4 ms·

As someone with a form of high-functioning autism and multiple family members with autism (some very much not high-functioning), I hard agree with serverholic's

As someone with a form of high-functioning autism and multiple family members with autism (some very much not high-functioning), I hard agree with serverholic's point above. While some of my personality characteristics may be related to my autism, and those personality characteristics might have enhanced or enabled my engineering career, in general it's a seriously disabling problem that massively impacts my quality of life. I spent most of my youth seeing professionals and just begging to be normal. I don't want anyone celebrating my condition, I want you to treat me the same way you'd treat anyone else, including being critical if I behave in a socially unacceptable way. It's a critical feedback loop that's improved my life over time, albeit slowly. I'm now in a committed long-term relationship, work in a management role in tech that is built on relationship-building, and have overcome many of my anxieties. If I'd been coddled this never would have happened, god forbid my oddities had been celebrated. Autism is a disorder, if there's a cure for it or even anything that's proven to resolve common symptoms, that would be a blessing for the world. The new model of sociology has had deleterious effects on medical research, and we need as much research as possible into misunderstood conditions, not less.

caddemon 5y ago
I also worry about publish backlash if the neurodiversity movement continues to pick up steam. An increasing fraction of the general public is likely going to disagree with the enabling, and when that happens it usually involves an overcorrection. Especially because neurodivergence is much more likely to result in non-PC behavior, it is plausible that both sides could end up feeling resentment. It's going to be brutal for a kid being raised today with the coddling mindset if the real world decides to go back to the unnecessarily harsh old days.

caddemon 5y ago

I also worry about publish backlash if the neurodiversity movement continues to pick up steam. An increasing fraction of the general public is likely going to disagree with the enabling, and when that happens it usually involves an overcorrection. Especially because neurodivergence is much more likely to result in non-PC behavior, it is plausible that both sides could end up feeling resentment. It's going to be brutal for a kid being raised today with the coddling mindset if the real world decides to go back to the unnecessarily harsh old days.