Real attitude toward Autism

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That was a bit of culture shock for me at first , congratulating some members for having a disorder / syndrome seemed so wrong - I totally get it now

It does seem weird to me to be happy about mental illness. My autism means nothing to me, it's very mild now. I mainly care about my severe OCD.

I don't think I've seen anyone congratulated on their schizophrenia or OCD , I was talking about Aspergers or ASD

I have seen it a little in the tumblr sphere. I just don't think a disability s something to be happy about. By definition it negatively affects your life.

I disagree that its wholly genetic because im the only one in the family with it, but since I would be the first and usually hereditary illnesses are passed from the father, my descendants would likely exhibit my traits. I don't plan on having children or donating anyway, i'm with Thomas Malthus on this one, gotta take one for the team.

I think it's more aimed at people who finally get to know what's wrong with them and feel relieved but yeah I do feel weird congratulating them but it appears to be the done thing here.

We have ASD members who did not find about it until well into adulthood. They struggled for decades not knowing why. For them, the diagnosis might be not only an explanation but finding out there are others with core similarities. OCD, depression etc develops, it does not usually go un or misdiagnosed for decades. It can be very difficult to obtain an adult ASD diagnosis, often involving years of setbacks and people doubting their suspicions.

That often makes obtaining an ASD diagnosis unique. The combination of finding or validating and explanation and persisting to overcome all the doubts by others and themselves deserve congratulations.

But not everybody is happy at all to receive an ASD diagnosis so congratulating should be done on a case by case basis.

I don't think NTs in general think of us at all. In fact, I'd bet if you did a random street poll, you'd find that only a small fraction of the general populace has ever even HEARD the name "Asperger Syndrome" and of those who have, most couldn't give you even a vague description of what it is.

You might find a few familiar with the idea of "High Functioning Autism," but most of those would only know the image of Rainman.

The movies and television are gradually familiarizing SOME people with HFA and it's associated behaviors, most notably with Sheldon Cooper on BBT - but it doesn't help that Big Bang Theory has never once identified Sheldon as autistic - nor has Bones with Temperance Brennan, or Criminal Minds with Dr Reed - though the show House did raise the possibility once of Dr House having AS). Then you have films like 'The Accountant," where Ben Affleck does a pretty good job of playing an autistic character's mannerisms, but the premise of the film itself (of an autistic "John Wick") is preposterous.

The best representation on film I've seen so far, of what's like to live in an autistic brain on a daily basis, was Punch Drunk Love with Adam Sandler (whom I normally despise). Only serious part I've ever seen him play, but he did a great job - only, as usual, the words "autism" nor "Asperger" are ever mentioned in the film, even though that's pretty clearly the character's problem.

The other common image of us that keeps recurring in the media, is perpetrated by News reporters, who love to sensationalize any instance in which someone diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome is arrested for a violent outburst. Even though these instances are rare, when they do occur, the media makes sure the words "violence" and "Asperger" are closely linked in the audiences' minds.

Still, all that said, I maintain that most Neurotypicals have no idea we exist.

People need to stop using the Rainman example, the real life person the story is based on (Kim Peek) had FG syndrome, not autism.

Mutations can also cause genetic conditions. Older fathers can have mutations in sperm. Since it would be multiple genes your family could be carriers. I defiantly think genes play a part and I think some genes increasing the risk of autism have been found. I don't know if any enviremental risks are part of it.

Out of the three people the charactor is based on 2 were autistic. Kim Peek was not autistic but had very similar traits. That said it is getting annoying that the vast majority of autism dipictions are variations of Rain Man

Let's conduct an experiment. You go to reddit.com/r/worldnews, find an afro-american related discussion and write that afro-americans are in general less intelligent as they have IQ below average, and see how many upvotes you can get.

And that's why you should paint all the autists the same color no matter what they are doing themselves, right? /s

It's just irrelevant. "The people who do know about existence of autism, what do they think?" - that was the topic.

I'm just being realistic. That's how people with autism generally are so it's not surprising that is the overall impression people have. Don't shoot the messenger just because you're not happy with how the real world is.

You aren't realistic, you're just rationalizing instead of thinking how to solve the problem.