Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone,
I've been feeling really low lately and something that hasn't helped is the subject matter of a class debate we had the other day. We began to talk about autism and Asperger's Syndrome, and this popular girl who has no communication or social difficulties whatsoever (in fact one of her many gifts is that she makes everyone love her) says, "Everyone's on the spectrum, it's just to what extent. My cousins are autistic, so I know."
And...I know we're all entitled to our own opinions and beliefs. And it's not like that was the first time I had ever heard this theory, and to be quite honest, I'm not the most severely Asperger's person in the world. In fact, you'd probably say I had it quite mildly - particularly if you were an adult meeting me, as adults seem to bring out the best in me in a way that my peers can't. But when I saw her sitting there and just saying that, surrounded by all her friends kissing up to her and agreeing with her, whilst she'd just been going on about the party she was off to the next day, and the gig she was going to soon with another girl on our table, I just wanted to say, "OK. So you believe everyone's got autism. You try living a day in my life - seeing everyone make friends around you whilst you're left completely alone, no matter how hard you try. You try knowing you're different ever since you're old enough to think, and then tell me everyone's on the spectrum, because I think you might feel differently then. You've got no idea how lucky you are! I'd give anything to be accepted and supported by everyone like you are."
Now, I know she doesn't mean that everyone is autistic or AS to the point of diagnosis. She just means that we've all got little tendencies here and there. But, though I wouldn't say it to her or any of the kids at school as it makes me sound like I'm just making trouble or feeling sorry for myself or using any excuse to have a big, dramatic, overemotional reaction, I found it really difficult to hear that from her, and in my personal opinion it's actually quite an insensitive thing to say to/in front of someone with any form of autism. (She does know I have AS, and she says she believes it's true but I don't think she does - none of the others do.)
Am I being out of order?
Thanks for reading,
Liv x
I've been thinking about this thread, while I've not been able to log on due to the red page warning about security certificates and all that, because it really is important we find an answer to this.
I venture this offering....
While its true there's a continuum of symptoms or manifestations of autism, and most people claim they can identify some, we also have to remember that human behaviours are fairly finite. Most aspects of human behaviour are defined by a few parameters, albeit there may be some minor aspects where you can go on into lots of detail.
So the more autism related problems you have, the fewer problems you don't have.
Someone might say they experience a few difficulties socialising, they're a bit OCD at times, they have a very specialised hobby and bore everyone with it. BUT, most of their social, sensory and organisational functions are OK, so they can make up for the defects fairly easily.
If you've got a lot of sensory issues, poor eye contact, clumsiness etc etc., you very quickly reach a point where you've no compensation options.
This continuum of characteristics is really misleading.
What makes autism an impediment to living and a disability its the degree to which your essential communication, sensory and organisational skills are compromised. Disability hits not far up the "continuum" after which its about degrees of disability.
So please can researchers stop using this continuum idea and look instead about loss of means of effective communication - what finite resources are left to an individual to compensate with.
The continuum idea is irrelevant. What matters is the point at which you become disabled on so many fronts, or with those who are abler, at what point do we become impeded significantly?
When most aspects of day to day living are compromised, you have very few reference points to "normality". Its about finite skills, abilities, responses being compromised .....this continuum thing is misleading, just a fancy created by nutty scientists.
oh well....you know what I mean....or maybe not.....