[Note: This post should really be titled, "My October 8th, 2008, Autism Theory." I do not have anything published online that would reflect whatever revisions I'd make to what I'm saying here in this post.]
I don’t feel quite ready to share with the world my present theory on autism, but since I don’t know what the future holds, maybe I should do it anyway.
I am beginning to see autism as being the other side of the coin of aspergers. It’s as if both are the same ‘neurological package’, which then explains much of the identical behaviors that lead people to lump Aspies and Auties together onto the Autism Spectrum. The difference that seems to becoming slowly evident (to me) is that one comes from the inside and reflects outward, whereas the other comes from the outside and reflects inward.
Aspergers is like my being naturally blonde and Autism would be like my left big toe’s nail. I’m not about to say Auties are a pain, so please forgive my lack of having a better analogy. The ‘after’ part of my toenail story leaves me with a less attractive toe than the ‘before’ one. The after toe is less painful when forced into shoes (to a NT world), but the before toe was fine when it could remain barefooted (in a neurodiverse world).
Once upon a time, I developed an ingrown toenail. Why, I don’t know…but I did. Because of giving in to a ’socially correct’ demand (without praying about it first), I went to a podiatrist to have him remove it by laser surgery… just for the sake of fitting into a pair of high-heeled shoes for once in my life (to attend a wedding)!
The ‘treatment’ caused my ingrown toenail to no longer appear. The laser beam destroyed that part of my toenail which was ingrown. Since that was the only way to end the symptom of the ingrown nail, it leads me to suspect that it was not truly ‘cured’ but rather merely ‘disappeared’. I can make my blonde (or now grey, depending on what kind of light I’m in) hair disappear too, if I dye it another color.
Aspergers can be masked (not totally, but enough to fool people) by practicing neurotypical behavior (first though it has to be taught, since it doesn’t come natural). Aspie behavior is natural for Aspergers people, because it is who we are (not what we are). Autism however, I’m beginning to suspect, is not natural. I don’t mean it is something that is learned or intentionally self-generated.
Autism seems to be something triggered from an external source. I believe this because physical illnesses are not natural, but yet people can live with them. Many are not even visible and/or make you feel bad. People can ‘recover’ from things like a stroke just like Jenny McCarthy claims her son Evan has ‘recovered’ from his Autism. That means, Autism can’t be cured, but it could possibly be ‘remedied’ for the neurotypical world’s satisfaction. To the Adult Autism Spectrum community though, this kind of change is not generally viewed as a ‘remedy’ but rather as ‘eugenic propaganda’. An analogy would be the debate between homo sexuality being something genetic (nature) versus self-inspired (nurture). [Saying this does not make me a bigot!] I’m not saying that Auties deliberately make themselves Autistic. Being Autistic can be as enjoyable to an Autie as someone who is gay can enjoy being a non-heterosexual. If my theory is true, that would mean Aspergers can’t be cured OR ‘remedied’. It would also mean Autism is not natural, but Aspergers is.
If my theory is correct, that would explain why Aspies get burned out from trying to act neurotypical for too long. The adrenaline it takes to keep doing so causes burnout during the middle aged years. This theory would also explain why children like Evan (assuming he is Autistic and not Aspergers) don’t look miserable when they are behaving in an apparent neurotypical fashion.
There would be explanations for many other things besides what I’ve already mentioned, if what I’ve said is true. The most important aspect of all this would be in the way neuro-a-typical children would be educated, trained, and pharmaceutically treated. The proper result would be a lot less children being medicated. It is a shame that there are people who feel threatened by quirky brilliance and prefer to deal with this kind of intelligence by administering drugs to dumb down what they can’t understand and don’t want too much time to think about.
I’ll enable comments for now, but will delete any that appear written for debate. I don’t really want to discuss my theory. I need to conserve my time and energy for other things and to continue researching more into this. Either new information I find will cause me to reconsider putting Aspergers back into the Autism Spectrum or it will confirm my suspicions even stronger.
