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Ever since my psychologist told me I might be autistic, I have researched the subject. This is basically what I have found so far.
All sections contain links that allow you to have more information by consulting my sources directly.
**Note**, all the links are in French (because this is a translation) for now but I'm going to try to find English equivalents.
I will give a short description of what autism is to lay the groundwork. I based myself on Alistair's FALC article.
Autism is a **neurodevelopmental condition**, which means that it is present from childhood. You can't "catch" autism. It is not a disease, we cannot cure autism and it is neither useful nor enviable. Autism is not bad, it is a way of functioning and thinking that is different from "the norm".
To say the differences between the "neurotypical" (person having a neurological functioning considered as the norm) or "allists" (non-autistic person) and the autistic is complicated. There are a lot of them and everyone with autism is different. But here are the main points:
Autism is therefore also a **disability**, because these differences are not adapted to a world that is predominantly allistic and neurotypical.
Another important point is also **stimming**. Stim is sensory stimulation, it is used to manage strong emotions and is a defense mechanism against overload. It is also a certain way of communicating. It can take different forms, such as "flapping" which involves shaking hands and arms, rocking, but it can also be many other things such as smelling certain smells, touching certain materials, listening to music or particular sounds, etc.
Certain signs, speeches and associations are dangerous for people with autism. This is notably the case with the *Autism Speaks* charity in the United States. This association does not aim to help autistic people, it talks about autistic people, without ever asking their opinion.
She has launched several stigmatizing campaigns for people with autism, such as #LightItBlue and is commonly associated with the "puzzle piece" as if people with autism are a "puzzle" that needs to be solved. To this the real people concerned (autistic people) created the hashtag #RedInstead in response. The majority of the money that is supposed to go to help the **parents** of people with autism (not the autistic ones themselves) is actually used for promotional campaigns, research to "find a solution to the problem." 'autism', etc. And only less than 1% actually goes to families.
In French-speaking circles there is also the association "Vaincre Autisme" which is in the same idea as *Autism Speaks* and is just as harmful. It also aims to find a cure for this "disease". Even though it is recognized internationally and by themselves that it cannot be cured and that it is not a disease. This association is very dangerous and any talk about "beating autism" like *Les petits victoires* are harmful to autistic people.
the association "Vaincre Autisme"
Then there is also the case of ABA therapy see also here, which is a dangerous therapy that can cause trauma to autistic people. The sole purpose of these therapies is to make the autistic child appear normal, even if this means traumatizing and abusing him or her, and even this goal is not always achieved.
In summary, any "resource" for autism that positively mentions any of these elements is to be avoided:
When people hear autism spectrum or ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) they usually see this:
red gradient from lightest to darkest [IMG]
Except that this view is simplistic and wrong. This is a gradient, not a spectrum, this is a spectrum:
This view best represents autism, each colour could represent a characteristic, and one could represent an autistic person like this for example:
This pattern would probably correspond to a person commonly called "aspie" or "asperger" or "high functioning".
It seems that this strong difference that some people (even some autistic people) want to use to separate Asperger's autistics (the "good" autistics) from "severe" autistics (the weird ones) is a misunderstanding of the autism spectrum.
There are three types of diagnosis, self-diagnosis, peer diagnosis and "official" diagnosis.
Self-diagnosis is not just a matter of contemplating a test on the internet, it takes time. Self-diagnosis, like official diagnosis, is also subject to various biases. Among them,
graph showing the Dunning-Kruger effect [IMG]
Stim, which literally means "sensory stimulation", is a difficult concept to define, not least because it can be different for each person. But also because it seems to have been originally a word created by neuro-typists to define the "weird" things that people with autism can do.
Stims can be done for three reasons:
Here are some examples:
It may be quite surprising but yes, hurting oneself, especially self-harm, can be a form of stimulation too, especially in anxiety-provoking and violent environments. It's not something that should be forbidden at all because it's a way of expressing and protecting oneself, what should be done is to take the person out of their environment (or adapt it) and also find another form of stimulus to replace it. For example, in the case of Alistair, replace the skin with cardboard.
Again it is good to know that these definitions and examples are not necessarily representative, "stim" is quite debatable as, in the end, everyone stims, even non-autistic people, the only difference between the "stim" of neuro-typical people and the "stim" of autistic people is that the NT one is socially recognised as normal, and the autistic one is seen as rude or weird.