So autism isn't what we think it is!

You are thinking this applies mostly to neuro typicals, but you'd be wrong.

I got some good feedback on my last entry, so I figured I would keep it going until the feedback runs out. 😂

Be mindful that this is all my musings and doesn't necessarily reflect reality.

I was made aware that I am very autistic!

Sorry for the clickbait header, but I thought it would be funny in context. My ex wife read my gemlog from yesterday (actually a week ago due to upload problems) and we got to talking about how bad TV shows are at portraying autism and specifically aspergers.

As it turns out I was being very aspie, as my ex wife could immediately point out three shows that has portrayal of aspergers.

So I apparently just never connected the dots on portrayal of aspergers, the most shocking to me being a favourite show, Community.

So it turns out Abed is a purposeful subtle portrayal of Aspergers/Autism, I just saw him as a funny, quirky guy.

Update: The exwife pointed out Childish Bambino probably also was supposed to be slightly autistic...

Why is it so hard to see Autism for Autistic people?

I touched on this yesterday (week ago) in how we assume people are like us, but just in different variations, like introvert vs outrovert.

Once you put on those glasses, it would probably make sense, that Abed is just a quirky introvert.

We view things in boxes, but are told people are made up of many boxes, so we build people in our minds from these boxes. The subtelty of Aspergers doesn't lend itself well to boxes.

Autism isn't one specific thing, it's a different brain setup. It makes all our thoughts behave in a different way, that then colours everything.

The colours of the Autism rainbow.

They call it ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and while autism spectrum seems correct, we maybe need to reconsider the disorder part.

I say that, because the majority of ASD people function quite well and can be quite happy. What makes us dysfuntional and unhappy is when we are forced into oversocialising. Plus we don't say that people who hypersocialise, have HSD (Hyper Socialising Disorder).

Hypersociability is a thing that is discussed, but it is not called a disorder and it is often discussed in relation to Autism.

So the Autism rainbow encompasses ADD and ADHD as well, while they can stand alone, but Autism is often attached to ADHD.

Autism can range from an almost normal level of socialising, to barely being able to navigate other people.

Autism can come with a near genius level intellect, to barely being able to do basic math.

If those sound like problems everyone can have, it is because it is problems everyone can have, Autism just colours it.

I may be Autistic then, so what now?

Get professional help, not because you are wrong as a person, but because dealing with the stress of being diagnosed or treated different, can cause depression and anxiety.

Created 2025-03-11 - Updated 2025-03-11