this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
311 points (79.1% liked)

Autism

6831 readers
5 users here now

A community for respectful discussion and memes related to autism acceptance. All neurotypes are welcome.

We have created our own instance! Visit Autism Place the following community for more info.

Community:

Values

  • Acceptance
  • Openness
  • Understanding
  • Equality
  • Reciprocity
  • Mutuality
  • Love

Rules

  1. No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments e.g: racism, sexism, religious hatred, homophobia, gatekeeping, trolling.
  2. Posts must be related to autism, off-topic discussions happen in the matrix chat.
  3. Your posts must include a text body. It doesn't have to be long, it just needs to be descriptive.
  4. Do not request donations.
  5. Be respectful in discussions.
  6. Do not post misinformation.
  7. Mark NSFW content accordingly.
  8. Do not promote Autism Speaks.
  9. General Lemmy World rules.

Encouraged

  1. Open acceptance of all autism levels as a respectable neurotype.
  2. Funny memes.
  3. Respectful venting.
  4. Describe posts of pictures/memes using text in the body for our visually impaired users.
  5. Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
  6. Questions regarding autism.
  7. Questions on confusing situations.
  8. Seeking and sharing support.
  9. Engagement in our community's values.
  10. Expressing a difference of opinion without directly insulting another user.
  11. Please report questionable posts and let the mods deal with it. Chat Room
  • We have a chat room! Want to engage in dialogue? Come join us at the community's Matrix Chat.

.

Helpful Resources

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

i think that the mistreatment of folks with autism is not enough to explain to have this high of a suicide rate, and that autism does just make life harder to deal with, regardless of discrimination

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And yet you have no other answers. So until you have them, that seems to be a good working theory.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

i think working off answers we do have is a better idea, actually

such as suicide being one of the top three causes of death for autistic people. The other two being heart disease and epilepsy complications, and them on average dying under 50 years of age.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I suggest to read more than one article about the double empathy problem at first.

We have multiple papers stating it's the way we are mistreated the issue. Autists don't have a lack of empathy, communication, socialization, non verbal language, etc. We express them in a different way, an Autistic way! This is as valid as the neurotypical way.

We need to stop internalizing ableism and self blaming us for everything and nothing. These are direct consequences of mistreatments too.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

im sure that mistreatment is part of the issue

im also sure that autism does, at least often, come with real internal stressors that are not the result of their treatment by others, and that make dealing with external stressors more difficult

i dont take an issue with the added context of conscious or subconscious ableism (though i think its besides the point here, because cruel or not, its still something potential children will still have to deal with)

i think its important to remember that even if that wasnt a factor, autism will often still impact the quality of life of potential children

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The issue with your explanation is that autism isn't an illness nor a disease nor a disorder. It's a neurotype, a neurological difference.

It doesn't come with a difference in neurology. It's a different neurology. They're no normal neurology. All of them are egal and valid. When one of them exercises a pressure to be the one, the norm, and doesn't let the others exist, it's discrimination against a minority. This ends with a high suicide number. It has deep implications with trauma, PTSD, cptsd, depression and other mental health issues from a very young age to elderly. When you can't cope anymore, you ...

And yeah, it's internalized ableism to blame ourselves.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

whether autism is or is not an illness, disease or disorder has no bearing on what i said

you seem to be misinterpreting my comment as being a judgement of value on autism or autistic folks, which it is not

my point is based on the common symptoms, effects and predispositions of autism, especially ones that cannot be pinned on mistreatment

completely and entirely regardless of whether it is a 'valid' or 'normal' neurology or not, and completely and entirely regardless of whether autistic folks can or cannot be blamed for any of it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How is that an idea of what the cause of suicide is? Where is the explanation of cause there? Because I gave an explanation of the cause. So far, all you've done is play coy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

you didnt give an explanation of the cause, you seemingly pulled something out your ass and didnt like when i didnt immediately accept it as fact

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You think the widespread mistreatment of autistic people is something I invented? Really?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

im going to assume the complete misinterpretation is genuine and not just strawmanning

no, i think that the high suicide rates being exclusively due to mistreatment is something you pulled out your ass, especially since the response to 'do you have proof' was not 'yes, here you go'

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I never said anything about it being exclusively due to mistreatment. That is something you made up.

And I admitted I didn't have evidence, so I have no idea why you're complaining about me not having evidence.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes, but that’s not due to autism, that’s due to the way society treats autistic people

must be me, but i read that as pretty explicit and unambiguously exclusive language

And I admitted I didn’t have evidence, so I have no idea why you’re complaining about me not having evidence.

because i think going 'well thats wrong, heres whats actually happening' with 0 evidence is actually a pretty weird thing to do, as is maintaining that it just has to be true when challenged

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, it must be you. If I had meant it to be exclusive, I would have said "that is not solely due to autism, that is solely due to the way society treats autistic people"

But please, continue to berate me for not having the evidence I admit I don't have. I'm sure that will lead to productive discussion.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

i doubt there was any chance of a productive discussion past ‘well thats wrong, heres whats actually happening’ with 0 evidence and maintaining that it just has to be true when challenged

im doing this so folks reading this thread at least get the added context of the above being a complete unsourced guess

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep, there it is.

"I have no evidence."

"You idiot! You have no evidence!"

"I know. I said I have no evidence."

"What kind of fool says that sort of thing without evidence?"

"Me, I guess."

"Ha! I knew you had no evidence!"

Is this going to continue ad nauseam or do you have a point besides the fact that I said something I don't have evidence for? Because I think the folks reading this thread might have glommed on to the fact that I have no evidence at this point.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

your commitment to just saying some shit is admirable i guess

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Okay, so do you have anything further to say or are we done here?