Rant - ugh. Autism is behavioural, apparently.

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I just need to rant. I hope you don't mind but I'm sure some of you will understand..

There seems to be complete misconceptions about Autism with some people.

I have a good friend and as lovely as he is, his views on Autism annoys me a lot. We were sitting with an Autistic friend and my NT friend kept trying to challenge him about his habits. He (My NT friend) kept questioning him on why cannot he handle it when supermarkets change their stock location around on the shop floor? My Aspie friend was becoming increasingly aggravated by my friends seeming inability to understand that this is a mechanism by which he learns and works with.

I love my friend's company but when we talk about Autism he always seems to be of the idea that it is pretty much a psychological phenomena and that Autism can be 'outgrown' and that it's all in the mind. It aggravates me a lot. I level with him and say 'well, yes, to a degree there are behavioral habits that can be worked on, but Autism cannot be outgrown or gotten rid of on the basis that it is purely psychological'.

Things like this really aggravate me. I think it is ignorance. And far too much based on conspiracy theories. And it makes me angry and upset. I'm glad that there has been a recent study conducted on the whole 'Vaccines create Autism' thing. It was done in Australia with over 1 million people involved and there was absolutely no correlation between vaccines and Autism.

I feel like screaming at my friend 'Empirical evidence! Science! Research! Check those out and get back to me on your opinion that Autism is a psychological development from bad upbringings'.

Gah!

Apologies for my rant. I needed to let it out. I seem to be very aggravated at the stupidity of people today.

No, it's not behavioral. Does it affect behavior though, absolutely.

I get this form a really good friend online. in a roundabout way he says because he thinks i'm so smart i'll "get better". like eventually i'll recuperate and become nt. it doesn't make me mad or anything. but that's kinda the thinking. which Autism Speaks helps promote

Autism is a "came that way out of the box" thing.

We can adapt over time (with a lot of practice) to function more effectively in an NT world but it's not a cure (don't want a cure anyhow) but a learned adaptation.

As my psychologist told me "you do a half-decent job of covering your autism..."

You're dealing with sentimentality within sentimentality, all of it offensive. There are a lot of people who can't tolerate the idea that anyone they care for might have anything "tragic" in their lives as a permanent condition, and they see anything not advertised as Great Way to Live as tragic, also worthy of pity and/or scorn. They see refusing to admit the realities as an act of friendship and loyalty, because otherwise they'd be saying you're one of "those" people. And at bottom it's squeamishness. They can't tolerate the idea that something very difficult might never improve.

If you call them out on this hard enough, they'll stop. And if they're at all honest with themselves, they'll admit that it's because they can't handle these things -- and that this is their problem, not yours.

It's also a cultural thing. American culture has a very difficult time with the idea of hardship as a permanent condition. Often the culture hands the solution off to Jesus (pie in the sky by and by); the secular religion is bootstraps. It's a massive pain in the ass and cruel to anyone who suffers with longterm anything. Even aging isn't really allowed. And we are nearly devoid of any of the usual humor, music, philosophy, poetry, etc. that people in less batshit-for-sunshine cultures have.

I was having a conversation with a woman last winter who said to me, "You have Asperger's? Shouldn't you have outgrown that by now?" I should have responded with "You're an idiot. Shouldn't you have outgrown that by now?"

Last edited by skibum on 20 May 2014, 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My response would be something like "No it doesn't work that way. You obviously don't know anything about autism. Why do you have an opinion about something you know nothing about?"

It would be nice if autism was purely psychological or bad habits but sadly this is not the case. Autism is a developmental disorder where the brain grows to quickly when were young. There is an overgrowth of neurons which are also smaller in size throughout the brain especially in the sensory areas. This explains our sensitivity issues very nicely. Most symptoms are in some way a direct result of oversensitivity.

So uhh yeah. Tell him that.

Last edited by Dreycrux on 20 May 2014, 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Oy, I can certainly see how that mindset can be annoying.

The current, most accepted theory is it is caused by an abnormality in brain development. Its more then a theory now actually, as there is I believe physical evidence showing up in the latest studies. But its not all sorted out yet and there are a lot of studies being done currently (Something like over 400 last year alone, and that is a hell of a lot to be done on one subject).

So part of the problem is that there has not been a hard physical cause identified up to now and although there is breakthrough progress being made today, it is still not totally solved. This leaves people, like your friend, room to speculate and come to their own conclusions.

Another obstacle (as far as people understanding autism) is that it is often high functioning and the obvious problems are subtle and not much different from other psychological or emotional conditions.

To truly educate your friend on the true state of affairs with autism, one of two things needs to happen. He has to survey the subject enough to process all the info available or you do to the point where you can explain the condition in detail.

Btw, your friend is clearly repeatedly harassing the person with autism, and perhaps bullying as well.

Keep defending your AS friend. He probably gets that kind of thing from a lot of people, and he needs to know that some people don't believe that crap, know he's doing the best he can, and don't mind if he hates it when supermarkets move their merchandise around.

I spoke briefly with a psychotherapist about this, just a few days ago, her view was a mixed up understanding, as I see it. She believed that many aspects of ASD are behavioural or personality, and indicated choice. I explained that ASD is due to hard wiring, that it is part of your identity as a person, and the formation of your personality is influenced by your experiences, be they ASD, NT, Allistic. That it is not a choice.
I think she believed the undesirable outcomes of your environment is something you can choose to eliminate. This is a tall order for anyone.
I know this person socially, she is highly educated, her view shocked me as I expected that her 13 years in social science education, would have encouraged a more open perspective. If she has this view at an expert level, what hope is there for the lay man?

I think people don't understand ASD for many reasons; because it is viewed as a 'condition' that is *treatable with medication. The term treatable meaning to most IMO, that the noticeable undesirable effects will disappear with the right medication.
Then, there is the realisation that each person has a unique experience of ASD, that its not a condition, its much more complex, that you can't categorise a whole group with one understanding.

People have tolerance for visible disabilities, sometimes simply because its notably bigoted to be intolerant to what others can see. With education people will have the same regard for invisible disabilities, i hope your NT friend will develop this understanding with time, and indeed patience on everyones part. Good luck

Love that, Skibum.

I think my response would be:

"Ouch. Your ignorance is showing".

This made me laugh!

Hi Bumble.

I hear the weather's been nice in England.

Yes but I would enjoy it more if the neighbours didn't gossip about me when I was in earshot and sat outside trying to get my much needed Vitamin D. I know they think I am weird due to my upsets when I have them (overloads, meltdowns whatever one wants to call them) but I can hear and understand every word they are saying.

Calling me weird cow and doing things like gossiping about the fact that I have no carpet or anything in my house just tiles (for various reasons including the fact that I am waiting for my walls to be replastered by the landlord and its not really worth putting anything down or redecorating until they have done that through to the fact that I don't work right now and am not made of money plus what is wrong with tiles anyway?) is not on when I am trying to improve the depression I am suffering from that is being caused by my social situation and peoples sh***y social behaviour towards me.

I need to hear their gossip like I need a hole in my head.


And the gossipy neighbour was wrong, I actually have rugs in at least one of the rooms (the one I sit in most, I stay out of the front room mostly due to the plaster being bad in there. It's safe but just does not look nice as it is coming away from the wall. The landlord hired cowboys to do the original job and they did not do it properly apparently. It is cracked, dead and needs to be redone) so they can bugger off.

Soon it will be the talk of the vilage that I have NO carpets or anything though...

I really hate this sh***y backwards village.

One more insult and I am reporting to the housing association as antisocial behaviour. I have a right to sit in my garden without feeling like I am being verbally assaulted by people and their gossip. I'd appreciate it if they at least kept it out of the reach of my hearing range.