Who is here?

Just for a bit of fun, I thought I would do a poll on the demographic of individuals who use this forum and then we can see what our online community looks like and argue over the diversity of it (okay, so that last bit might be a joke!). 

Please note: within this poll I have used the term ‘ASD’. I did so because this is what people are usually formally diagnosed with and because it would fit into the poll. If I could have used all alternative terms that people identify with then I would have but unfortunately there just isn’t room within the poll options. To avoid offence however, please substitute ‘ASD’ for whichever term you most identify with in your head and if you want to clarify which term this is, then please do so below.

Parents
  • Voted as the 'A person with diagnosed ASD', although I'm not at all happy with the term 'ASD' as it implies some kind of medical condition where people who understand jargon have privileged expertise, which appears to me to be false. Yes I know some people hang on every word of the diagnostic systems, but even the psychiatrist who 'diagnosed' me was very willing to use 'ASC' and NICE seems to be switching to 'autism'.

    The results are consistent with the idea that parents, relatives and partners of autistic people don't hang around these forums to chat. Maybe they're too busy? It's mainly autistic people responding to parents' queries. Is it paranoid to wonder if we put them off and they prefer a forum where they can talk about themselves rather than the autistic person?

  • I understand your feelings over the term ASD. I really used it because it’s what most people are formally diagnosed with and because I couldn’t fit all possible terms that a person would use into the poll unfortunately. I thought about using ‘autism’, but I know that some individuals don’t like to use that term either. What I will do is edit the original post to explain why ‘ASD’ is used and make it clear that you can interpret it into your own favoured terms. I hope that will make it a bit less offensive to you  , Former Member and Former Member

    I’m not sure why we don’t have many relatives, friends etc. of autistic individuals on this forum. There are many possible reasons, but I think only they really know why they don’t come here.

  • I’m not sure why we don’t have many relatives, friends etc. of autistic individuals on this forum. There are many possible reasons, but I think only they really know why they don’t come here

    I think it's possible that NT  friends or relatives come in to find out something right away where as 'we' the autistic people who generally talk to each other in here are a loose  community and come in to perhaps belong/chat/not feel so alone rather than get an instant answer to a specific dilemma.

Reply
  • I’m not sure why we don’t have many relatives, friends etc. of autistic individuals on this forum. There are many possible reasons, but I think only they really know why they don’t come here

    I think it's possible that NT  friends or relatives come in to find out something right away where as 'we' the autistic people who generally talk to each other in here are a loose  community and come in to perhaps belong/chat/not feel so alone rather than get an instant answer to a specific dilemma.

Children