alt Hacker NewsI will admit that I stopped reading the article because I think the article is completely mixing things up and honestly just did not feel like reading anymore of it.
I think very few people actually consider it a single condition. To the point that most people that I know, including myself, say that we are "somewhere on the spectrum" or some variant of that.
This isn't a post diagnoses understanding either, it is well understood by anyone I have talked to about this in the last 10ish years? (maybe less, I cant really pinpoint that).
While I feel like there is value for professionals to be more specific about it, from an everyday person prospective I feel like "Autism" is well enough understood to be not just a single thing. Enough so that some phrasing along the lines of "my tism is..." is somewhat commonplace.
The real problem is anti-science people joining the conversation, but splitting up Autism is not going to change that.
Edit: To be very clear here I am not trying to say that most people in general are saying "I am somewhere on the spectrum". I am saying that most people I know which a larger portion of the people I regularly talk to are also diagnosed.
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The reason we say "somewhere on the spectrum" is there are a lot of high functioning people who have a few autism like symptoms that benefit from some autism treatments. You can change the name/diagnosis what you want, but in the end we need to get people the treatment they need.
> I think very few people actually consider it a single condition. To the point that most people that I know, including myself, say that we are "somewhere on the spectrum" or some variant of that.
Couldn't disagree more. The "autism is my super power" movement is borderline offensive to people dealing with severe or low functioning autism.
Dismissive, uninformed comment.
> To the point that most people that I know, including myself, say that we are "somewhere on the spectrum" or some variant of that.
I'm not entirely sure why this comment is apparently so controversial, but I think people are confused by this. My reading of it was that you meant "most autistic people you know", and you yourself are. Maybe I'm wrong?
I disagree completely, the discourse around RFK and "anti-science people" makes it extraordinarily clear that when most people hear "Autism Spectrum Disorder" they think exclusively of common, mild cases where the person has no serious issues existing in society and frequently benefits from their "disorder". They consider discussion of "curing" autism insulting, and challenge the idea that it's a read detriment at all. They do not for a moment think about the more severe cases that require people to have full time caretakers because they are unable to feed themselves.
I can't read the article because of the paywall, but I assume that it is referring the fact that these two extremes need to be treated completely differently and even discussing ASD is made remarkably difficult because these extremes are the same diagnosis.
> Enough so that some phrasing along the lines of "my tism is..." is somewhat commonplace.
In the 1990s we drugged kids (especially young boys) who weren't able to sit still with ADHD medication. Every parent's kid suddenly had ADHD, people would talk about their quirky behavior as "oh its my ADHD".
This generation it's autism, and it's likely over-diagnosed just as much as ADHD. You do it in your own post, attributing a defined, binary, thing as "I am somewhere on the spectrum". If anything, your own post demonstrates the anti-scientific (pop-sci) instagramification of mental illness. You either have some quantity of illness or you don't. You can't just ascribe some quirky, possibly somewhat anti-social, behavior as being on the spectrum. Sadly, this is often used like ADHD self-diagnoses to gain sympathy or social leeway. Much to the disservice of people suffering from the condition.
It comes as no surprise that psychiatry, and medicine in general, is suffering from a massive reproducibility crisis. It's not anti-science to call into question the amount of bunk, p-hacked, corporate funded garbage coming out of even the highest tier of medical grade journals.
Understanding autism as a spectrum does not at all imply that its multiple conditions. Just one with varying severity.