Hello everyone. I decided to start reading and posting here because I want to learn more from the broader perspective of the neurodiverse community, and because I have a diagnosis of ASD myself. Apologies in advance for the long intro.
Quick facts: I’m an adult (early 30s), married, and a PhD candidate. My dissertation topic involves autism research, and it is research I would love to continue with in the future, although I would also just love to teach as well. I have been held back in my progress quite a bit by being a “homebody” and not attending the weekly departmental seminars and get-togethers, so I seriously wonder if I will be employable when I graduate in the next semester or so, but I am told by my committee that my research is innovative and interdisciplinary.
In terms of my diagnosis: I am high-functioning, and was less so as a small child. First IQ test at 5 or 6 was quite low, although I didn’t get formally diagnosed until I was a pre-teen. Despite this I was in mainstream classes with NT peers, some public school, some private school. Once I got diagnosed as a pre-teen, I got a little bit of social skills training that I don’t remember much of. It did help me immensely in terms of 1) making a conscious effort for eye contact, which I didn’t realize until that point was something I literally never engaged in, and 2) making me just more aware of my thought processes and how I relate to others on a more “meta” level. This allowed me to develop my own coping mechanisms as I grew up, and I’m not sure that I would rate a diagnosis if I went in to a specialist today, even though these mechanisms require conscious effort.
I consider myself quite lucky. I was never ostracized while young, and the most isolation I had was in high school (we moved to a new state halfway through my freshman year, which would be disruptive to anyone). Even so, I was still very active in my youth group and was friends in that context with popular kids who otherwise didn’t really talk to me at school. I also was never bullied or made to think I was lesser, however, and a good deal of my isolation was probably due to my adherence to punk/skater culture in the Deep South. I found I had a love of writing and met my eventual wife through that, and did well academically (except in math/science classes; I am definitely language-oriented).
With all that out of the way (whew! Am I the only one who feels like I need to supply a lot of context?), I do want to go ahead and say that I never really connected with others on the spectrum growing up, and never sought out autism communities online. I obviously have an interest (otherwise why would I be doing dissertation research in autism?), and I’m extremely aware of the notion of “communities of practice” that form around hobbies, interests, and shared experiences and backgrounds, but for some reason never made the logical connection to find out more about the community of practice surrounding those with diagnoses of AS or ASD or PDD, etc. As a result, I find when browsing this site that I am wholly unaware of terminology taken for granted by the members here. As I am writing a dissertation, I realize that I am adopting the terminology of articles relating to social science and cognition in their approach to autism, but I am ignorant of the labels preferred by the autism community!
So I’ve come here to learn, and to share. I don’t feel that it would be wholly right to write a dissertation about individuals with ASD without being able to write in a manner that is sensitive to the broader community. I appreciate in advance any guidance I receive from the members here, and hope some people could point me in the direction of some good resources and references related to this.
31 Mar 2019, 9:09 am
