15/08/2019

#Autism #Asperger #Aspie #Aspies #ASD #AutismSyndromDisorder #AutisticSpectrum #Neurodiversity

There is so much people ignore about autism, and so many misconceptions spread even by so-called autism professionals.

Autism without verbal or intellectual deficiency, - Asperger -, is mainly known by people in the form more easily diagnosed. A form that tends to be associated with men, whereas a different way of being autistic (beyond the fact that each autistic person is very individual in their way of experiencing and expressing their autism - which is another not well known factor) associated with women is way less easily diagnosed and remains poorly understood.

But what is even more poorly understood, - and many lose the fight facing the ignorance of pseudo autistic experts who think their knowledge is all and they can dismiss the expertise they don't have as NT (neurotypicals) that autistic individuals have -, is that the so-called male autism can be found in some women (who tend to be then the ones best diagnosed) and vice versa the so-called female autism tend to be found in some men (who tend to be the least diagnosed autistic individuals of all, because female autism is misunderstood and the gender binary conception of autism is building a wall where if you present as male and have a female form of autism, then you are dismissed for not being autistic at all). Note that the autism associated with women tends to be less diagnosed and understood because it allows individuals (both female, male and non-binary) to adapt way more their presented behaviours and skills (which doesn't mean that their real skills, their experience, and the invisible autistic cost they pay for those adaptations isn't there).

Other misconceptions include thinking that autism is just about hyper, like hyper sensory and hyper emotional input. It can also be about hypo sensory and hypo emotional input. It usually is a mix of hyper on certain things and hypo on others things. Someone can have a hypo sensitivity to pain leading them not to feel teeth aches until the teeth are already damaged and need to be taken off (using a real example I know of), while having a hyper sensitivity to smell which makes very difficult even crossing someone in the street with perfume or cologne (a constant casual attack I experience myself with more or less great disturbances).

And this mix hyper/hypo can also be seen in behaviours. Like the typical myth that all Aspies can't look in the eyes. Beside the fact that you can learn over time to do so, and the fact that some look at other parts of your face to give the illusion of looking in the eyes, some autistic individuals have the opposite issue: staring and not knowing when to break eye contact.

Hyper/hypo is also found in imagination. Autistic individuals tend to be seen as lacking imagination. But it can be either way. Some can have

And the list goes on...