Posted on 08/27/2022 5:48:58 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
When John Purnell’s 10-year-old son was diagnosed as autistic, he knew exactly how to respond. “I’ve always been fascinated by research, by detail, by finding out everything there is to find out about something,” he says. “So I did a really deep dive.”
As he pored over academic papers and delved into medical science – including how many autistic people have a propensity and appetite for copious research – an unexpected realisation crept into his mind. “I was reading about the traits of an autistic person, the difficulties they often have in social situations, the need for order and planning: and suddenly I thought: this person they’re describing isn’t just my son – it’s me.”
Purnell is far from alone in discovering that he’s autistic as a result of his child being diagnosed. Viewers of a 2021 BBC One documentary, Our Family and Autism, saw the same thing happen to the model Christine McGuinness, whose three young children with her television presenter husband, Paddy, are all on the autistic spectrum. In recent years, the number of people diagnosed with autism has rocketed; a study of diagnosis trends, published in August, found the median age for diagnosis is 10 for males and 13 for females, and there was a 787% exponential increase in its recorded incidence, in the 20 years to 2018.
An unexpected result of the greater number of children being diagnosed has been that many parents have discovered that they are autistic, too, often by figuring it out for themselves, as both Purnell and McGuinness did. There are no exact figures, says Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University, Britain’s leading academic on autism, but it is a phenomenon.
(Excerpt) Read more at getpocket.com ...
Yeah, I probably would have been called autistic instead of just weird.
Nobody’s normal. If there ever were a normal person, he’d be the only one in the world.
Very late in life I found I had ADHD. Explained a lot.
Munchausen by.... reverse proxy?
GIVE ME FUNDING AND TENURE
As a therapist I would say that is the best take. People put too much stock in labels and many mental health diagnostic labels convey more precision than can really be assessed. They can be helpful in distinguishing broad categories of disorders but often not that helpful when working with an individual. Does someone "have" Social Anxiety Disorder or are they shy? Does someone "have" Major Depressive Disorder or are they down in the dumps? To be sure, there are criteria that are supposed to help you determine that but very often it is a distinction without a substantive difference.
Not exactly. Not shyness.
I have a relative who would not interact with other children, would just cross his arms and shake his head as he watched other children play. Few friends growing up. But he’s a genius at math and astronomy. Has a Ph.D. to show for it.
Now his niece, who he only met once when she was an infant, has been diagnoses with Autism, previously call Asperger’s in some presentations (the case with both).
She has trouble socially and is extremely gifted at what? Guess? Math and astronomy.
There are so many similarities between the two of them it’s a bit spooky. Remember, they only met once.
It’s not a case of being victim. It’s someone being different and in many cases driving innovation forward.
Elon Musk has Asperger’s, a form of autism.
Emily Dickinson is thought to have autism.
Albert Einstein, if you read about him, clearly had some variation of autism.
It’s been said that without autists we would still be huddled around a fire in the evening, naked and staring at the stars.
It’s been said that without autists we would still be huddled around a fire in the evening, naked and staring at the stars.
somedays recently, that doesnt sound too bad...
My father was autistic. Engineer, member of Mensa, socially awkward, uncomfortable with physical affection, but an incredible man nonetheless.
All of my siblings and I show various traits of autism. We hyper-focus, are not fond of large crowds, prefer logic over emotion, and are not lovey-dovey. It has not stopped any of us from being successful. Among my siblings and I, we have an engineer, a CPA, two Vice Presidents, and a business owner with a growing singing career on the side.
Two of my 3 children, my sister’s two children, and two of my brother’s children are autistic. One is a doctor, another engineer, and four that are still young and in school.
There are varying degrees of autism. High functioning autistics like myself easily pass as normal. Autistic people tend to see things in black and white, will implement efficiencies, require very little supervision, and recognize threats to a company long before others see it.
Just don’t expect us to remember your birthday. Honestly, we don’t care about that kind of stuff.
What in tarnation is "a eap?"
Regards,
I prefer the term "neurotypical" (for those "not on the Spectrum").
Regards,
Elon Musk is autistic, autistic people are usually wicked smart!!
An eap is not what the acronym I remembered correctly.so I was recalling that incorrectly. What she got was an individual Education Program (IEP)
So, you misspelled an acronym that - even if spelled correctly - maybe one in ten thousand FReepers would have easily recognized?
Regards,
When people use obscure acronyms, I usually just make something up, giggle and be done with it.
EAP
Hmm....Explosive something Problem. What starts with an A and and could fit between there. I have to think on it.
It is amazing how all 3 these similar yet different diagnosis can run through a family.
We knew the parents of 3 adult children with 3 distinct differences.
One son/family member was and is a genius when it comes solving complex math problems. He has started 2 successful Silicon Valley businesses. He has zero personality and is turned off by most people and his family.
His younger brother is a role model for Asperger’s and drives away most people due to his lack of verbal control.
A sister in between these two is the village idiot except for math. She is a savant idiot with math.
Both parents were MDs, good docs and good with people. Their Dad used to ask our pastor and others, “What the heck happened!”
EAP
Hmm....Explosive something Problem. What starts with an A and and could fit between there. I have to think on it.
It stands for "Excessive Acronymic Predisposition."
A lot of FReepers suffer from it. And a lot of overly pedantic types like myself suffer under it.
Regards,
Why is autism treated as the abnormal state? Maybe the highly detailed, focused people are the normal state and all the ones stuffing themselves with cheetos while watching netflix and scrolling facebook and never giving a critical though to anything are the abnormal ones?
Your post sounds just like me in may ways—but weirdly I am an excellent public speaker—I guess that makes me a charismatic autistic.
;-)
So do I.
And those who are high-functioning (and whom I know personally) mostly call themselves Aspies, and so do I :-)
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