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.)

staffie

@staffiegirl - thank you!

Ha, yes, I appreciate that. It's not for everybody. Thank goodness there is no diet or lifestyle choice that excludes wine.

How do you feel about bananas, though?!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27537142

I certainly will zzzzz. Will it end up being a trade-off between good executive function and a non-twitchy eyelid? 😀

I'm back! Thanks guys and girls for the essential supplies! I see that people are really trying to be nicer and more understanding to eachother, and I think that's absolutely brilliant and is as essential as cake and gin.

LondonMont lol. Getting a label was the best thing ever happened to me, my son too.

The label really helped me personally, for my kids it enabled them to access support and services that wouldn’t have been available otherwise.

Yay to anti bananas!

We've got hounds, Notevil, but it's just so bloomin' hot they're refusing to be released. They really can't be ar*ed, sorry.

Can’t blame them really wonderboy

Refusing to be released wahahahaha

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/autism-why-do-many-autistic-people-die-before-the-age-of-40-a6937911.html

www.nhs.uk/news/neurology/people-with-autism-are-dying-younger-warns-study/

www.autistica.org.uk/news/government-make-early-death-the-top-priority-for-autism-policy

autismawarenesscentre.com/three-main-causes-early-death-autism/

Suicide related abstracts from INSAR 2018:
insar.confex.com/insar/2018/webprogram/start.html#srch=words%7CSuicide%20%7Cmethod%7Cand%7Cpge%7C1

Inquest reporting and more:
www.georgejulian.co.uk/blog/

I’m generally in favour of the Montessori approach, lots of sensible ideas.

But please be aware that your opinion on labels isn’t universal. I have my labels now, I got them as an adult. My life would have been so much easier if I’d had them as a child. I love my labels. I’m proud of myself for fighting through the difficulties of getting them on the NHS, an achievement in itself. They help me understand myself, my differences and difficulties. I’ve replaced the labels of lazy, stupid, annoying, disorganised useless, with the labels of ADHD and autism. Which set of do you think did me more damage?

My labels have helped me meet other people with those labels too. I’ve found my tribe. What more could anyone want?

So unrelieved to hear the good news about Diana's lost can't. I had staked my dodgy reputation on her having mislaid it, and I had promised to eat my cake hat if wrong. Stand down sharks, crocodiles, koi carp and WB.

I feel like that, like I’ve found my tribe. It’s an oddly comforting yet strangely scary feeling.

I’ve never belonged anywhere before.

HardSnails, I will look at those properly when I’m awake, thanks. Too tired for anything sensible now.

I’m amazed at the scepticism around early deaths and autism.
It was big news in the last year or so, all over MN and FB.

scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=autism+mortality&oq=autism+mort#d=gs_qabs&p=&u=%23p%3D8TqvSgs2wlkJ

I do find the attitude that it’s a difference not a disability frustrating, as it throws other autistics under the bus, as society latches on to a positive discourse that absolves them of any need for adjustments.

HardAsSnails makes excellent points.

As for labels, I love mine, I can honestly say it has changed my life!

LondonMontessoriTutor - I'm sorry but that blog you have linked to is a patronising load of crap.
One because it contains sickening quotes like this: "What about realising that autism is not a barrier but a gate to infinite possibilities and to another vision of the world?"

I think it's best left to actual autistic people to decide whether their autism is a barrier or not, and as someone who struggles to even leave the house, yeah, I think it's a barrier.

Secondly I have no time whatsoever for a person who links autism with things like PTSD "In a nutshell, the Horse Boy Method is an equine therapy specifically designed for neuro-cognitive conditions such as autism, ADHD, PTSD, depression, etc."

No wonder you linked to that blog, in your own post you imply that trauma can cause "neuro-cognitive conditions."
So you think trauma can cause autism then?

And I don't understand the mindset of people who say that a diagnosis is a label. To me a diagnosis was the difference between things making sense and not, the difference between blaming everything on myself and realising that some things weren't my fault and couldn't be fixed by simply trying harder. To be blunt about it, it was the difference between hating myself and not.

There's loads more, but unless you've got academic access there's not much point me linking to journal papers.

PRESS RELEASE

I wish to inform the world, the research community, the medical profession, social services, the media, and all other disinterested parties, that it is all true, after all: I am a refrigerator mother.

It is so f'ing hot, I am sitting in the Smeg, WB with me.