Trying to turn an autistic person into a normal person is like trying to turn somebody like me who is 5 feet 4 inches into a proffessional basketball player. If you try and turn a short guy into an NBA player it might help them at first by getting them more in shape, and a very very few will actually make it (List of Shortest Players in NBA history) but for most after a period of time it will grow increasingly counterproductive, then harmful and then harmful enough to cause mental illness, especially if the person is belittled for not becoming like those very very few short people that made it.
The autistic person like a short person is "born that way". Both conditions cause people real disadvantages and make them a target for bullying. Generally unlike autism the medical community and most people do not view shortness as intrinsically wrong. With short people like Autistics can be taught coping mechanisms that help them. With short people it stops at that point, there is no serious effort to make them tall or to prevent shortness. With autism society is trying to make us not autistic and to prevent people from becoming autistic. To add insult to injury when autistics invariably have very high rates of mental illness the autism is blamed instead of the 24 hour 7 day a week attempts to make us non autistic. I am not denying that a certain percentage of people will have mental illness naturally and Autistic traits can make things worse. What I am saying is the view that autism is intrinsically wrong is both causing mental illness where none exists and and making existing mental illnesses much much worse.
In conclusion the OP's approach is the wrong. It should be cope with the disadvantages and impairments, build on the strengths. That is an approach that is good for most areas of life not just autism.
She might be a troll, but the view that autism should be killed is widespread so I can't assume she is a troll. She did not say AKI caused autism but it was like that. She is not wrong about the helpfulness of autistic kids going out more if they can.
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“Self Acceptance is a process not a performance”
“You are autistic enough. And you always have been”
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity.
Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 24 Nov 2015, 10:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
24 Nov 2015, 10:00 am
