"Informative" Documentaries and unwanted children

Post Reply New Topic

As a child I watched informative documentaries on autism, because I was hoping to know more about myself. My diagnosis was really early so I think I must have been very young. However those documentaries always focus on the family and never on the child itself and they seem to have a similar structure. First some family home videos are displayed, mainly with the kid freaking out about something (as if, for some reason, autistic children don't do anything else besides freaking out all day). Then the parents are being interviewed about how it actually feels to have a child with autism. They complain about how extremely difficult it is, but how they manage (and some more scenes about the kid freaking out are depicted). Wow! So much respect for the parents! How can they handle an annoying kid like that, who constantly freaks out?! Then a scene is depicted in which the kid argues with its siblings. And the siblings are interviewed. How does it feel having a brother/sister with autism? Then they complain about how difficult it is, but how they always play with their brother/sister. Oh, such nice children! They play with their annoying autistic brother/sister, because they feel sorry for him/her. Wow! True angels! Who is never interviewed though, is the kid itself. The documentary is about autism, but the kid who actually has autism is never interviewed or asked how he/she feels. Maybe that is because autistic children do not have feelings anyway, so who wants to hear them after all, right?

So... watching those documentaries I always thought: 'Wow! I am truly placing a huge burden on my family. And my brothers are only nice to me because they feel sorry for me. They probably rather wished they had a "normal" child instead of something like me...'. Those things really affected my self esteem (which wasn't very high already).

I'm still waiting for normal documentaries that are actually speaking about autism and not about a complaining family.

that is not what people want to see, most of those documentaries are made by pro-cure agencies, so they will show the worst cases.
it is the same with alomst all diseases/syndromes/afflictions. how often do you see a documentary on someone who lost his legs yet still met a lovely wife and got married with kids after becomibng wheelchair-bound? that is not a sad story

Watch "Loving Lampposts." While it discusses the family in part, it does it from a VERY different and refreshing (in my perspective) way. There is much more to this documentary than that, and you won't find any pity-play in it. It's about acceptance.
I showed it to my mother after I was diagnosed.

It's on Netflix.

And people wonder why I rejected my diagnosis for years, also notice how Aspergers people are never shown, only classic LFA and then we wonder why people think were not autistic becouse we can talk.

I am loving "Loving Lampposts." I just watched it on Amazon.com.

Stop watching those documentaries. The people making them have a vested interest-- and that interest is NOT is the well being or self-esteem of you or your family. At best, they're after validation for their own point of view. At worst, eugenics. In the middle, a vast field of "Gimme MONEY!"

Now, that doesn't undo the damage. I'm a good bit older than you (at least, I imagine-- I'm 35), but I'm right there with you. There are a couple generations of autistics who have been taught, whether accidently or on purpose, to see themselves as a problem, a burden, a disease, unwanted and unwantable, unloved and unlovable.

If I had any advice on that score, I'd give it to you. I don't. I'm drowning in the same puddle. At least you are not alone.

Well, one piece of advice.

Tell them how you feel. Ask them what they think, how they feel. Accept thier answer.

Everyone is different. Everyone has ways in which dealing with them is a challenge. Nobody is all sunshine and rainbows-- and if anyone expects that, they're lost in some ad-based delusion.

I only watched a small sample so I could talk about them honestly and free of ignorance (Autism every day was one of them), If I don't watch it how can I claim their own ignorance and dispute their claims. I knew what was going to be showen, I had read the reviews, I just wanted to sure foot my arguments. I do tend to avoid them as a whole for some of the reasons given in my first post.

I have no pratical use for autism docs anyway as I have 23 years of first hand experence, I just find it dissapointing how my real personal experence is so different from what the scripted docs depicted.

Was it made by Autism Speaks? If it was, that lowers my opinion of that organization even more.

Autism every day was made by autism speaks or at least funded by them if thats what you were refering to.

Is Loving Lampposts available on DVD?

What is a "DVD?" ...Just kidding. Yes it is available on DVD for region 1 at least (North America).