3 ms·

Autism has comorbidities like digestive problems, sleep problems, seizures, sensory issues, and weight control. One sees mental health issues like anxiety, dep

Autism has comorbidities like digestive problems, sleep problems, seizures, sensory issues, and weight control. One sees mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and increased rates of burnout which do not seem to be merely environmentally caused. You might be able to spin something like anxiety as a sometimes benefit, but it's hard to spin regular digestive issues as being some kind of useful variation. The author gets it right that how autistic people work mentally isn't so much inferior as it is unpopular. You can go to a psychologist talking about how difficult digestive pain and sleeplessness are for you and they will mull about how awful it must be to be so socially awful since everybody must dislike me. People are absolutely obsessed with the idea of the social inferiority of autistics, despite evidence that they're superior at social tasks like empathizing with other autistic people [1]. Autistics can regularly show bizarrely strong "social skills" like having an immense vocabulary, overall high verbal intelligence, or perhaps a steeltrap memory for personal facts about others. People give no value to these things arbitrarily. Nowadays I can go to a hirevue interview and be algorithmically denied a job because my eye contact is poor and my large vocabulary is actually a negative because it's unusual and thus not similar to the vocab of a companies "best hires". Rather than people going "what the fuck do we actually have legal minority filtering software being used by nominally reputable companies like major banks" people are more concerned that autistics are acting too different and should be more normal. Yet the comorbidities which impact health makes me suspect that the disorder label is still useful especially because it can lead to accommodations regarding scheduling, workplace conditions, diet, and such. We don't have a conceptual alternative to disorder/disability that allows for the accommodations needed to help people succeed. I haven't even touched on the people who have severe issues and can't live independently or provide for themselves. [1] https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/double-empathy https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-p...

dsjfalksjdflksa 6y ago
The problems related to eating are likely because culture around eating is very "neurotypical."
- faeriechangling 6y ago
  That's a pretty vague assertion. I definitely I know autistic people who just eat nothing but macaroni and cheese or something with tons of choice available to them. I don't think culture is forcing people into these problems. One of the theories around autism and eating is that it's related to alexthymia, which also prevents you from feeling your own emotions, but also impairs non-emotional perception like hunger or digestive signals. I've heard theories such as that this could be caused by poor filtering autistic people have of information within their body and general information overload. I've also heard the theory that autistic people having sensory abnormalities can have unusual food preferences that can lead them to have poor diets and that can cause other health issues. I've even seen this happen indirectly where somebody avoided buying chicken breast because they can't handle the sliminess while preparing it. Not only have I seen this repeatedly both online and in life experience it's something I sometimes see openly defended on the grounds that an autistic person forcing down a balanced diet may be tortoruous depending on the nature of their issues. This is one of those "hmm, perhaps some of these people may have some problems and maybe not everything is a cultural construct" moments I had that really formed these experiences. Generally autism also correlates to low executive functioning which itself correlates to poor weight control and diet.

dsjfalksjdflksa 6y ago

The problems related to eating are likely because culture around eating is very "neurotypical."

faeriechangling 6y ago
That's a pretty vague assertion. I definitely I know autistic people who just eat nothing but macaroni and cheese or something with tons of choice available to them. I don't think culture is forcing people into these problems. One of the theories around autism and eating is that it's related to alexthymia, which also prevents you from feeling your own emotions, but also impairs non-emotional perception like hunger or digestive signals. I've heard theories such as that this could be caused by poor filtering autistic people have of information within their body and general information overload. I've also heard the theory that autistic people having sensory abnormalities can have unusual food preferences that can lead them to have poor diets and that can cause other health issues. I've even seen this happen indirectly where somebody avoided buying chicken breast because they can't handle the sliminess while preparing it. Not only have I seen this repeatedly both online and in life experience it's something I sometimes see openly defended on the grounds that an autistic person forcing down a balanced diet may be tortoruous depending on the nature of their issues. This is one of those "hmm, perhaps some of these people may have some problems and maybe not everything is a cultural construct" moments I had that really formed these experiences. Generally autism also correlates to low executive functioning which itself correlates to poor weight control and diet.