Are there any / have you encountered any Jehovah's Witnesses with ASD?
Are there any / have you encountered any Jehovah's Witnesses with ASD?
I agree with everything your saying except for that we are naive and unwilling to research. As an ASD JW, I have spent years researching and backing up my beliefs on pure logic and scientific evidence. I can assure you most witnesses have done the same. We aren’t naive (Ik it appears that way). As an autistic myself, I am incredibly intelligent (don’t mean this to come off as boosting, just proving a point), so I need pure logic and research to understand something. In terms of education, yes we don’t all seek fur ty we education because we don’t want to seek a job that is gonna take up most our lives. Some of us do go to further education and we voluntarily work (without pay) at places we call ‘Bethel’. This is place where everyone is witnesses, working for free voluntarily. (We are provided with food, housing, etc.) The doctors work for free and are witnesses too. We are not pressured to do this, it’s our own choice. Hope this informs you. There is a lot more to us than what you see
Sure, ASD JW here. We believe gods name is ‘Jehovah’ which is the English translation of the Hebrew word YHWH or Yahweh (I could paste the actual Hebrew characters). This name can be found in engraved in ancient Egyptian structures and written in many other ancient manuscripts. The name was often used in reference to god. This is why we call god Jehovah.
Oh, I am extremely sorry about that. As an ASD Jehovah’s Witness, I would like to apologise on her behalf. I can assure you that she probably wasn’t trying to get into your head, we are actually really nice people. Neurotypical Witnesses also have misconceptions about autism just like any neurotypical. Personally, I was born into our religion, but as I grew up I question our beliefs. So I researched, after doing deep and extensive research about what we believed on both google and our own website, I found that our beliefs were actually very logical and there was a lot of scientific evidence to back them up. Hope this answers your question.
I am a Witness with ASD. I would like to respond by saying that actually our religion really encourages researching things (I do it all the time) and we study things in incredible detail. I spend a lot of my time researching articles, which helps me build a firm foundation for my beliefs. I’ve found that our beliefs may make no sense at first, but once you do your research you will find our beliefs don’t actually conflict with scientific evidence and are actually very logical. Just thought that I should inform you, I totally understand why some people may think that. A lot of people misunderstand and misinterpret what we believe, which is why there is a lot of misconceptions about us. Hope this helps :)
Ah I can understand that, I don’t like talking to strangers either. I struggle a lot when going door to door. Just a bit of advise, we write down the addresses of people who we assume are not home so that we can come back to those houses. So if you just answer and say that your not interested and we won’t bother you again
(please be kind when saying it though. It can be very traumatising when a householder screams at you. (speaking from personal experience) We are actually nice & considerate people, you don’t have to be mean to get us to leave just ask)
You do realise you can just say that you’re not interested and we would go away. Also, I myself am a Witness and have ASD. I have done extensive research on both evolution & creation and I personally came to the conclusion that creation made more sense to me. (I am also more than capable of backing up my beliefs & so would most Witnesses) We don’t “attack” the weakest in the herd, we simply just want to share our beliefs with those who may be interested, if you’re not, just says so and we will leave you alone.
If you have studied, and know more than they do.(Which is not hard) ~ They will leave you alone. Wolves attack the weakest in the herd.
StephenHarris said:I'm CofE and ASD. I also have OCD that's scrupulousity!
I consider members of the C of E to have a lack of taste and flair when it comes to religion.
Remember the episode of Porridge with the new inmate when he replies C of E when asked about his religion and is then told that he can grow his hair if he says he is a Sikh or have special food if he says he is a Muslim.
A noteworthy point about JW is that it is a very American religion. It's a religion that almost certainly could not have been founded in any country other than the US because in the late 19th century the US was the only country to have the right political, economic, and social climate for such a religion to be created. Even today the US is the heartland of the JW despite claims that it is a global religion.
The JW operates as a publishing company and a high proportion of its articles are biased towards the US - written by American people who focus on issues and goings on in the US, or are tied around the peculiarities of the US system. Some of these articles are not very relevant for readers in other countries.
Something that the JW keeps quiet about is that they have their own special version of the Bible called the New World Translation. They have the copyright on it so it cannot be used by any other Christian sect.
I don't understand why Longman's ghost isn't allowed to post. They've posted via email only. They've made points that seem more relevant than many allowed to remain here. And could really add to this discussion. If a mod has really blocked them, then they're doing a disservice to those with autism.
The NAS website itself says:
'People with a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome do not usually have accompanying learning disabilities, but may still have specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia.'
I dispute this because from my own personal experience, no testing occurs to know this. After my adult diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome at age 31, no IQ test was done. The Asperger test itself included a basic verbal IQ test. To test IQ properly it needs to be non-verbal IQ. Many of us could have low IQ. Which would give rise to the likelihood that many of us have a learning disability. Not just a learning difficulty.
Even those who have high intelligence can be deemed to have low intelligence. For example, children who have autism spectrum disorders may do well in intelligence tests but may find it very difficult to use their intelligence in everyday situations such as using the road safely. So even if a child has an IQ of more than 55 it may still be possible to show that they have a severe impairment of intelligence if you can establish that they have difficulty applying their intelligence in the real world.
DLA case law has established that Autism is a disorder of brain development, children with a diagnosis of autism or autism spectrum disorder will satisfy the condition of ‘arrested development’ or ‘incomplete physical development of the brain’.
My psychologist told me that ASD is a pervasive developmental disorder.
I don't have much faith in the NHS when it comes to ASD - especially AS and some other forms of high-functioning ASD which they are behind the curve on - which helps to explain why they 'dump' people with ASD on the NAS. ASD is not a life threatening condition which is why it occupies a low priority within the NHS.
Oblomov said:I had an adult social care assessment in late 2015, officially listing my Asperger's syndrome as a learning disability.That's interesting, as the Asperger information sheet that my local NHS autism service gave to me in September 2016 begins: "Asperger Syndrome is a developmental condition... It is not a mental health problem or a learning disability."
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The below is from the NHS website
A learning disability is a difficulty:
- understanding new or complex information
- learning new skills
- coping independently
About 70% of children with ASD have a non-verbal IQ below 70. Of these, 50% have a non-verbal IQ below 50. Overall, up to 50% of people with "severe learning difficulties" have an ASD.
A learning disability is not the same as a learning difficulty or mental illness. Consultant paediatrician Dr Martin Ward Platt says: "It can be very confusing," he says, pointing out that the term "learning difficulties" is used by some people to cover the whole range of learning disabilities.
"It is easy to give the impression, by using a term like 'learning difficulties', that a child has less of a disability than they really do," says Dr Ward Platt.
Some children with learning disabilities grow up to be quite independent, while others need help with everyday tasks, such as washing or getting dressed, for their whole lives. It depends on their abilities.
When my IQ was assessed by professionals for court purposes, they only assessed my verbal IQ. This is not an accurate test for learning disability.
ClaireHig said:I had an adult social care assessment in late 2015, officially listing my Asperger's syndrome as a learning disability.
That's interesting, as the Asperger information sheet that my local NHS autism service gave to me in September 2016 begins: "Asperger Syndrome is a developmental condition... It is not a mental health problem or a learning disability."
Arran said:Wrong. It is not a learning disability. It is a pervasive developmental disorder.
It could be argued that it's a learning difference because people with ASD can learn advanced stuff, sometimes at a younger than average age, providing the style of teaching and learning is optimal for them.
Sorry Arran but you're definitely wrong. The government class it as a learning disability. I had an adult social care assessment in late 2015, officially listing my Asperger's syndrome as a learning disability. The social worker even cut me off mid sentence & he said "you have autism, that IS a learning disability".
Obviously seeing something daily doesn't mean you will absorb it. I've seen the same Spanish writing daily on TV programs, but I still have no idea what it means. I'm sure others with a higher IQ would probably have worked out some words by now.
Imagine that you've been put in special needs classes in school/college & sent on special needs friendly training programs in adulthood to teach those specific things. Let's say you now know exactly what you should do, say etc. But what good does knowing the skills do, when you may still always feel too much distress to actually do them. A monkey can be taught to host a tea party, but that doesn't mean it benefits from that.
ClaireHig said:Autism is classed as a learning disability. So many believe that if taught in the right way at school or reading books, then with support an autistic person can gain social skills. But that's a very narrow view of autism. Where you're just acknowledging the learning disability aspect.
Wrong. It is not a learning disability. It is a pervasive developmental disorder.
It could be argued that it's a learning difference because people with ASD can learn advanced stuff, sometimes at a younger than average age, providing the style of teaching and learning is optimal for them.
Many of us have had a lifetime of exposure to people, where we've had to learn to mimic social skills.
A lifetime exposure to Egyptian hieroglyphics doesn't imply that one can read them. They can only read them if they read books about them or are taught how to read them.
Autism is classed as a learning disability. So many believe that if taught in the right way at school or reading books, then with support an autistic person can gain social skills. But that's a very narrow view of autism. Where you're just acknowledging the learning disability aspect.
It could be argued that to retain knowledge a person needs to constantly perform the skill. Many of us have had a lifetime of exposure to people, where we've had to learn to mimic social skills. I personally know it can be done. But is it humane to force it. Even when the cost to the persons own sanity is far too high, and unrealistic even in the short term. Government no longer allow circuses to use performing monkeys, but they have no problem forcing those with autism to be the performing monkeys.
Those with autism may need to deliberately avoid socialising, as it causes severe anxiety & sensory overload. There's no doubt that many even in infancy would've had the foresight themselves to try coping skills such as using music or other distractions. But those things don't work for everyone. With some people even music itself causes further distress.
ClaireHig said:Think about it logically. If a person can learn social skills etc from a book, then perhaps they never had autism. It's more likely that they just weren't socialised or exposed to those things in an absorbable way or when young. With true autism, people can be exposed to the right social skills in the right ways, but they just don't have Neurotypical potential.
I dispute this one. My theory is that people with ASD can learn social skills from a book or if they are explicitly taught them. It's just that they struggle to learn social skills subconsciously like NT people do. This is why I mentioned the 'social skills' training by JW and raised questions about social skills books and websites
