Autism Prevention- closer than we may think?

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Simon Baron-Cohen's "extreme male brain" hypothesis might not even apply to the most severely disabled autistic people, who would be unable to take the tests involved in his studies.

IMO the most severely disabling kinds of autism may be worth trying to prevent, but NOT the (more numerous) kinds of autism that come with strengths as well as disability.

Luckily, the kinds of autism for which recent genetics-based research shows the most promise (regarding possible treatments/prevention) also happen to be, at least for the most part, among the most severely disabling kinds of autism.

I am against any kind of "autism prevention" that risks preventing strengths as well as disability. I am also against any kind of "autism prevention" whose main goal is simply fit people into arbitrary cultural norms.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 21 Oct 2020, 4:21 am, edited 3 times in total.

Hah.

While systemizing aptitude reasonates with my case, I'd say intense world hypothesis reasonate more with the extreme male-brain apparent traits as a compensation/interpretation/reaction of those who are capable of expressing said traits.

Some off the top of my head questions.

1) How would you describe the difference between impairment and disablility?
2)What do people gain from pursuing an ASD diagnosis when they don't think they have anything wrong with them?

Good question:

1. It’s a bit of a gray area would say an impairment is something that can be got round like having short sighted eyesight, you can wear glasses for, or something that doesn’t effect critical elements of your being like having a bad back for example. You may not be able to lift heavy items or run and it may cause pain but it’s not the end of the world.

Disability is something that effects some critical feature of being human like walking, talking executive functioning that may prevent independent living for example. Even here boundaries can be a gray area -is a 90 year old disabled because they can’t walk without help. No because it’s normal for a 90 year old to have difficulties walking but not normal for a 20 year old. So what’s a disability in a 20 year old is not in a 90 year old

2. Don’t know some people with normal childhoods may just jump on a label to explain their problems in life, without looking for other obvious explanations.

The term “ everyone is on the spectrum somewhere” is kind of fashionable these days with some people. They may simply be ignorant to what real autism looks like too.

They may be NTs simply looking for special treatment or sympathy. Your guess is as good as mine.

My own guess isn't just a mass special snowflake syndrome or some go back to teenage moment wish fulfillment.

But something went awry over those politically correct stuff or whatever that section of advocacy narrative was in attempt to counter dehumanization.
Likely from the US than UK. Or at least where it escalated than where it originated.



Thankfully? Contexts of the same narratives were taken differently here.

In the social model of disability, an impairment is anything that potentially causes difficulty for a person, whereas a disability is an impairment that is not accommodated. Example: near-sightedness is an impairment; it becomes a disability only if suitable glasses are not available. Glasses are not a cure for near-sightedness; they just make near-sightedness a lot easier to live with. (A cure would involve some expensive -- and probably risky -- procedure to re-shape the lenses of one's eyes.)


I doubt that anyone who pursues an ASD diagnosis thinks they don't have "anything wrong with them," at least in the sense of having no impairment. However, many of us do feel: (1) that our autistic impairments are tied together with our strengths/talents, and that a "cure" for the former would risk damaging the latter, and/or (2) that any attempted "cure" would entail such a radical personality change that we would no longer be the same person. (EDIT: Some autistic people might say they have "nothing wrong with them" in the sense of rejecting a dehumanizing popular stereotype.)

Perhaps what you meant to ask is why someone who doesn't want a cure would seek a diagnosis? Possible reasons include: (1) Self-knowledge, e.g. to determine whether one does indeed innnately have unusual social difficulty, vs. whether simply trying harder could enable one to fit comfortably into NT social norms. (2) To gain access to services to help one figure out ways to work around one's difficulties. (3) To gain a legal right to receive accommodations.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 21 Oct 2020, 1:17 pm, edited 3 times in total.

My mum made me have one.

She didn't even think there was something wrong with me.

She just thought that modern secondary schools aren't set up for introverted, clever but not very 'grown up' kids like I was.

So having someone there to help me - as well as helping with stuff that was wrong like my dyspraxia - was useful and for that I needed a diagnosis.

When she told me I was autistic it was very much as a 'there is nothing wrong with you but this is why you think differently to some other people, here is a list of your strengths' thing.

I still hated it cos she left it til I was being bullied to inform me.

She should've told me as soon as she knew.

She put off finding out herself. She didn't like the idea of my personality being diagnosable. And my main disability was dyspraxia and at a very young age was verbal dyspraxia. These things needed fixing - she had no time to fix my personality.

She always tells me she prefers me to have my personality than be like my cousins. As teens, my cousins had little to do with my auntie except coming to her when they fell out with this friend or that friend. I stayed loyal to mum and was only friends with people who shared interests in common.

Some people have been told all their lives they're 'weird'. They see it as better to be 'autistic with a diagnosis' than be 'weird'. (Although personally I prefer the 'nerd' label...) These people do think there's something wrong with them - just cos they're different. I find that sad and that's why we need a self acceptance movement.

Self-acceptance begins with 'Self', and not with blaming others.

May I know something?

How much does the idea of self acceptable contradict with other current autism movements from where you guys came from so far?


Because from where I came from, self acceptance overall is easier because the culture here processes, interprets and explores the idea of identities and labels rather differently...