Fear of autism

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People fear the unknown (the dark is much scarier than anything in it), and right now autism is still an unknown to most people.

It's like homosexuality used to be: once upon a time gay men were an unknown and therefore potentially very threatening. Then one day people figured out that gay men are good at interior decor and helping people dress well, and all of a sudden they weren't a threat any more, just these people who are different in a quantifiable way. I think that if autism could be explained in accurate dry technical terms (e.g. language/communication deficits) instead of being "mysterious" all the time, a lot of the fear would go away and we'd just be people with a specific set of deficits, who are otherwise just people same as everyone else.

We need more basic research, and less fear mongering from researchers and others. Give it time.

A reality TV show where autistic people do whatever it is we tend to be good at might help, but stereotypes only work if they're accurate, so I have no idea what it would be. High tech isn't it, but organizing closets might be (lining objects up in rows instead of playing with them ).

I personally think that the autism awareness efforts, from groups like Autism Speaks, have fed the fear. The terminology is fear based. Stolen children, videos of violent outbursts. I never feared the possibility of an autistic diagnosis in one of my children like current new parents do. It was an unknown, but the autistics I held in my vision were sweet. I had not been confronted with the harsher possibilites. And I think it was better that way. Why fear what you cannot control? Why not just get to know your baby, instead of obsessing over every little warning sign?

Information can and should be a good thing, but what has been sent out into the broader world is the WRONG information, for the goal isn't to help the kids, but to raise research dollars. For that goal, fear works well. But for actually helping the kids? A more balanced perspective would be far better.

I agree. I don't think autistic children have been "stolen away," and that kind of language just interferes with a parent's ability to accept their children as they are.

There was an article on NLD that was posted here recently that was in general a great article, except that it referred to people with NLD as "victims," which I found extremely offensive. I don't consider myself a "victim" of NLD. Sure, my NLD causes a lot of problems in my everyday life, but it also gave me awesome verbal ability as well as an ability to think very creatively. NLD is a part of me, the good and the bad, not some evil, external force that terrorizes me. Unfortunately, kids with autism are often seen the same way, as "victims," especially by parents who believe their kids are "mercury-poisoned."

I have yet to personally meet someone who fears the term autism.

I only hear that fear of the word from Americans. Since the US is kind of far away... nobody here takes notice of what the US think except me and a few other autistic people.

So, I think the fear of autism, the name, the label, might be American. Maybe. It's not European from what I can tell.

We don't have odd video spots on ASDs and such. And we don't fear autism rates rising either. We don't think autism is an epidemic. Maybe it is in the US... or we just haven't noticed yet.