Old-Dutch Or so say you. How about: there’s a natural occurring variation on neurotypes that gives rise to different profiles in sensory processing, information processing and thinking. As such, this gives rise to a different way of being and experiencing life as well as the divergence in needs that come with these differences.
People who still pathologise neurodivergences such as adhd or autism need to open their mind a bit more and maybe talk with (and fucking believe) the stories and experiences that neurodivergents have to share themselves about their way of being and their lived experiences. For the ones who have the capacity to do so that is.
But no, instead to neurotypicals these experiences sound unbelievable and instead we are gaslit to the fucking sun and back. They think they know better. It’s like monkeys going on a tangent to a fish about what it’s like to be a fish.
You say “there is nothing wrong with finding the thing that causes autism”
To what end? That leans on the premise that it is a pathology in the first place. Granted, there are individuals that have major support needs and will always rely heavily on the care of others, but believe me: there are millions and millions of us out there that are disabled by the way society is structured and there is no room for us, no accommodation to let us work with out nature instead of against it. Causing many of us to burn out multiple times in our lives, get abused , ridiculed othered etc
We all saw what happened in the pandemic when society had to shift a little bit and people were asked to do things that were unnatural to them: social distance, isolating, think about each social interaction because of possible infection etc etc. After just 4 months people were already reporting deterioration of their mental health, rise in depression, anxiety etc etc.
How do you think those people would fair after 3 years of that, three years fighting their own natural way of being and their natural needs? How about for the rest of their lives?
Sounds dramatic? Welcome to the fucking reality of adult autistics who are “high functioning enough” to have to deal with what society expects of us and what we have to do and put up with if we want to be independent and provide for ourselves.
No we can’t all work in IT.. We do have varying interests and skillsets.
Researching what “causes autism”? Giving off that early 20th century vibe when anything but heterosexuality was pathologized and classed as deviant or a disorder..
Same problem I have with how nowadays neurodivergent people are still treated by institutions, individuals and society as a whole.
To begin with the language used. It all still harkens back and leans on the ignorant early days of Asperger’s research. Would you say a gay person has gayism? Or simply he/she IS gay?
What’s happening now in the US is all in a misinformed, fascistic eugenics attempt to eradicate all that is ‘other’ that is ‘different’ and most of all deviant according to their own beliefs and ideals of course.
