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Raising awareness of autism

belles12345

Hello everyone,

Since discovering my autistic traits, and having undergone counselling and done my research to understand the roots of my difficulties, I am at a stage where I can begin to accept myself and am very slowly getting happier in life.  I feel very lucky that I have understood the nature of my difficulties, and that I have had a great counsellor to help with this.  However I only learnt about this by chance, and therefore could equally have remained unaware of this for the rest of my life.  Therefore it follows that there must be many others out there with no knowledge or understanding whatsoever.  I would like to find ways to raise awareness of autism, particularly among girls, to stop young girls from going through the experiences that I went through (or at least decreasing negative impact on them) and/or enabling self-awareness amongst women. 

So my question is does anyone have any ideas of how to raise awareness of so-called 'mild' autism?

I have read elsewhere on the forum that even those with a diagnosis (I do not currently have this, and may not even qualify for one, but even so the effect of traits on my life has been immense) struggle to get support as their autism is viewed as mild.  Is it not like being partially sighted (ie. still major difficulties even though some sight is there)?  I throw this out there to see what ideas may be generated, and to try to get a discussion going on this.  It may not be accurate but I am trying to think about how the difficulties could be presented....

Parents

  • think it is very much a case of needing to work together.

    as someone with autism and having an autistic child, i see both sides.

    as a parent you do have to fight hard to get your child's needs recognized and supported. it is relentless.

    as a person with autism, my issues are the same, but often go unrecognized. the frustration is immense.

    i really think there needs to be campaigning to get the concept of SPECTRUM understood.

    the world sees autism as polarised. either what they call low functioning or high functioning (terms i despise) so most people see  autism as being either a severerly disabled person, with no communication and no interaction with the world,  sitting in a corner rocking or as a genuis or savant like in the film rainman.  the vast majority of people withautism fall between these 2 polarities, but the stereotypes and assumptions remain. that is why the concept of spectrum needs promoting.

    and not 'we're all on the spectrum'. the whole world's population does not have autism - we are NOT ALL on the spectrum, but those of us with autism are !

    the spectrum to me is not linear from severe to mild, low to high, non verbal to verbal. we all have disjointed and uneven profiles. some bits we manage well, some bits we are severly affected by or impacted by. we are black and white thinkers, but the concept of autism is not black and white! we fitonto the spectrum as an individual, not at one distinct point, but as a multi armed and  uneven star. the length of our many sides extending in many directions, some short some long, reaching out into the  different parts of the rainbow as we are affected in so many ways and fit onto the spectrum in many parts and places. that is what needs to be understood.

    rather than fight amongst ourselves as to who is the most affected, who has the more severe autism, we should work together - people with autism and parents, both of whom have unique but valid perpectives on autism,  to get the general population to understand more about this condition and the little things that they could do that would make such a big difference to EVERYONE affected by autism.

Reply

  • think it is very much a case of needing to work together.

    as someone with autism and having an autistic child, i see both sides.

    as a parent you do have to fight hard to get your child's needs recognized and supported. it is relentless.

    as a person with autism, my issues are the same, but often go unrecognized. the frustration is immense.

    i really think there needs to be campaigning to get the concept of SPECTRUM understood.

    the world sees autism as polarised. either what they call low functioning or high functioning (terms i despise) so most people see  autism as being either a severerly disabled person, with no communication and no interaction with the world,  sitting in a corner rocking or as a genuis or savant like in the film rainman.  the vast majority of people withautism fall between these 2 polarities, but the stereotypes and assumptions remain. that is why the concept of spectrum needs promoting.

    and not 'we're all on the spectrum'. the whole world's population does not have autism - we are NOT ALL on the spectrum, but those of us with autism are !

    the spectrum to me is not linear from severe to mild, low to high, non verbal to verbal. we all have disjointed and uneven profiles. some bits we manage well, some bits we are severly affected by or impacted by. we are black and white thinkers, but the concept of autism is not black and white! we fitonto the spectrum as an individual, not at one distinct point, but as a multi armed and  uneven star. the length of our many sides extending in many directions, some short some long, reaching out into the  different parts of the rainbow as we are affected in so many ways and fit onto the spectrum in many parts and places. that is what needs to be understood.

    rather than fight amongst ourselves as to who is the most affected, who has the more severe autism, we should work together - people with autism and parents, both of whom have unique but valid perpectives on autism,  to get the general population to understand more about this condition and the little things that they could do that would make such a big difference to EVERYONE affected by autism.

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