My autism spectrum disorder is an obvious condition with which I greatly struggle(d) while unaware until I was a half-century old that its component dysfunctions had formal names. Then again, had I been aware back in the 1970s and ’80s I likely would’ve kept it a secret nonetheless, especially at school, lest the A-word [autism] gets immediately followed by the F-word [freak].
Throughout my ASD-addled life, I’ve occasionally been told with a tone of surprise and sometimes even a you-look-okay-to-me facial expression of doubt: “But you’re so smart”. Today, I would reply with frustration: “But for every ‘gift’ I have, there are a corresponding three or four deficits.”
It really is crippling, especially on a social level that affects employability. I’m not sufficiently unambiguously symptomatic to be perceived by the general public as having an ASD, yet I’m also not functional enough to be normally employable and sociable. Thus, I’ve seemingly always been largely seen and even (mal)treated as being inexplicably incompetent or, in more frank terminology, “f—– up”.
Perhaps schoolteachers should receive training in (what I term) medium-functioning, as opposed to low- or high-functioning, autism spectrum disorder, especially if the rate of autism diagnoses is increasing. [By medium-functioning, I of course mean ASD diagnoses involving disability that could be described as somewhere in between low-functioning and high-functioning ASD.]
There could also be an inclusion in standard high-school curriculum of child-development science that would also teach students about the often-debilitating cerebral condition.
Maybe elementary school students could also receive neurodiversity lessons, albeit not overly complicated or extensive. Such awareness might help reduce the incidence of chronic bullying against these typically vulnerable students. The lessons would explain to students how, among other aspects of the condition, people with medium-functioning ASD are often deemed willfully ‘difficult’ and socially incongruent, when in fact such behavior really is not a ‘choice’.
It would also elucidate how “camouflaging” or “masking,” terms used to describe higher-functioning ASD people pretending to naturally fit into a socially ‘normal’ environment, causes their already high anxiety and depression levels to further increase. And that this exacerbation is reflected in the disproportionately elevated rate of suicide among them.
From my recollection and understanding: while children with low-functioning ASD seem to be more recognizable thus properly treated in school systems, medium-functioning ASD students — who tend to not exhibit the more overt, debilitating symptoms of autism — are more likely to basically be left to fend for themselves, except if their parents can finance specialized education.
If it is feasible, parents should seriously consider not enrolling their medium-functioning ASD child in regular, ‘neurotypical’ grade school. The combination of my CPTSD and undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder was often mistaken for ADHD during grade school, for which I was often shamed and scolded. A few times it even got one-direction physical.
As a moral rule, a mentally as well as a physically sound future should be EVERY child’s foremost fundamental right — along with air, water, food, and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter.
To be clear, I’m not an emotional/mental exhibitionist when it comes to such matters. Generally, I get embarrassed just as readily as the next person. But it’s in my nature to try to create some constructive purpose out of my decades of turmoil and misery.
Therefore, it would be great if there could be some valuable academic or clinical use elsewhere from it all in the future—to create or extract from it some practical positivity and purpose—so that all of the suffering will not have been in vain but instead possibly help other people struggling daily with a similar debilitating affliction. Because awareness is key to prevention, if not also healing.
Comments for Disney World Shuns Disabled Community: Guest With Autism Denied Critical DAS Accommodations
Frank Sterle Jr.
My autism spectrum disorder is an obvious condition with which I greatly struggle(d) while unaware until I was a half-century old that its component dysfunctions had formal names. Then again, had I been aware back in the 1970s and ’80s I likely would’ve kept it a secret nonetheless, especially at school, lest the A-word [autism] gets immediately followed by the F-word [freak].
Throughout my ASD-addled life, I’ve occasionally been told with a tone of surprise and sometimes even a you-look-okay-to-me facial expression of doubt: “But you’re so smart”. Today, I would reply with frustration: “But for every ‘gift’ I have, there are a corresponding three or four deficits.”
It really is crippling, especially on a social level that affects employability. I’m not sufficiently unambiguously symptomatic to be perceived by the general public as having an ASD, yet I’m also not functional enough to be normally employable and sociable. Thus, I’ve seemingly always been largely seen and even (mal)treated as being inexplicably incompetent or, in more frank terminology, “f—– up”.
Perhaps schoolteachers should receive training in (what I term) medium-functioning, as opposed to low- or high-functioning, autism spectrum disorder, especially if the rate of autism diagnoses is increasing. [By medium-functioning, I of course mean ASD diagnoses involving disability that could be described as somewhere in between low-functioning and high-functioning ASD.]
There could also be an inclusion in standard high-school curriculum of child-development science that would also teach students about the often-debilitating cerebral condition.
Maybe elementary school students could also receive neurodiversity lessons, albeit not overly complicated or extensive. Such awareness might help reduce the incidence of chronic bullying against these typically vulnerable students. The lessons would explain to students how, among other aspects of the condition, people with medium-functioning ASD are often deemed willfully ‘difficult’ and socially incongruent, when in fact such behavior really is not a ‘choice’.
It would also elucidate how “camouflaging” or “masking,” terms used to describe higher-functioning ASD people pretending to naturally fit into a socially ‘normal’ environment, causes their already high anxiety and depression levels to further increase. And that this exacerbation is reflected in the disproportionately elevated rate of suicide among them.
From my recollection and understanding: while children with low-functioning ASD seem to be more recognizable thus properly treated in school systems, medium-functioning ASD students — who tend to not exhibit the more overt, debilitating symptoms of autism — are more likely to basically be left to fend for themselves, except if their parents can finance specialized education.
If it is feasible, parents should seriously consider not enrolling their medium-functioning ASD child in regular, ‘neurotypical’ grade school. The combination of my CPTSD and undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder was often mistaken for ADHD during grade school, for which I was often shamed and scolded. A few times it even got one-direction physical.
As a moral rule, a mentally as well as a physically sound future should be EVERY child’s foremost fundamental right — along with air, water, food, and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter.
Frank Sterle Jr.
[Cont.] ………..
To be clear, I’m not an emotional/mental exhibitionist when it comes to such matters. Generally, I get embarrassed just as readily as the next person. But it’s in my nature to try to create some constructive purpose out of my decades of turmoil and misery.
Therefore, it would be great if there could be some valuable academic or clinical use elsewhere from it all in the future—to create or extract from it some practical positivity and purpose—so that all of the suffering will not have been in vain but instead possibly help other people struggling daily with a similar debilitating affliction. Because awareness is key to prevention, if not also healing.