Sure, post more details about what happened!
An article about married couples where one partner has autism and the other does not.
Basically, they have to work around how differently their brains work. This can also mean being totally direct and upfront.
When Brandon gets frustrated with the kids in public, Rachel will remind him to calm down. They also have a running joke where Brandon will whisper “Is my autism showing?” or Rachel will say, “Doyle, your autism is showing,” as a way for Brandon to check his reactions.
Rachel has learned to be open and honest with her friends.
“I have had to learn that some of my emotional support cannot come from my husband because he doesn’t have the ability to give it to me,” Rachel said.
“If I actually want something, I’ll tell him I want it,” Kelly said. “I’ll say, ‘I want flowers for Valentine’s Day. If you do not get me flowers for Valentine’s Day, I will be upset.’”
I’ve seen that in my own life, my dad is very autistic, my mother is very not, their marriage operates in some rather weird ways to manage that fact.
In Search of a Truce in the Autism Wars.
Basically, an article about the arguments between the "it's a difference, not a disability" (who naturally are high functioning for the most part) and "it's a horrible disability that I want going" (who tend to be severely affected, or are the parents of those severely affected) crowds. I've even witnessed a few such arguments between them myself, with autistic self-advocates arguing on the pages of YouTube videos or blogs by the parents of the severely autistic.
It is notable to me that neurodiversity advocates often try and explain away the severe self-injury, aggression and dangerous pica that accompanies autism in around 30% of cases. I’ve yet to hear ASAN and TPGA accept that not all of these behaviors can be treated by increasing communication, reducing frustration and addressing underlying medical conditions. When parents talk about their children suffering because of self-injury, for example, we often are told that if we would just follow the advice of autistics that our children would get better. When we explain that we have tried all of the interventions we are accused of not listening to the true experts - other Autistics who happen to be able to communicate in a way that our children cannot. When we bring up that point we are accused of not working hard enough to support our children’s communication.
That's from the comments section.
Edited by BonsaiForest on Apr 25th 2019 at 7:37:38 AM
And since autism is a continuum from high to severe, there is no black and white, objectively definable difference between the two. Hence, when it stops being a difference and starts becoming a disability will vary depending upon the specific individual and their circumstances.
I think it's important to address this argument, because while it's definitely coming from a very well-intentioned place, it fundamentally misunderstands the nature of 'disability.' Disability always exists in a societal context. There's no such thing as an evolutionary versus a non-evolutionary disability, there's just variations on a social construct depending on how the 'legitimacy' of a disability is perceived. They're always discursive rather than 'natural' constructs.
So in other words, it's not the only argument that's 'left,' it's the only argument one can really make about disability: because of the ways we've designed our social spaces autistic people are inhibited, in the same manner that the way we've designed our physical spaces can be difficult to navigate for people with certain disabilities. At that point it's all a matter of degree.
Edited by math792d on Apr 29th 2019 at 4:27:05 PM
Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.
75% of staff at this IT company are on the autism spectrum
Hire autistics, make MORE money than the competition. Nice! Companies are starting to get it, and starting to genuinely want to hire autistics.
“Individuals on the autism spectrum are more likely to have strengths around pattern recognition, logical reasoning ability, enhanced focus, and so on,” says Anandan. “That’s not to say that everyone on the spectrum has those abilities, but based on peer-reviewed studies published in scientific journals, there is evidence that there is an over indexing of those abilities—and those very abilities are exactly what you would look for in quite a few roles, especially around quality engineering or quality assurance.”
Edited by BonsaiForest on May 8th 2019 at 8:39:20 AM
Your friendly neighbourhood Regent
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
My only complaint is that this is yet another instance where the notion that autists are godly at STEM, sucktastic at everything else is reinforced.
Yeah, that actually kind of bothers me as well. Or, for that matter, the idea that autism is a resource to be exploited.
Oh, bother.
The cynic in me wonders if they are hiring people on the spectrum in the belief that autistic people are less likely to complain about low wages and long hours or to actually go on a strike.
Disgusted, but not surprised
So, the ICD-10 manual for diagnosing (amongst many other things) developmental disorders like autism is going to be phased out in favor of ICD-11, and I thought you lot might be interested in what that means in the context of diagnosing autism going forward.
Currently, there are three diagnoses associated with an autism spectrum disorder: Childhood autism, atypical autism, and Asperger syndrome. All three of these will be phased out in ICD-11 and replaced with a subgroup simply referred to as 'autism spectrum disorder' under the broader umbrella of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Effectively, this replaces the current dichotomy of high-functioning vs. low-functioning autism with one that instead grades the comorbid symptoms of slower intellectual development and development of functional language. Depending on the degree to which these problems are present, it the assigns a diagnosis depending on the likely need for social/institutional support the person may require.
In layman's terms, the psychiatrist who performs the review of symptoms tries to find out 'where' on the spectrum a patient is and how much help they will require to function on a daily basis.
Edited by math792d on May 18th 2019 at 10:25:48 AM
Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.
Part of me rejoices at the removal of the arbitrary (and very highly subjective) boundaries; on the surface, a scale is just another set of boundary conditions — but, scales can be adjusted over time; it's sort of an expectation (if practitioners remember to do that).
It's an improved feature to have. No condition is static, and the previous system... Well, it locks people into place with their diagnosis until (or if) they can manage to hop over all the hurdles for a full rediagnosis.
Another part of me is, yet again, disappointed at the lack of catering for other aspects of comorbidity.
And, I'm not just talking about the massive personality disorder set of elephants in the room. <_<
Edited by Euodiachloris on May 18th 2019 at 11:46:55 AM
They are following the APA's lead it would seem.
Inconvenience
Yaay ! Spectrum acceptance 
!
More evidence that autism is linked to gut bacteria.
So, seeing as how I work in a psychiatric hospital involved with research that borders this (using the absence or presence of certain gut microbes as a possible predisposition towards depression), I want to talk about what the article's assumptions rest on and why they're problematic, especially in light of the changes in the ICD-11 already outlined above. This is maybe more oriented toward any neurotypical types who read this thread, but hopefully it's relevant to others.
Let's start with the origins of this study. This one branches off of the study of affective disorders I mentioned before, where studies have found a potential link between a certain kind of gut microbe (i.e a certain kind of bacterial culture) and predisposition towards depression. This research is still in its relative infancy, but it's apparently spawned a small sub-group of research into correlation between gut microbes and other psychological/developmental disorders.
The first thing to note here is obvious. 'Linked' is a very loaded term. It invokes images of two things being inextricably linked, the same way depression has been 'linked' to serotonin deficiency. In reality, what we have here is correlational or descriptive research, not causal or prescriptive research.
This touches on a deeper problem with psychiatry in general pursuing what I like to call the 'silver bullet' solution. It's the idea that all mental illness and developmental disorder ultimately traces to biological dispositions dispersed throughout the body, and the ultimate psychiatric aim is to find and correct these dispositions through effective medication, at which point the problem just 'goes away.' Leaving aside the very pejorative characterization of neurodivergent people as abnormalities to be cured note , this profoundly misunderstands the fact that the diagnostic categories we set up - including the notion of a 'normal' person - are all made up. We set the goalposts for what is considered a normal or average human being just as much as we set the criteria for calling someone autistic. The human baseline that these studies are looking for is a arbitrary descriptive category, not a law of nature itself.
Of course, then comes the question of 'why does this matter?' The answer is simple: from a political perspective, rather than a medical perspective, this can be very dangerous. I've had psychiatrists say that if a person exhibiting all the symptoms of a severe depression has rejected 3-4 different medical treatments, then they're clearly not depressed. Considering that even with psychiatry's best efforts, 25% of all patients never get any effect out of antidepressants, this smacks of putting the cart before the horse. Imagine that a psychiatrist does a thorough review of a patient and finds that they clearly fulfill the criteria for an autism spectrum disorder, but it comes back from a microbe test that their profile doesn't match that of a majority of autistic people. In that case, what is the psychiatrist going to weigh?
And since the 'cure' for autism is more about giving people on the spectrum access to resources they can use to handle their everyday routines, what happens if those government organs start to handle their resource distribution in light of these new 'facts' about ASD and refuse to part with those resources until a proper test is made?
A fundamentally descriptive line of inquiry has the very real potential to become prescriptive, part of our folk-psychological examples, and that's pretty spooky.
Edited by math792d on Jun 2nd 2019 at 4:53:58 PM
Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.
I think you meant "prescriptive" there, but yeah, politicians of a certain persuasion will use whatever "facts" they can to kill government programs.
I'm autistic. I don't like loud noises such as people yelling, crying babies, and motorcycles when they're really close to me. I've accepted it for a while now, and I'm glad to know there are others like me here, too. I'm even following a few fan fic writers who are autistic. That said, I don't like the Hollywood Autism trend of portraying autistic people as inconvenient burdensome man children who throw tantrums all the time in media, and I'm looking for, or writing myself, better depictions of them.
Edited by TwilightPegasus on Jun 6th 2019 at 12:39:06 PM
Another article about autistic people in a hiring program. What I find telling is the title of the article: We don't care about the eye contact.
Honestly, why aren't job interviews based on technical skills and teamwork instead of charisma? Charisma is something psychopaths are good at, but no-one in their right mind would want to hire one.
The company tried recruiting high-functioning autistic people, who can have very strong technical skills and the ability to manage large amounts of data. In a pilot program, autistic employees showed they could learn new technologies very quickly and apply them in powerful and unexpected ways, Shukla said.
So the company was explicitly trying to find people who think differently. And found that autistic people do, in ways that can be useful.
Other autistic people may have trouble making eye contact or reading social cues. Some rock in their seats. An employee at the Chicago office jerks his arm unexpectedly.
Such behaviors may eliminate you from consideration during the standard job interview process, said Shukla, even if you’d make a great employee. The interview process at EY is different.
Such behaviors are also totally unrelated to one's ability to actually do the damn job. What a fucked up world we live in where stuff like that is considered more important, where charisma overrides skill.
Figure of Hourai
A lack of empathy is now a reason someone should be completely impossible to employ?
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I mean, at the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of work (unless you work from home) involves being in groups and teams in one way or another. A degree of empathy is usually preferred for that.
Figure of Hourai
Or the ability to convincingly fake it, which is also a trait common to psychopaths. Nor does a lack of empathy equate to a lack of understanding the idea of right and wrong.
This is the last thread where anyone should be suggesting that people shouldn't be employed due to something mental beyond their control.
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The thing is in a lot of workplaces dealing with people is a skill that’s part of the job, if a job needs team coordination you have to be able to work with others, any managerial position will require the ability to deal with people. It does need to be focused on less for technical positions, but you often are working with others and that is relevant.
That is true, though in other workplaces, it's just the "this person weirded me out" thing rather than a major job skill.
With that said, companies that make an effort to hire and retain autistic talent (as opposed to just hiring them and then assuming they'll magically become like everyone else in a few months) tend to have a job/social coach who visits the office once a week or so, to talk to the autistic employees and help them navigate the social stuff. Apparently, from what I've read, that helps.
Do you guys think that motor delays/difficulties should be considered core traits of Autism?
It’s always been confusing to me, since most of the diagnostic criteria look at social and sensory issues and deficits, but motor delays and difficulties are extremely common with people on the Spectrum.
Like I remember doing a lot of physical and occupational therapy when I was younger (that’s where I learned to jump rope), and always struggled with fine motor things such as handwriting, tying knots, clasping necklaces, etc.
Edited by megaeliz on Jul 11th 2019 at 3:32:46 PM
Yup. They're not listed in the official diagnostic criteria but the criteria is flawed and out of date, failing to recognize some of the symptoms that exist in like 90% of autistics, and putting too much emphasis on presentation, which autistics with good social mimicry and lots of practice can disguise.
Some autistics who are good at sports do exist, but the motor skills issues, although not universal, are super common.
For context just so it doesn’t get buried, I got to go to DC with My college’s Autism Initative Program that I am a part of, for Autism Awareness month.
First, we took the Metro from our Hotel to one of the House Office buildings, and got to meet with the The PA 16 Representative, Mike Kelly, but he had to leave, so we mostly just talked a bit about our School’s Autism Initative Program with his staff.
Then we went to the Tom Ridge Policy Center (former PA representative, Governor, and first head of the DHS), to meet with a few people from different companies to talk about internships and employment.
The first person we got to meet with, was a woman from The American Association of People with Disabilities
, an intersectional advocacy group for individuals with Disabilities. She talked about their Summer Internship Program
, which places students with Various disabilities in summer internship positions with different congressional offices, federal agencies, and non-profits. This year, they also added a class that talks about the history of disability advocacy, and issues facing the community as a whole.
We also got to meet with representatives from The Mitre Corporation
, a Government funded nonprofit research and development organization, about plans to create a new college internship program for students on the Autism Spectum. It was still in the planning stages, and a lot was still up in the air, but what they want to do is to create a co-op internship program, where students spend a semester working as an intern, and living in DC, and eventually expand what they learned from it into their hiring and managing practices.
The really cool thing about this, was they were actually looking for our input and suggestions, on it! We suggested things like the importance of working on independent living skills as well as work and social skills, and creating opportunities for the students to do social activities outside work, since these are things that many people struggle with.
(I’m not sure this has even been officially announced yet, so don’t go yelling about it from the rooftops just yet though.)
The second day, we talked to an DC based organization, “Hire Autism”
, which is a program of “The Organization for Autism Research
. It’s only based out of the Larger DC area right now, although they do hope to be expanding it soon.
I’d say my favorite was meeting with the people from Mitre, since they were actually looking for feedback from us, and were so enthusiastic about the ideas and resources we came up with.
If anyone has any questions or wants more details, I’ll do my best.
Edited by megaeliz on Apr 11th 2019 at 7:03:04 AM