Ari, Fearless Leader of ASAN, has said all that is needed is acceptance.
He got through school, became self cured, just by taking up an autism slot.
If acceptance does not work for you, it must be your fault.
Aside from the outright fraud involved, for some do see getting their autism ticket as a scholarship, within the autistic there is denial.
I did it for sixty years, nothing wrong with me, just other people. Now there is some truth to that. It took a while, but I came to understand it was me, I did have a disability, and it did explain a lot of my life.
People closer to twenty, their life ahead of them, do not want to hear they are incurably disabled. Some stuff works much too well, some performance is superior, so you get a Pride Mite.
I got through only on my skills, drive, and looking back, many a mess from autism. I understand how they feel, I did the same, but my life was a series of social crashes that I never saw coming.
I have seen both sides, and from the wisdom of age say, denying it will not make it go away.
There is also the expanding reach of Dx, once only for the obvious, now tossed about like Ritlin to the ADHD set. Doing your best and still getting sent to special education, in local slang, being put on the short bus with the Dexers. This is a blow to the ego, and to the plan, becoming a Silicon Valley Geek. Special Ed derails all future plans, and they rebel, but not being able to overthrow the system, for it is social, where they are blind, they rebel against Autism, in all it's forms.
This moving line of Dx, has been spreading into what was just the Broader Autism Phenotype. Nerd or Geek was acceptable, the short bus to special education not. They got trapped in expanding the Psychology Franchise.
In politics, if a group rejects services, which Pride Mites do, that can be used to reduce all services. ci mentions that Asperger's is no longer considered autism for services.
Psychology thinks everyone is nuts, they are. I agree with Jung who said, "Show me a sane man, and I will cure him,"
They have no need to be rational, like the State that has to pay for services, where there is never enough money to cover their next raise, retirement funds, larger offices, new desks, and deliver Social Services. Something has to give, so they listen to Pride Mites, who claim they need nothing but acceptance, which is free. So services to Asperger's gets cut, and they are told they are accepted, and if it does not work, it is their fault. They can become social and join a Pride March.
So here are three sides, Pride Mites who deny they belong on the short bus, Psychology that knows that half the population should be making visits to their office, and the Minions of the State that have to spend on themselves first, then trickle down something on the people they are employed to support.
The Autistic are disavantaged in such a social fight. As it is a spectrum, the highest functioning that could better deal with social problems are cast out into the street to be slaughtered. They are told it is their fault for not getting the educational benefits that went to real autistics with private doctors, and the social skills to get scholarships. They got a free ride through the University, at public expense, and were totally cured by the time they graduated.
Everyone is gaming the system, and the autistic are not good at social games, in fact, it defines the condition.
The Pride Mites spend special attention on those who could call them the frauds they are. Autism Speaks would, an Autism Scholarship would never cure anyone who had the condition. It is always a lifetime condition, unless you never had it in the first place, bought a Dx, and defrauded the system to steal benefits earmarked for others, with real needs.
ASAN seems to stand for lets claim we have autism and get scholarships.
Fraud aside, Autism is just as real as ever, autistic people do need support, and that will be lifelong, and much more needs to be done in research, directed at early identification and intervention. Early childhood is the place to reduce lifetime costs.
Autism Speaks is not producing miracle cures, like autism scholarships do, just developing programs that are showing consistant improvment of outcomes for children. Independant living, social and economic inclusion, are a lot cheaper than Group Homes and locked wards. The effects of autism are being reduced, giving everyone a better chance at a richer life.
This has my vote for being the best use of limited funds to aid the most people. My second vote is for the people who were just born too early to benefit, who do need lifetime support.
I never give up, and John Elder Robison has mentioned that some treatments in testing work on adults. If it is 5% better performance, where do I sign up?
Nothing will come without research, Politics is like god, who only helps those who help themselves, to the public trough. Pride Marches and Unions will not make the lives of autistics better.
While I have ranted about Psychobabble, some of the better of their species have seen that changing the DSM, abolishing Asperger's, creates one class that can not be so easily cut by State Social Services. Clinical Autism or nothing. From our point of view they are being the good guys.
Autism Speaks is also coming to include a wider view of autism. Programs for adults are being worked on, Asperger's is being included, they went from being Corporate to seeing us as people. That is a bigger leap than most corporations ever make toward their customer base. They are being supportive of our community, doing outreach in their quaint little NT ways, but they are trying to overcome themselves.
By their own numbers they see the need for mass support services in the future, and must wonder how that many more survived in the past with nothing. They are our best hope for a national program of everything from early childhood to old age.
This has to be a top down movement, and it will happen much faster with open acceptance from the autistic population. If ten years from now children are half as autistic, I will not feel any loss. We owe the future the best possible world.
04 Sep 2011, 2:00 pm
