is autism (including AS) a mental illness?

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I really don't understand how a stigma could be associated with left-handedness. I read stories but it seems quite odd that someone would really have a problem with someone writing with their left hand.

It used to be that lefties were considered defective, so they either got killed or sent to institutions. My grandfather was one of the lucky ones that didn't get institutionalized or killed.

All forms of autism are. They have symptoms and underlying causes with social, sensory, and emotional consequences.

At one time, it was believed that the left hand was associated with evil. (In fact, the word "sinister" is Latin for "left".) Therefore, if someone was left-handed, this had to be corrected, lest the poor leftie follow the inevitable path to a life of crime, dissolution, perversion, and evil ways. This belief is reflected, among other ways, in da Vinci's painting, "The Last Supper", in which Judas Iscariot is seated to the immediate left of Jesus. My own father was forced, in grade school, to use his right hand exclusively, even though he was strongly left-handed. As a result, no one could ever read his handwriting...

That is really weird that some people used to think like that. If someone told me that left-handedness was evil and lead to crime, I'd think they were psychotic.

Quite possibly they were. My dad, a righty, went to school and saw that experience happen to others. The nuns did it to one of his classmates. Its possible that stress caused by the rigors of their vows would evoke certain less than desirable behaviors in the nuns, or perhaps they became nuns out of guilt from harboring anti-social thoughts and behavior.



Please post that!

Autism= social, sensory, and emotional consequences(adhd,ocd,add,and ptsd, depression) etc so it is both mental and nerological. stress and ptsd is also linked to autism (cause of the serotonin)

(serotonin and Autism)

(serotonin and PTSD)
so based on research it also is confirmed that stress at pregnancy and traumatic events (sexual abuse, family deaths,abuse, etc) is also a possibility. autism is noted in both nerological and (psychiatric disorders) studies too.

Ok here it goes. I hope no one hates me for posting this. Please note I have nothing against left-handedness.

"even when the twins have exactly the same genes (MZ) a significant number of these identical brothers or sisters (about one-quarter) have different preferred hands" http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-161128781.html

"studies have revealed smaller numbers of left-handers with advanced age (Coren, 1992; Ellis, Ellis, & Marshall, 1988), more left-handers today than just a century ago (Fleminger, Dalton, & Standage, 1977; McManus, 2002)"

"Left-handedness has more frequently been reported in a broad range of persons with developmental disorders and disabilities and has been linked to cognitive impairments in certain groups" http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-161128781.html

"The handedness in three randomly sampled groups of people with learning disabilities consisting of patients with Down's syndrome, epilepsy, and autism were studied using a validated instrument. All subjects were controlled for neurological and other medical disorders. A statistically significant increase in left-handedness and ambiguous handedness compared with the general population was found in all groups." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8298839

"The results reveal a dramatic shift away from right-handedness in both autistic samples, due to a raised incidence of two phenotypes, manifest left-handedness and ambiguous handedness." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3722117

"Sixty-two percent of the autistic children were non-right-handed" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6580656

It doesn't cause suffering though! Society does! Thats why we need to change it! Heres to the revolution! hehehehe (or evolution)

That's true; the sole problem is indeed that my behavior is not in line with the expectations of society as a whole. I am fortunate enough not to have any comorbid disorders (of which I am aware, anyway), so I have never suffered in any way that could be blamed on my AS. Rather, what suffering I have endured can be laid at the feet of an overly-insistent conformist society, which sought to punish me as a child for not thinking the way I was supposed to. (Not dissimilar in concept, really, from the way lefties were once treated.)

Incidentally, in the handedness research, the results should be filtered through an awareness that until after the midpoint of this century, lefties were forced, often violently, to conform to right-handed expectations. Thus, one would naturally expect to see fewer people over about 60 today exhibiting left-handed behaviors - it was literally beaten out of them. Similarly, among those who were unable to change their handedness, and thus experienced continuing, societally-accepted abuse until they left the school system (either through graduation or dropping out), one should be unsurprised to learn that a number became maladjusted to society, even to the point of criminal actions or mental disorders, as a result.

The other citations do interest me - one wonders whether further research will bear the connections out...

I assumed the studies asked what handedness they were born with. If it was beaten out of them, I'm sure they'd remember. I can see how their harsh treatment could have led them to become maladjusted to society but how common was this treatment? Was it just a few nuns in some schools or were left-handed people mistreated everywhere? I know if I was a teacher back then there's no way I'd mistreat someone because of one simple difference.

The problem I have with comparing autism to left-handedness is that the left hand thing is just a simple difference. It doesn't affect someone's life in any way. They may have had problems due to being mistreated but that's due to how people treated them and isn't their fault. If everyone was normal and tolerant, then it would have never been a problem.

And if people were normal and tolerant of us, we wouldn't have these problems either.

Sadly, that's just not the way people are, it would seem. As recently as 1973, my wife (who is black) had to have "white" on her birth certificate because the hospital her mother's doctor practiced at simply didn't treat blacks. (Yes, it was technically illegal, even in Georgia, but nobody there was interested in enforcing a law just to benefit some n-word and her pickaninny. No, it was in no way morally or ethically justifiable. But most people don't seem to need justification for their prejudices and hatreds...)

We may not have anxiety or depression if people were tolerant. However, I don't think tolerance would make it easier to socialize, understand people, fit in, and communicate easily. The sensory integration problems wouldn't go away either. I want to have lots of friends and be part of a group but I'm unable to do so.



Racism, like opposition to left-handedness, is another thing I don't understand very well.

Zendell, I will ask my dad. it might even have been our cousin, who was a nun, who was the teacher.