I am a medical student in Italy, where autism is still pretty much regarded as The Rainman Disease. Last year I was accepted in a scholarship program which involves attending a molecular biology laboratory, where we do reasearch about the interactome of a protein involved in the excitatory post-synapse. There didn't seem to be any clinical applications so far, but lately we've been invited to participate in a joint project with another lab, in where a protein whose mutation causes a rare form of Rett's syndrome is studied. Consequently, lately there has been a lot of talk about ASDs in the lab, both from a scientific point of view, which is interesting, and from a social one.
I am not diagnosed with autism, and I haven't talked with anyone about my suspicions that I might be on the spectrum, because here it wouldn't make much sense, as I am way too "high functioning". I have told my boss that my ex boyfriend is diagnosed with Asperger's, though, but it didn't elicit much of a response, except for "Asp-what?".
It used to be my intention to eventually go into research on ASDs, but not here, where the diagnostic requirements are warped, and they are still seen as diseases to eradicate and the people affected little more than objects of pity (mostly directed at their families). This situation is making me feel quite uncomfortable.
What are your opinions about research on autism? Do you also think it would be awkward studying autism as an undercover spectrumite (or BAP or whatever)?
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07 Apr 2015, 4:40 am
