Autism

Eh. I disagree. I feel like this is trying to gatekeep autism or imply that autism is only a big deal if you’re high support needs. Replace “autism” with any other thing and you’ll see what I mean: “I don’t think depressed people should say they’re depressed if they’re not suicidal” “Your leg isn’t really broken unless it was a compound fracture. Hairline fractures don’t count” “Yeah you have trauma but you can’t have PTSD unless you went through war” ASD is a spectrum because it presents so differently in people, but just because someone is evaluated at Level 1 doesn’t mean they’re not “as autistic” as a Level 3, it just means they don’t have as high of support needs. Just my opinion. More on reddit.com

For me, oddly enough, it was a debate I got into here on Reddit (i was using a now deleted profile). It was years ago. I got caught up in a stupid flame war over something or another with an autistic person. At the time, because of my age, I thought autism was limited to those with heavy support needs and there was no such thing as type 1. So I debated the existence of functional people on the spectrum. In the debate, everything ran along the lines of: Her: There are a lot signs, like I don't look people in the eye. Me: That's just being shy, I don't look people in the eye either. Her: Well, I miss social clues and don't understand a lot of jokes. Me: So what? Humor is subjective. I don't understand a lot of jokes either. And I'm not autistic. Her: It's hard for me to understand why other people do what they do. Me: So what? people are weird. I don't know why anyone does anything, but that's how it is for everyone. And so on. Finally, she said that maybe I was autistic. I thought this was a final shove off and it really got under my skin. So, to prove she was wrong about everything, I started googling things. Man, everything I read was like a hammer hitting my heart. Never fitting in, a very serious identity crisis, being much more sensitive to sensory inputs than other people seemed to be, scripting conversations, masking, pretending to be characters in a movie, always being exhausted, even down to the walking on toes, flat monotone speech (I had a girlfriend who liked me to talk her to sleep at night because it was so monotone that it knocked her out.) and a notable high pain tolerance (I broke my wrist and didn't go to the doctor or miss a day of work in a factory. Don't get me wrong- it hurt, but not bad enough to spend money on.) Poor hygiene because I just forget. Special interests (I love weaving data into information- doesn't matter if its business stuff or political stuff or historical interconnections. I just like how it all interacts and twists) meaning more than people. I had a lot going on. It was the first time I'd ever read people having the same experiences I was having. You just can't believe the emotional response. I felt like my whole life was laid open. All the humiliations and confusion. All the isolation. I have always felt like I was something different and lesser than everyone else. And whenever I relaxed with friends and showed my true self- well, then they just disappeared. I always had to be the one who would listen but never talked. Would work through their problems, but if I brought up something of my own- nope. (They were never friends- just people who got an ego kick out of my fawning over them) I felt like I was on a planet of selfish insane people who just want to humiliate me. School was a waking nightmare, college was fun, career has been as bad as high school. I just never understood what I did to piss everyone off. My actions were just like everyone else's- why in hell was I catching shit for it? I really grew to hate people. And I would cone on Reddit sometimes and troll people. (This where the post comes full circle) So, that is the ugly round about way I learned about what was happening to me. More on reddit.com

autism impacts every kid differently. It's not good or bad it just is... Your kid is still the same person pre and post diagnosis but now you have a better understanding of how to help them grow and learn. That's really the best way to look at it. More on reddit.com

There’s absolutely the measurable phenomenon of cognitive reserve that is directly correlated with ability to cope with various mental disorders. When I looked it up I was more concerned with bipolar disorder but I think it’s correlated with other things as well. The theory is, your childhood experiences, educational attainment, and innate abilities give you sort of a “well” to draw on, so when you have a disorder that messes with cognitive functioning, you’ve got more to draw on so it takes longer before you completely fall apart. For ASD, which doesn’t necessarily mess with cognitive functioning in the same way a mood disorder does but certainly messes with executive functioning, I imagine that having higher cognitive reserve allows for longer and more effective masking. I had been trying to figure out the difference between me and my clients. I work with disabled folks (disabled to the point they can’t work) - but the thing is, I’ve seen my own medical records and my conditions in combination are every bit as severe as some of theirs (not even counting ASD, which has never been formally diagnosed). So what’s the difference? Why am I gainfully employed and completely fine with it (most of the time) but they need disability benefits? Trying to solve that problem led me to cognitive reserve. Basically, it boils down to I’m crazy smart and stupid privileged so I’ve got larger cognitive reserve than most so it’s like a bigger buffer before I completely lose control. Extremely unfair that brains work like that but there are peer-reviewed studies; it’s a real phenomenon; and it’s objectively measurable. More on reddit.com