What is your personal view on autism?

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Is anybody willing to share what being autistic means to them?

Whether you discuss the perceived positives/negatives or both, famous autistic individuals, scientific theories or something as familiar as your own life experience, I'm interested in reading anything anyone posts as long as it avoids negatively involving other parties. As previously emphasized, I want your take on autism. I don't care how wildly inaccurate or whimsical a post is, as long as it somewhat resembles decency.

I won't be engaging in discussion with anyone (this will be my only post), though I promise to read the entire content of each post.

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Unapologetically, Norny.
-chronically drunk

I reckon we get a raw deal in the media, which pisses me off somewhat.

My Theory!

No one is equal, like fingerprints we all have similar but unique prints. Our brain development determines who we are. Depending on what parts of the brain are stronger and more functional and weaker/less functional will eventually show the world where we fit. Autism like many mental health labels is a huge spectrum due to the wide diversity of symptoms and traits and interlink at certain points. For me, it is equally as hard for anyone no matter where you sit on the spectrum. Being someone who has strong traits of high functioning autism, I am able to fit into society as a father, fiance and Manager in the food industry. The issue is trying to cope with it all and have people understand my issues whilst appearing to be equal to an NT. My brain is starved of dopamine and other chemicals that means I have very poor memory (leave people in corridors or look at someone who is talking to me remembering what the conversation is about. I am easily distracted and procrastination is extreme ate times. Anxiety like most on the spectrum is bad and stressful.
So basically my theory is that your brain development determines your mind and body including personality, temperament and self control. The soul however belongs to God..... I seem to be somewhere between attention deficit disorder and Aspergers (I still use the word Aspergers even if the medical profession do not)

I believe autism is a state of being with many aspects. Within this state, one must accentuate their positive qualities, and improve/adapt to their purportedly negative qualities.

I believe the non-autistic world must acknowledge the contributions people with autism have made, and make an effort to offer pertinent advice which autistic people will benefit from. They must not shun the autistic person; instead, they must be open to variances in how people view things.

At the sane time, the autistic person must listen to useful input from non-autistic people, and to not separate themselves from them arbitrarily. They must provide education pertaining to autism in a teacherly, not a stridently political manner.

Autism to me is a natural variant of being. It's something that doesn't need to be eradicated from the human gene pool. Autism is something that needs to be accepted instead of wiped out. Autism is not a disease or illness that needs to be cured or fought. Autism is a different way of looking at the world and a different way of being. Many autistic people are more likely to let their true personalities shine than they are to follow the mainstream and I think that's a good thing.

Autistic people rock!

To me it's just a condition some people have.
And lots of people have one type of condition or another.

Note: My idea of what it is has changed over time and will likely continue to change over time.

There are a lot of traits that are often connected to Autism but I think at its core it is a disconnect between intended messages and interpreted messages (on both sides). I think there are various ways in which the message are misunderstood:
-not noticing how the body language of others connect to the message they are trying to send
-unintentionally using body language that sends messages that shouldn't be sent
-sometimes missing out on sarcasm or expressions
-sometimes using technical language and assuming knowledge in others
-sometimes speaking as if in text form with no attention to tone of voice
-having unintended messages sent through tone of voice that doesn't match the meaning
-other

I think that as a result of the communication issues there is often a different internal world that is developed. Think of it like this. You have two objects. Each object contains a fluid with a particular concentration of a substance. One object is surrounded by a material that easily allows the liquid to flow in and out. Eventually the liquid becomes diluted and matches the liquid in the surrounding environment. The second object allows some but very little liquid to flow. Though the contents of the second object may dilute slightly it remains quite different from the surroundings because there is very little flow. Think of the liquid as ideas and the surrounding materials as ability to send and interpret messages effectively. So the first object, as a result of being able to exchange ideas effectively ultimately ends up being very similar to the surrounding. The second object, though somewhat more similar to the surroundings than in the beginning maintains its own separate internal environment.

Autism is not a "disorder"; it is a "different order". Autism is something that gives some people both strengths and weaknesses. They may be different from the norm, but strengths and weaknesses are present in everyone. Autistic people should nurture their strengths and address their weaknesses rather than trying to adopt strengths and weaknesses that are "normal". Also, autistic people wouldn't have the same personalities without autism.

I dont have an Autistic identity, I see myself as neurodiverse but its part of my wider genetically abnormal being rather than a seperate issue and I'm against the list of labels that accumulate if my various issues are identified seperately. Autism itself can be broken down into a list of individual diagnostic labels like sensory processing disorder, which can then become a list of things like Auditory processing disorder, Visual processing etc, and the lengths of the lists just get stupid. I also dont find Autism a useful label to use in my everyday life, because it sets up expectations of me that just confuse things further when I dont meet them. If more people understood this spectrum better it wouldnt be such a problem, but most peoples knowledge only goes as far as half remembered unhelpful stereotypes that I mostly dont fit. Until I do, which freaks them out even more than when I dont

For me the way my brain works, and the issues I have because of it, is completely understandable given the nature/nurture conditions it developed in. I didnt always feel that way, but now I have a lot more information about myself and how brain development happens, it makes sense to me that I am the way I am. And I like who I am so I dont see my neurodiversity as a bad thing. But I dont like the restrictions on my life from things like my sensory processing difficulties, these issues are in the way of me being able to realise the potential that my different brain contains. So these are issues I'm seeking to fix. Its possible this might have a knock on effect on my wider brain wiring, and therefore on how I think,feel,behave etc, which is a bit scary. But I am tired of the Cant's in my life getting in the way of things I want and need, and being me would be so much easier and more productive if I wasnt getting tripped up by my faulty brain wiring all the time.

I agree with nerdymamas disconnect theory. Differences on the spectrum might be explained by which particular connections are faulty or non existent in that person, but as a whole the issues are about signals and messages not being received/processed/sent smoothly. Which probably describes every neuro and psych problem ever... I also think the caetextia and REM theory is interesting and making a lot of sense, but its missing some connections itself at the moment. Which is the problem with research in general, its all so unjoined up. There are far more answers out there now than there are questions, but sharing of information between medical/research specialties or patient groups is really poor. For example I came on here and discovered that the gut-brain connection is still seen as a fringe belief and unvalidated in this community, but in other communities I'm involved with (patients and specialists) its been accepted fact for quite a while. And likewise there are things that this community knows and understands that those other groups dont yet. So it frustrates me that there is all this external disconnection because it makes the NT world even harder to live in for those of us with internal disconnections.