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
Indeed I can see Scorpion0x17's argument in favour of "spectrum" and "continuum" but I do feel these concepts are too nebulous.
While having varying degrees of individual parameters - fine and coarse motor control, organisation, behaviours, eye contact, sensory and environmental difficulties etc., I don't think you can read that off against a scale - such as "spectrum" would imply. I don't think you could, as spectrum might be expected to allow, say someone is a grade 9, another person is a grade 15 etc.
All these characteristics are interrelated in complex ways. Sensory issues may be a factor in eye contact. Organisational rigidity and routine may evolve from a need for a safe environment in a world of difficult sensory experience. How far are these aspects of Autism "nature" and how far "nurture".
Evidently this is something likely to be fiercely defended by some, especially if loss of the term spectrum would deprive a reference point.
But I do think, to use a metaphor, spectrum has become "a rod for our own backs".
To the public, to government, to a lot of health workers, the dividing line is whether you qualify for intervention and/or financial support. If you don't - to many "gatekeepers" spectrum has no significance.
Claiming to be on the spectrum, if you don't qualify for intervention, is meaningless.
Which is awkward if you are one of those able to manage daily, and able to earn, and not in need of intervention (or have been in the past but now supposedly cured by medication) but nevertheless suffer daily from social interaction and sensory problems that feel real enough.
I think we need far more concrete descriptors.