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Who are autism experts?

orangesun

I was rather distressed and worried after I found a twitter/website/facebook for what appears to be a genuine Government Funded (Scottish) autism resource. I won't repeat it here, but it is in another post called 'What is Alpha Stim?'.

It has led me to question who the people are who are running autism services and resources, who oversees their training, what are their motives are and is there any coherent idea of what autism services and resources should be.

I am very firmly in the understanding and acceptance group. I am not interested in ridding myself of my autism, it is who I am. I believe it is a different way of being. My autism seriously affect every day of my life, and it is not mild, despite what you might think from my written language skills, but I would never want to get rid of it. I am concerned by expensive therapies that have no genuine scientific backing. I feel some parents are desperate to make their child 'normal' and will spend a lot of money and put the child through a lot of trauma to try and achieve this so called normality.

Does anyone know if there is a coherent idea of who autism experts are, and whether Government funded agencies have some kind of policy document or something about what they should be trying to achieve?

Hope someone has an idea.

  • Hi Pixiefox

    Yes I agree, we are the experts.

    I have lots to say about my experience of autism, but experts who are not autistic want to tell me I need nutrition therapy, or now, this crazy alpha-stim. And these people are employed and paid by the government, when so many autistic people cannot find employment, they are allowing these so called experts to earn a lot of money.

    I am getting fed up with a money spinning aspect to autism. Lots of people who are not autistic themselves, making a lot of money out of bogus therapies, training days for trianers to train other people. But very little run for autistic people by autistic people.

    I don't use this community much, too many parents trying to get cures. I prefer the autism community on twitter, I follow the many people who use the hashtags #actuallyautistic and #notapuzzlepiece.

  • Who are the autism experts? In my view - we are. People like Temple Grandin are helping "experts" who aren't on the autism spectrum to understand us.

    Does anyone know of any psychologists who are on the autism spectrum?

    This community has been more help to me than any books. Tania A Marshall's site is interesting though, regarding the characteristics of female "aspies" and how they often don't get diagnosed.

    Even when it's clear an adult is on the spectrum, I understand that some "experts" won't give the diagnosis unless the individual needs help.

    It's also "experts" who have given us the label "Autisim spectrum disorder". I don't like the disorder label - it's not an illness, it's a state of being, which brings great talents too.

    Does anyone else think this way?