ASD…. Should there be another name for a more ‘severe’ version.

[iminvestednow]

Please forgive me as I’m new to this, I have a son with Autism. This is his only diagnosis. He is a beautiful, kind and wonderful son.

DS struggles greatly, although we have made fantastic progress in so many areas he will still never lead a ‘normal life’. He has no concept of friends, money or any social convention, he will need help to get by forever, he is extremely vulnerable.

I’ve noticed recently (great that people are more accepting) a lot of people saying, I’ve been recently diagnosed with autism aged 40 and it’s helped me so much. I think it’s great that people are getting support but does it dilute what severe autism is? Most of these people are competent fully functioning members of society and will never need the kind of help my son does. Should there another term to differentiate?

People like Paddy McGuiness wife annoy me, autistic people have hard enough time already if they dont "look" autistic and people are like yeah suuuure, about their difficulties, then someone like her pops up, posing in her undies, travelling the world with no difficulties, going to new places..perfect advert for the goverment to remove DLA/PIP for people who are very much affected but not at the level where they need a live in carer 24/7.

So autistic people shouldn't be allowed to travel or have fun? Or should they just have to hide it? And can she pose wearing more than underwear?

She does have a diagnosis ,though as do.her three children ,
I do.understand my son is 12 and non verbal very complex needs ,from my understanding they are only talking about how autism affects their family
personally I think " Autism awareness " doesn't go far enough ,it's great that celebrities such as Christine Mcguiness, Anne Hegarty ,etc, have a platform to show how their autism affects them ,but I do find in gives the general public an unrealistic idea of how vast the spectrum is.

People like Paddy McGuiness wife annoy me, autistic people have hard enough time already if they dont "look" autistic
and people are like yeah suuuure, about their difficulties, then someone like her pops up, posing in her undies, travelling the world with no difficulties, going to new places..

She IS autistic though? What the fuck are you on about? Do you think autistic people should stay at home? Fucking hell.

perfect advert for the goverment to remove DLA/PIP for people who are very much affected but not at the level where they need a live in carer 24/7.

DLA/PIP is about the needs not diagnosis. Christine McGuiness isn't going to stop the DWP awarding autistic people with a level level of care needs their PIP ffs.

I have never read white so much shite on this forum in a long time.

*high level that should say

@Sindonym i think seizures at going to sleep are very common, so I don’t really understand how that would be used to identify a particular syndrome. Aggression is also fairly common in epilepsy both as a result of the condition and the medication.

Thanks @Itisbetter - yup we have calming medication 😁 I don’t think anyone would dare try keppra with my son. His PRN for aggression is clonazapam & whilst it isn’t used that much usually, a common time it needs to be used is before sleep - so I guess if that aggression is caused by seizures clonazapam will be a good choice anyway.

My issue with the famous autistics isn’t with them at all, it’s with the idea that comes with it for some rjat because one person with autism has achieved something then it should be seen as aspirational for all people with autism.

the way the media respond to these people very much plays into stereotypes rather than seeing them as individuals who have faced their own battles to get where they are.

And as for Paddy Mcguiness and his wife I think they have actually done a good job of highlighting the real issues families face around autism and the individual nature of the condition

@Sindonym briviact is similar to keppra and can be taken at much lower doses. (More expensive though so not the first option usually).

Famous autistics (usually aspergics) don’t bother me either way, though any program or documentary does always create a very tiresome wave of helpful insights from couch potatoes therapists.

@MrsTumblebee your ds sounds remarkably like mine in someways.

She can pose in whatever she wants but the taxpayer doesn’t have to fund her.

How does the tax payer fund her?

No I don’t think that severe autism should be renamed. I think that high functioning autism should be renamed. The previous term Asperger’s was useful to identify people who were high functioning. Now it’s harder to differentiate, and as OP said, it’s changing the public face of “autism” to be someone who doesn’t require support.

@Thereisnolight

She can pose in whatever she wants but the taxpayer doesn’t have to fund her.

What do you mean?

She is autistic though. So you’re saying autistic people aren’t allowed to talk about their condition if they’re attractive, sexy or high functioning?

I sort of agree in the sense that there needs to be a distinction between the level of autism she has and the level of autism a severely affected person has. It’s not right to call them both autistic. Because what happens is that the attractive and high functioning person becomes the “public face of autism” and the severely affected people get told “well autism obviously isn’t that serious”. I have no idea why they got rid of the term Asperger’s because it provided that distinction between high and low functioning.

How did you jump from
People like Paddy McGuiness wife annoy me
to
So you’re saying autistic people aren’t allowed to talk about their condition if they’re attractive, sexy or high functioning?
loads of people annoy me, that doesn’t stop them talking.

She said she was annoyed by Christine McGuinness because she’s too high functioning and makes autism look like it’s not a problem. She would obviously prefer if high functioning autistic people like Christine didn’t speak about their autism publicly.

Wow autistic people can’t be good looking or travel or look like they’re not struggling. You do realise many autistic women mask which has a hugely detrimental impact to mental health.

It is already the case that different degrees of support are offered to different people with autism. Some need barely anything, others need constant care and specialty teaching.

we have been lucky that we have a school that if we call them up and say the level of support isn’t working, a meeting gets scheduled and we talk about a solution. That is the way it should work. I don’t see why more descriptive terms would change that.

Preferring not to hear something, or finding it irritating isn’t the same as saying people aren’t allowed to talk about whatever is that grates on you. We don’t live in a cancel culture. We can find people irritating, disagree with them, be offended or upset but they are still ALLOWED to do their thing. For example I find MANY opinions touted on MN as the way infertile people feel, the way autistic people feel, the way all sorts of bloody things are. I accept that some people feel and think differently to me.

But I do need support....... That's the pointyou think I'm high functioning... So don't need support as well...

Youv literally just proven way high functioning term is not helpful

I'd also like to talk about trauma on the outcomes of the autistic person. My dad had autism (and ASPD) which was undignoased but blatently obvious. Mum has autism and is extremely child-like ( She was totally unequipped to parent my sister and I and walked out at the first opportunity) Consequently, we have many more difficulties than, for example my husband (not diagnosed, but would meet the criteria for autism) he had very stable, loving parents. I don't just blame my issues on autism and ADHD, they are also derived from trauma.

No I'm aware other people will need more support.

But that does not mean that I don't need or deserve support to.

If I had support from a child my life would be VERY different.

If I could get support now ... My life would be VERY DIFFERENT.