this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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Autism

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“Autism is a Spectrum” Doesn’t Mean What You Think (neuroclastic.com)
submitted 4 days ago by DakRalter to c/[email protected]
13 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Someone on Mastodon shared this link with me, and I thought you might find it as interesting as I do.

I really hate the misconception of the spectrum. It enables nasty people like Ellen degeneres to justify being a bully (in case you missed it, she tried to get diagnosed autistic. When that didn't work, she said, well it's a spectrum so we're all a little autistic, so I'm not a bully). And enables others to dismiss our struggles, cos hey, we're all on the spectrum!

Back to the article, I feel like I'm a mix of the three examples. I can see some that match from each example. How about you? When I stop feeling so lazy, I might do my own custom one.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Saw this one before, the message is good but I dislike the use of a box at all here because the analogy is still weird. I like to think of it as an equalizer, traits are at different volumes and gains like the different frequency ranges of sound going through a sound system simultaneously. (Think bar chart for alternate example.) Different traits manifest differently, i.e. perseverance, stimming, sensory sensitivity, monotropism, special interests, etc.

Tangentially on the same topic, I dislike the term "on the spectrum" because this article's reasoning. You are not sitting atop a one dimensional number line. You ARE the spectrum, and your spectrum "settings" differ from that of others, though only to a certain extent (or otherwise Autism would not exist)

[–] DakRalter 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I think the point of it is more to explain to people who think the spectrum means this side is NT and this side is "severe" autism, and the spectrum is anything in between. For a while I thought this was what it meant too.

So I like that this explains to people who think that, that the spectrum doesn't work that way.

I think of the spectrum more as a circular rainbow, and you can occupy a bit from this side, maybe a larger segment from that part, maybe a bit more over there.

Maybe defining the autism spectrum is as complex as defining a neurotypical spectrum 🤷🏽‍♀️