me that I found this the quietest part of the show, the speech was very gentle and there were no distractions in this section, compared to the more busy earlier sections). Listening to them describe their lives, then get their diagnosis, I found that very...not sure what the word is...enjoyable? Relatable, maybe. Watching the lady look lost when her friends were doing small-talk, and saying "I've finished my activity now, so I'm basically ready to go". Yes. I think that described it more for me than anything else!

The section when they were made to do a task which changed halfway through, I laughed and thought "that does not bode well" and the lady acted exactly as I do, unable to backtrack. It's like you're doing a task and you're a train, and if you have to switch to doing something else, you have to slow the heavy train down, wait for the engine to full stop, then switch the junction, then slowly start the engine up so you can slowly start chugging up the new track. But then you're away on one focused thought and nothing can stop you and you do the task really well.

In all I'm glad it was made, the only thing I would have changed was just to make it more prominent for people to understand exactly what autism is, just a few simple statements at the start, and maybe some examples. I find trying to get other people to actually understand what it is is really hard.

Also, where was this survey where they had 750,000 replies?? I never heard of it. That's a really big number.

And the "lost generation" thing, I agree that they should have specified that the "generation" they're talking about is actually "20-100", it's not like it's just 20-30 year old's and everyone else is fine. It's an entire human lifespan.

I'd like to see more TV programmes explore autism, but pick lots of people from the spectrum, such as what life is like for someone who is non-verbal, versus what it's like for someone who is able to get through life generally okay, versus someone who is high functioning or has a savant ability. It would be too obvious and mainstream to just pick the extremes, I want to see other people represented and also the positive side. The show did a good job of showing the positive side, and I'm glad they barely mentioned savants for a first show, but you do have to show it in all it's glory so you can put the positives in perspective and also be able to compare the positives with the advantages we have over neurotypicals.

I wish the show would've highlighted older people and it didn't mention those like Susan Boyle,Chris Packham and Gary Numan already diagnosed and famous.

I wish the show would've highlighted older people and it didn't mention those like Susan Boyle,Chris Packham and Gary Numan already diagnosed and famous.