Physical vs. Mental Disabilities and hypocrisy

Post Reply New Topic

Ever notice how, when a person is physically disabled, ie like in a wheelchair or born without an arm or a leg, or blind, people understand that it's not their fault, but when a person has a mental disability like ASD, people act like it's the person's fault and thus don't have the same regard as they would for the physically disabled? And then go on to berate them for how they behave, ignoring the fact that the disorder causes the behaviors and is thus very difficult to counteract.

Yes..... of course....i've noticed it all my life. Sadly...I have noticed it in two recent threads in this very forum. The threads in question consist of posters with Asperger's or related disorders berating another individual with AS (or a similar disorder) who is seemingly in a very bad situation. A situation which MAY be entirely beyond the person's control and contrary to what those berating him seem to think, they have no way of knowing that one way or another. Most of the posters in question are at least relatively fortunate. They probably have never been in a remotely similar situation and likely never will be. Considering the shabby treatment these posters are subjecting one of their fellows on the spectrum to, I hope everyone realizes that people on the spec can be just as callous and ignorant as the worst NT's out there.

Isn't part of being on the spectrum is that we often don't even know we are being callous and ignorant?

I saw a documentary about physically disabled people which involved a wheelchair bound guy using a hidden camera in a pub in Wales, UK. Some of the people were being absolute cocks towards him - claiming he was putting it on etc.

So no, I think all disabled people get flak

I've noticed.

It's because they can visually see a physical disability, but a mental disability is completely invisible to most people, so they just don't care.

We expect from all mental and physically disabled persons to adapt themselves, blind learn braille, deaf learn sign language, and everyone inbetween gets some. It is damn hard work for all disabled, nobody slacks around. Same for autism, people expect you to work around it. They understand that you will never be normal and they'll have to adapt aswell (which they find incredibly hard, even for regular oldschool disabilities), but they expect you to participate and deal with the disability.

My dad is both deaf and autistic. He deals with it, works 40hr a week in a social environment. Nobody looks down on him and he loves his job, even though he's an oddball. Which he is ofcourse.

Well, here's some food for thought.

For the most part, it's obvious that a physical disability (illness, injury, congenital) is beyond the control of the person in question. Hence greater sympathy. More so, it's easier to accommodate the physically handicapped because their need is more obvious to an observer.

There are some people who have deliberately handicapped themselves to feel more "complete" with the handicap, and there has been some legitimate outrage at this group of people. By mutilating themselves, they become eligible to legal protections intended for people who had no choice.

NOW...let's look at "mental" or "emotional" disabilities (we'll lump neurological, which is physical, in with mental because it is not physically apparent).

So much of "mental" or "emotional" disability is a question of choice versus environment. If a person is prone to freak out over little things, is that person really that way because of a biological factor they had no control over or is it the product of poor upbringing or a trauma that with therapy would eventually go away? Do people who basically "choose" to behave badly deserve legal protection from those consequences? Do people who suffer from trauma deserve to be protected if they reject help that could help them return to a normal life?

It's a larger gray area. It's something that's harder to determine, and public perception of a lot of people with mental and emotional issues is that they just don't have their act together and they are reaping what they sow. This, admittedly, is true for a lot of people who would love to be considered "disabled" and get legal protection to continue to be the way they are. Others, however, legitimately cannot change what they are...at least not enough to ever fully be accepted by "normal" society.

In hiring, the concern with mental and emotional disabilities is that the need of accommodation can vary widely from one person to another, and what is fully needed is not clear to define absent a candidate who knows specifically what WILL resolve all conflicts up-front. Uncertainty is always a deal-killer in the business world.

So, yes, there is a hypocrisy, but some of it is reasonable. It's just easier to deal with physical disabilities than to deal with mental and emotional ones.

I wonder if people with AS and other syndromes get the worst treatment. I was watching a tv show once with my mother and it had para-olympic sportsmen and women on being interviewed about their respective sports. My mother said "Oh those people deserve so much praise." And I challenged her by saying: "They would probably think it was patronising of you to say that and remember that a lot of people have severe mental problems that go unnoticed by everyone else."

She understood my point.

The problem is most people are scared of mental health issues and will not try to understand it. They want to keep it "over there". They are not secure enough in themselves to try to understand it. But they can easily understand someone in a wheel chair and they feel comfortably seperate from people in that situation. But I wonder if with mental disabilities they do not feel so seperate. So they are scared by something which worries them because they wonder about their own mental health too. Maybe.

My job involves working with people with physical disabilities. I don't necessarily think it's easier for the general public to understand what it's like to have a physical disability; I don't think you can understand just how difficult it is until you have one yourself.

But, I do think that the broader disability rights movement is a lot further along than the neurodiversity movement is, just because the idea of neurodiversity and 'autistic rights' is relatively new. Most people now understand that it's not 'PC' or socially acceptable to behave in a certain way towards someone using a wheelchair. Even though they may not understand what it's like to be physically-challenged, they don't want to make themselves look insensitive or ill-mannered.

I think it really illustrates the need for self-advocacy and autism groups that have a civil rights-oriented approach, like ASAN. It might sound cliche, but we absolutely do have to teach people how to treat us. Self-advocates with physical disabilities have been working on getting better treatment for many years; we have to do the same.

And you know what his situation is like because you've obviously visited him right? your conversation is just as much in the dark as ours was. you know about as much, so your post here means absolutley nothing exept what you are accusing others of doing, YOU are the one acting that way. (and most people in that topic have been in his situation) I for one have! but you dont care beacuse you know everything. right? Ahuh.

stop taking his unfortuneate situation so personal guy. for all you or I know he could be lying.
So getting all huffy over it wont do you any good exept make you look like a blubbering fool
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, back on topic yes, I've noticed that and i think its because physical disabilites are much more easily to spot, than say mental ones! thats why people are so quick to judge

No. I agree that mentally disabled people don't receive the same regard as the physical disabled people. however, i think the problem is not "people act[ing] like it's the person's fault ", is more that physical disabilities are usually seen as a partial disability (if you are blind, nobody will assume that you can't walk because that), while mental disabilities are assumed to be "total" disabilities (if you is mentally disabled, many people will assume that you are uncapable of doing anything).

I do think your reading comprehension skills may be somewhat lacking Benson. Hmmm....let's see....maybe if I use bolded caps, you'll realize you don't have a leg to stand on.


I NEVER ONCE.....I REPEAT.... NEVER ONCE.... SAID I KNEW ANYTHING MORE ABOUT HIS SITUATION THAN YOU OR ANYONE ELSE ON THE THREADS IN QUESTION. YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, FOR ALL I KNOW HE COULD BE A SCAMMER. FOR ALL YOU KNOW HOWEVER, HIS SITUATION COULD BE AS BAD OR WORSE THAN HE CLAIMS IT IS AND YET YOU PEOPLE INSIST ON ASSUMING HE'S JUST BEGGING FOR CRACK MONEY MERELY BECAUSE HE TYPES HIS ADDRESS MORE CLEARLY THAN HE TYPES EVERYTHING ELSE. FURTHERMORE, YOU ARE NOT NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST. YOU ARE NOT A MEDICAL DOCTOR. YOU ARE NOT EVEN QUALIFIED TO DIAGNOSE A HANGNAIL. THUS....YOU HAVE NO EARTHLY IDEA WHY HE HASN'T FOLLOWED YOUR ADVICE. PERHAPS HE IS INCAPABLE OF FOLLOWING IT RATHER THAN UNWILLING. WHY THEN DO YOU AND THE OTHER GUILTY PARTIES KEEP GIVING HIM A BUNCH OF GRIEF WITH YOUR TIRESOME, PREDICTABLE, CONSDESCENDING AND OBVIOUSLY INEFFECTUAL "TOUGH LOVE" STYLE LECTURES? SO F**KING WHAT IF HE JUST WANTS TO COMPLAIN OR VENT? WHAT DO YOU CARE? WHILE SUCH THINGS MAY BE MORE APPROPRIATE IN THE HAVEN, PLENTY OF PEOPLE COMPLAIN/VENT IN THIS FORUM TOO AND NOBODY SEEMS TO MIND ALL THAT MUCH. IF YOU ARE TIRED OF HIS COMPLAINING/VENTING, THEN THE SOLUTION IS SO PAINFULLY OBVIOUS I FEEL LIKE AN IDIOT FOR EVEN SUGGESTING THAT THERE IS ONE. SO YOU HAVE BEEN IN HIS SITUATION EH? REALLY? LET'S ASSUME HE'S TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT EVERYTHING HERE. SO YOU HAVE BEEN HOMELESS FOR YEARS ON END? YOU HAVE BEEN HOMELESS WITH A DIABETIC FOOT WOUND? YOU HAVE BEEN HOMELESS AT THE AGE OF 50 RATHER THAN IN YOUR LATE 20'S? YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO FAMILY WHO GIVES A RAT'S A** ABOUT YOU? ARE YOU SO SURE YOU HAVE ALL THE CONDITIONS (NEUROLOGICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL OR PHYSICAL) HE MAY HAVE OR CONDITIONS WHICH ARE EQUALLY SERIOUS? IOW, STOP ACTING LIKE YOU'RE SO CERTAIN YOU'VE WALKED IN SOMEONE ELSE'S SHOES JUST SO YOU CAN HAVE CHEAP SATISFACTION OF CLAIMING YOU MANAGED THINGS BETTER WHEN YOU WERE WALKING IN THEM. OH...AND WHILE YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN HOMELESS FOR A SPELL, I'M NOT SO SURE ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN GIVING HIM THE THIRD DEGREE HAS BEEN.


Got it?

AHHHH! All Caps and bold too.

Sensory overload. Shutting down in

3

2

1

My guess is, its because you cannot see it. Normal (simple) mundane people, your everyday person in society who makes life hard for everyone else and is all about me me me. (sorry i obviously have a distaste for the normal public) These people will only see what is easily seen. A physical disability manifests itself in a visual way, anything that other people can not imagine must therefor not be true. People are just un empathetic, they think that all their success lies within their ability and not the situation they were presented with that allows them to focus their efforts on these abilities and the task at hand. We see and feel thing's that are totally alien to normies, and because of that they don't believe, they are scared or are unsure of what to think about the disability. I had a friend, an ex friend who used to tell me all the time that he believed all fat people were fat because they were lazy, stupid individuals. What kind of arrogant moron can say he does not believe in mental conditions? well to be exact, that kind of arrogant moron. The day i kicked his ass out of my house was the day he tried to make a joke and picked on one of my flaws. I would never do it, but a lot of the time i imagine ripping one of these normal a holes from their car and beating them to hospital status. Remember these are the same people that are afraid of marijuana but totally condone life destroying alchohol. These are the same people that see a commercial for starving children and either change the channel or comment on it. These are the same people that target, label and make individuals with problems feel inadequate. These are the most bland, uninteresting, self absorbed, arrogant, ignorant war making people on the face of the earth. These people take up majority of the population and cover every city, town and state within the united states. These people will also not question anything, they will follow the news like it is the law and fail to form opinions for themselves. Welcome to humanity, humanity was only good to the earth in populations of about 4000 total. After that, we decided to ruin everything we touched.

ps. these are my opinions, i guess i am opinionated, if you don't like it throw it away.

You make many good points and I certainly do not disagree, yet there is a significant difference here: Physical disabilities do not typically render people a bit short in the social department. So then, concerning this:


... in the same kinds of civil ways that have worked for the physically disabled.