To understand that Autism is NOT a mental illness?

[Oxfordblue]

Just that really, someone posted that autism is a mental illness.
I understand autism to be a different way of thinking/perceiving etc. Not an illness that one may or may not recover from

(My daughter is waiting for an assessment for autism & I would hate her to feel that she 'has a mental illness' & actually find that statement so disempowering. The world needs people to think differently, to challenge ideas that maybe set in stone & blur the idea that one size fits all.)

Battle - are you in an open plan office too?

Not any more, thank god.

No it really doesn't...

OMFG is this the thread of the worst mistakes ever?! This is what happens when you post when you should be working

I did of course mean "This bothers me too, it’s a neurological disorder and as such can't be cured."

Autism doesn't affect the way I think, it is the way I think. In that I don't know any different. By contrast a person who is schziophrenic for example will have at one time thought for lack of a better way to put it "normally."

Very well put.

I’ve acquired a physical disability over the past five years that is ABSOLUTELY inimical to me, and very hard to adjust to. Whereas ASC is me. I don’t think the difference is physical v neuropsychological either.

zzzzz - You're not misremebering, that was a term once used. They used to believe that children with autism grew up to be adults with schizophrenia.

Oh good Diana. Wonder called it right

zzzz I just remember “refrigerator mothers”

I didn’t know autism increases the risk of early death? Or autoimmune disease or epilepsy? When was this publicised?

I think I was following my own pedantry Battleax . I can't cope with the lack of clarity in definitions. If it realtes to the mind and thinking, then for me it is mental. But that is obviously not how everyone defines mental (health / illness/ conditions etc.)

As HardAsSnails points out the terminology hasn't necessarily kept pace with research and knowledge.

Did someone mention
And

I’m flying into the castle right now.

@SoddingUnicorns it doesn't

@RoboJesus thank fuck for that! I’ve just googled and apparently it’s a discredited study that says that.

I think I was following my own pedantry Battleax

About what Teg?

I’m losing the thread of this thread

I might go and sit in the moat and cool off.

Excellent.

There's lots of research ongoing Sodding, but autistic people die on average 15-25 years earlier than their non-autistic peers, epilepsy and suicide seem to be the biggest causes. And, no, they are not dying from autism, but being autistic is the common risk factor. Autistic people with intellectual disability are at greatest risk.

I didn’t know autism increases the risk of early death? Or autoimmune disease or epilepsy? When was this publicised?

Me neither but I have a couple of autoimmune conditions so I’m interested.

Christ that’s scary.

I mean the suicide risk is scary, I wonder how much of that is caused by bullying/isolation. Terribly sad.

And, no, they are not dying from autism, but being autistic is the common risk factor. Autistic people with intellectual disability are at greatest risk.

I wonder whether poverty figures in there somewhere?

@SoddingUnicorns yep. You can find a study linking autism to literally anything if you look hard enough. 99% prove themselves wrong and 99% of the rest get discredited. I once saw a study linking autism and bananas because something to do with monkeys 🙃

Was it pro or anti bananas?