Different Types of Autism? & Other Q&As

Welcome to April, which is Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month! I wanted to answer some common questions people have concerning autism and autistic people honestly and try to avoid shaming people for having questions or just parroting popular narrative. While I have an overall neurodiversity viewpoint, I don't want to tell people how to think or make them feel bad for having questions or being curious. Hope this helps some!

#WAAW22 #WAAW2022

Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:06 - What IS autism?
00:41 - How does someone get autism? / What causes autism?
01:18 - Are there different types of autism?
02:23 - What does "autism is a spectrum" mean?
03:18 - Are there treatments or a cure for autism?
03:55 - How do people cope with having autism?
04:56 - Are there supports out there for autistic people and their families?
05:54 - How should I act around an autistic person?

References:

[quigli]

My favourite analogy for what the autism spectrum is like is like a sound board with many switches and dials on it. NT people are set at the middle position on all the dials, and autistic people have some turned up and others turned down and which ones are up or down are different for different autistic people

[GrannyGooseOnYouTube]

I visited someone in prison today. I've been there many times so it wasn't a huge stressor, but this time they seated me in the visiting room (where I have to wait for my loved one to be allowed in), with an enormous fan facing right at me. I HATE FANS but I especially cannot deal with one blowing in my face with all it's nasty cold aggressiveness (lol). The noise was loud from it, but it was loud in there anyway, so I'm kind of over it. I wondered to myself if I was "allowed" to ask for a different table...after all, it isn't like it's a restaurant, it's a prison. But I knew I seriously couldn't deal, so I timidly asked a guard if I could sit elsewhere cuz the fan was just doing it's job way too well. I hate fans. She smiled and said so nicely, "Sure, I'll turn the fan the other way. If it still bothers you I can move you to table 2." It was so awesomely nice. I didn't have to explain autism or sensory issues, I only had to ask. I hope people are brave enough to ask for the accomodation they need. Sometimes you don't even need to say why.
Anyway, she moved the fan, so then I guess it was blowing in someone elses' face, but no one but me seemed to be bothered by it. lol Did I mention I hate fans?

[AlphaGator]

A helpful summary of several questions a lot of people seem to have. Thank you for sharing your hard work.

[yklenner]

You did a good job explaining a very difficult topic.

[TheDuckClock]

Hi Stephanie, great video and as someone who is autistic myself, I do have a few thoughts on the topics you've brought up.

On the subject of "what causes autism". First of all, you are correct that the consensus is that autism is genetic. On the topic of environmental factors, I would say that they're more of a trigger to make autism noticeable. As opposed to causing autism.

One of the greatest causes of noise in our world today ... are cars. It's something the average neurotypical doesn't even consider, because they're so normalized by the noise of traffic. We also now how cities with bright lights, so many different types of clothing fabrics from all over the world, same goes with fragrances. Not to mention an abundance of food choices, and with that an increase in exposure to textures. Add onto the fact that multiple studies have showed that horses can provide therapeutic calm to autistic people, including one by Temple Grandin in 2019. Keep in mind that before the advent of the automobile; horses used to be humanity's main mode of transportation. So we've lost our natural source of relief.
It's very easy to assess that the average rate of autism could be around the same over 100-200 years ago, compared to today. What's changed is that we built our society to inadvertently make us more susceptible to meltdowns ... thus more noticeable as autistic to the rest of the world.

On the subject on "Is there a treatment or cure for autism". I agree with you in saying I don't want a cure, and I'm not sure if you're aware, but there was a study recently released by "Autistics Not Weird" that found that over 80% of Autistic people (including nonspeaking) Do not want a cure. It also found that over 88% of autistics oppose ABA, only 3% support.

On the subject of "Autistic support" This is from my personal experience, but I've found that the greatest source of support in my upbringing, were other autistic kids in the support group I was apart of. We were able to bounce off each others experiences, learn from each other, and help each other deal with an intolerant society. I even once got in contact with our support councillor who basically confirmed my beliefs. They said they learned more about autism from us, rather than what was being published online at the time. Mind you this was in the early 2000's.

Just wanted to share my 2c

[elephantchang]

I don't cope with autism I cope with how the nt world treats autistic people ie me.

[SSJKamui]

On topic of autism is a spectrum:
The most important thing here is: Its extremely complicated to proide a general definition which encompasses the "basic needs" of all affected people. I think it was Judith Butler who said that this is a general problem (all definition necessarily excludes some cases) with definition systems, but with autism, its extreme.

And its important to be extremely clear which is your point of reference. (For example, neurodiversity, as well as most other "left wing minority politics" in general is basically a kind of applied feminism where the subject of "women" is switched out for a minority group. Ofcourse, feminism as such is not a problem. But feminism, as most political systems, is a definition of what is important and what is not important in life. (And feminism is NOT just "free choice". Feminism, as well as liberalism, has an idea of what a good choice in life would be. Just read simone de beauvoir. She explicitely stated such.) People need to be aware of that and aware of the fact that sometimes, your own point of reference can fail. That sometimes, stuff that you do not think as important might cause suffering for another person. People need to listen to other people and be willing to rethink their ideological stance if necessary. And sometimes, stuff which sounds neutral, can also contain a personal bias. For example, in minority politics, the term "empowerment" is pretty important. But then, there is the question of how to define the word "power". Or the term "indepencence".)

On topic of treatment:
1. There is no wonder cure. Especially the Pro ABA crowd outright lies in that regard.

2. Most treatment actually does NOT treat symptoms of autism. Instead, most treatment which gets recommended (especially for adults with autism) just focuses on self worth issues. But, there is a huge problem. As psychologist Nathaniel Branden wrote: Self worth needs to be rooted in reality and your real world problems and how you cope with them are far more important than self worth. Many treatments completely ignore reality and just concentrate on rose tinted glasses. ( I think this is one explaination why a few autism actiists land in the Pro ABA crowd. The Pro ABA crowd at least promises to adress your real life problems. )

3. Like I said, the cure debate is complicated. But I feel that often, autistic people wanting to get cured are either - affected by serious problems of which other people underestimate how big the problem is - or, they are affected in areas where there is no help offered, but instead, there is an emphasis on "rugged Individualism" and needing help is a taboo.

On topic of how to cope:

This is indeed a complicated question. One thing some people noticed: Look at certain philosophers (ESPECIALLY from germany) like Heidegger or Kant, and look at what they said and how they managed their personal life. For example, Kant was extremely dependent on personal routine, and Heidegger really needed solitude and calmness to properly "function". Its easy to get the theory that most of pre war intellectual life in germany was just a cope with autism.😃

On topic of support:

My experience is, there is support. But mostly for ONE thing: To get a job. This is almost the only support you get.

[johniversen]

In a world that doesn't welcome people with autism, I try to make friends with other people the world doesn't accept, and we kind of make our own family of people who aren't accepted by society.

[lindalambert]

I wish they wouldn’t call it a disorder.

[kittylynx]

You could say it's like the color wheel. Butt I love ur videos ♥️ 📹 very helpful

[whitneymason]

Great video! I bought some of your merch for this month! ❤

[rochigarofalo]

Great video! the explanation it's really clear

[johniversen]

I think of a cure for autism like a cure for the mutant gene in x-men.

[johniversen]

I'm surprised people don't already know these things.

[Jaichbinhier]

Oh, so this isn't an April Fool's prank video? Well that's a relief,
But you might've gotten a sillier comment from me if it had been. 🙃
That said, I am not going to sit here, ramble on, and pretend
That I watched this all in a minute, for that would be hard to believe. 😂

[cclayton]

Just at 1:14 and I have wanted to discuss with somebody, anybody.... like twin studies. are. not. genetics. vs. environment. Those twins share an environment for the first 9 months or so. right??

[gszhsdhxjd]

What about medical cannabis for autism?

[longyellowtoenails]

would you consider misophonia as neurodivergent?

[gszhsdhxjd]

Why did you delete my comment about how magic mushrooms could potentially treat autism?

[teery]

How 'bout THIS? Take acting lessons on how to ACT as a neuro-typical character.