Thread: What has Playing by the Rules gotten Autistics?

How I 1st got involved with Autism Self-Advocacy & the Autism Self-Advocacy Network



My 1st attempts at building bridges with the Autism establishment.



Invitations to annual conference, as well as weekly & monthly meetings.

Well, Dustin Hoffman won an Oscar so there's that.

Originally Posted by chazoe60

Well, Dustin Hoffman won an Oscar so there's that.

If the character he played was an accurate representation of all Autistics, then there would be no Autistic self-advocates.

I'm just messing with you.

Originally Posted by FanInAZ

If the character he played was an accurate representation of all Autistics, then there would be no Autistic self-advocates.

While i know Chazoe60 was only joking - Is that not part of the problem - the spectrum is so large, many people live their whole lives without a diagnosis or understanding why they appear so left brain dominant, these are the people that never come to the attention of the public despite how their social functioning is affected. On the other hand, a severely autistic character in a film makes people pay attention - but this leaves them with the belief that the character is a true representation of ASD.

Originally Posted by chazoe60

I'm just messing with you.

Originally Posted by daveaitken18

While i know Chazoe60 was only joking - Is that not part of the problem - the spectrum is so large, many people live their whole lives without a diagnosis or understanding why they appear so left brain dominant, these are the people that never come to the attention of the public despite how their social functioning is affected. On the other hand, a severely autistic character in a film makes people pay attention - but this leaves them with the belief that the character is a true representation of ASD.

I'll admit that I'm a little sensitive due to the universal denial of Autistic self-expression. Nevertheless, here is a SHORT list of SOME of the grievances of the Autistic self-advocates:

1) Teachers being taught to make erroneous assumptions about Autistics that constitute "Institutional Discrimination.

2) Autistics are denied the opportunity to contribute their unique insights about themselves in order to challenge societal perceptions.

3) The Autism "employment experts" are completely wrong about why Autistics struggle maintaining employment.

4) About 25% of "high functioning" Autistics are contemplating suicide BEFORE they become teenagers.

Originally Posted by FanInAZ

4) About 25% of "high functioning" Autistics are contemplating suicide BEFORE they become teenagers.

Wow I never knew that. Do you know the main reason - I am guessing social exclusion?

I also read that Autistics made significant creative and mathematical breakthroughs when human culture was in its infancy and that without their contribution our world would be a less advanced place.

Originally Posted by FanInAZ

4) About 25% of "high functioning" Autistics are contemplating suicide BEFORE they become teenagers.

Tell me more.

Originally Posted by daveaitken18

Wow I never knew that. Do you know the main reason - I am guessing social exclusion?

Social exclusion & extreme bullying are just the tip of the iceberg. Use your favorite search engine & type in the word: Autism, then look at the 1st 20 or so hits. You'll find that the "experts" judging us by how we function in compulsory activities & venues (ex: As children, how we function in classroom & playground settings. As adults, our ability to hold a job). As far as our unique strengths, you'll find few mentions of them. In fact, so of our greatest strengths are twisted into "abnormalities." The best example of this is labeling our unique special interests that we desire to learn about to far greater extent then is considered "normal" as "obsessive compulsive" & "narrow focuses/interests."

Originally Posted by daveaitken18

I also read that Autistics made significant creative and mathematical breakthroughs when human culture was in its infancy and that without their contribution our world would be a less advanced place.

Most, if not all, of the greatest minds in the history of mankind exhibits atypical social behavior.

Originally Posted by FanInAZ

3) The Autism "employment experts" are completely wrong about why Autistics struggle maintaining employment.

Please excuse my ignorance - but I am interested in this.

What reasons do these so called experts suggest and what do you think are the real reasons.

Originally Posted by daveaitken18

Please excuse my ignorance - but I am interested in this.

What reasons do these so called experts suggest and what do you think are the real reasons.

I'm an Autistic Self-Advocate, my mission is to answer any & all questions about Autism to the best of my ability. So keep them coming. As far as this question, its too lengthy for me to type out. However, I'm making a 2 video that will answer this question.

Having experienced part of this, I can tell you another problem you face...or that Autism in general faces. The complete saturation of the problem as a whole. I dated a girl once who had a son. When I first met the kid, I thought he was a little coddled and pampered, but I only had the way I was raising my kids to base that on. As time went on, her and her ex-husband kept pampering him more and more as he acted out. They were convinced that he had a "problem", so they sought medical attention. I held back my opinion for the most part, but when it came up I just told her to try disciplining him from time to time and see what happened. That fell on deaf ears. Eventually they took him to enough doctors that one of them eventually told them he was autistic. Then it all went downhill from there. They started medicating him damn near into a coma and contiued to treat him like he was special needs. This went on for a few years. This woman moved away from where she previously lived and left her son behind because of the care she thought he needed and because she didnt want to break routines. So the boy stayed with his father, who used GTA and XBox in general as a babysitter for a 9-10-11 year old boy. The whole thing affected her relationship with me as well because her son was treated differently than mine and it was tough to have our kids around each other because of this. I started paying attention to m kids friends and teammates and noticed they all acted the same way...they were just disciplined and treated like normal kids.

Eventually, she took him off the meds and started disciplining him and of course he acted out against it and eventually developed a hatred for her. The kid is 16 now and about a year or so ago, they determined he was mis-diagnosed. Over the last few years, he has been in trouble for breaking into a home...has been to a psychiatric ward...and has been in trouble for fighting in school.

Basically, this is a long way to go about saying that too many parents are lazy and cant accept that their children arent perfect and they look for excuses for them. I'll be honest. If someone put 100 people in front of me and told me all of them were autistic, I'd put my money on the fact that maybe 20 of them actually were. Every day we can look and see the word autism used in daily situations and it completely dilutes the problem and we become numb to it. So, if I were truly autistic or my child were truly autistic, I think my battle would first be to make sure people understood it IS an actual problem that needs attention. Because right now, I just dont think too many people put much weight into it.

How is autism diagnosed? What allows one doctor to say yes, and another no? That sounds like a poor method of diagnosis. With something like strep, you got it or you don't.

I'm uninformed on the topic of autism, but given I plan to become a teacher I figure I should probably get edumacated on it. Few questions:

What is Autism? What does it look like, how does one identify it, how does it impair a person, how does it assist a person, what obstacles do autistics face that others don't? How should they be treated in regards to their autistic condition?

Its going to take me some time to either write of record answers to these questions because they're deep in nature. So let me start off by giving you the link the the 1st edition to a book that I've written & put on line as public domain.

http://aacphoenix.com/putting-the-au...r/1st-edition/

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

How is autism diagnosed? What allows one doctor to say yes, and another no? That sounds like a poor method of diagnosis. With something like strep, you got it or you don't.

Originally Posted by CoachChaz

If someone put 100 people in front of me and told me all of them were autistic, I'd put my money on the fact that maybe 20 of them actually were.

If you put together 100 people who are supposedly "normal," 20 of them will be Autistic.

The problems are:

1) No matter how good the "experts" are or are not at recognizing Autism, its impossible to test every child. Therefore, they're not called in until the parents sound the alarm. To one extreme, you have parents who rush their child to the ER every time they sneeze. To the other, you have parents who are in complete denial about their child(ren)'s struggles.

2) Many people, especially since the advent of the internet, are way over confident in their ability to “educate” themselves on very complex subjects without the guidance of those who are truly knowledgeable on the subject. Such individual are capable of coming up with totally warped understanding of such subject.

3) The vaccine/environmental cause crusaders have taken over most, if not all, of the most prominent Autism organizations. They’ve convinced parents that their child loss of language & social skills automatically constitute an Autism diagnosis. The diagnostic criteria of the DSM V is far more complex than that. Let make it clear that I’m not doubting the observations that parents have made about the extreme side effects that many children have had from being vaccinated. I’m questioning whether or not these side effects warrant an Autism diagnosis.

The most extreme elements are so determined to make this “epidemic” look as horrendous as possible that they even inflate what they claim the real rate of Autism is. I just got done spending time trying to find one of their articles, but they claim the “true” rate of Autism isn’t 1/68 like the CDC says, but something like 1/29.