[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.
Let me start off by saying that I appreciate your honesty as well as your point of view on this issue. As a graduate student studying Autism I have been exposed to a great deal of information pertaining to Autism Spectrum Disorders. With that in mind I found it very interesting that you used the analogy of being naturally blonde and your big toe’s nail in relation to comparing Autism to Aspergers. It is my understanding that they are both neurologically based and therefore can not be turned off or cured. Instead one has a higher likely hood of developing compensation strategies to better adapt to their environment. Individuals with aspergers are considered to be higher functioning and therefore neurologically contain the ability to better compensate with there surroundings. Thank you again for your perspective.
Thank you for your helpful and nicely worded responses. I hope it is evident that I’m not trying to dispel whatever viewpoints other people have. I only wanted to share mine so readers can know where and how I’m presently standing on this mystery.
jef22, In regard to your exposure to a great deal of information pertaining to Autism Spectrum Disorders, I’d like to ask (out of curiosity) how much of it is from what’s observed about children verses the input studied (or not studied?) which Autie and Aspie adults reveal?
I’m sure you’re right chaoticidealism… I doubt the public sees Evan as he is. What was I thinking to say such a stupid thing?!
The reason I equated aspergers with being genetic is because the pattern I’ve seen so far with very young aspie children is that they only get sick with things like an occasional cold, whereas the very young autie children I’m aware of seem to be hit with a lot of ill-health problems.
I’m surprised that David Weeks (researcher and author of publications about eccentrics) has not mentioned Aspergers. Aspies are often defined as quirky, odd, weird, eccentric, and/or strange. The adult aspies (around my age) I know well live life with amazingly good health and have no need for meds. I remember reading somewhere ‘eccentrics’ don’t go to doctors as often as most others do.
motherofconfusion,
I’m surprised that the second doctor didn’t mention that regression isn’t uncommon for all children when they are undergoing a stressful change. Maybe less sensitive children are not as susceptible, but still in all, that doesn’t seem like enough information to say only autistics go through such things.
From what I observed about autistic children, they seem to want to express themselves at the same age typical for children but they are unable to. There is a huge difference between wanting to verses choosing not to. I would think that is something only a child’s mother might know.
What you’ve shared about your son brings joy to me. Don’t apologize for the tangent. It’s beautiful. 2008/10/09 at 11:41 AM
It seems to me that the public does not see Evan McCarthy as he is… They see his public image, the one his mother wants people to see. There are many Aspies who, while they pretend to be typical, appear happy… Looking happy is part of pretending. (Additionally, he is still on intensive therapy–not ‘recovered’ by a long shot.) And he’s a child–what happens in the teen years, when social expectations are ramped up to the max?
There is very little fundamental difference between Asperger’s and autism, in my opinion; there exist, in fact, people with Asperger’s who cannot live independently, as well as autistic people who are extremely successful. In adulthood, a verbal Aspie and a verbal Autie can be indistinguishable; they are diagnosed in adulthood by childhood history. I as an Aspie (early speech, early reading ability) am actually quite a bit less capable than many people with classic autism at my age, including two I personally know; and I’m not the only Aspie who fits in that category. There’s just a great deal of overlap…
The AS and classic autism categories seem to be artificially differentiated by speech delay and mental retardation; if you have either of those, you are categorized as “autistic disorder” instead of “asperger’s disorder”. Those are awfully arbitrary distinctions. A speech delay doesn’t necessarily translate to disability later on; and while MR usually does, it’s possible to have traits that completely match Asperger’s–except for the MR–and thus be classified as vanilla-autistic instead.
The distinction, to me, does not seem at all clear.
My son was diagnosed with high-functioning autism and aspergers in his first assessment. The doctor didn’t make a distinction and used the terms interchangeably. The second assessment the doctor did make a distinction and labeled him HFA because my son had a speech delay and a regression. (The regional services here will take on clients with autism – but not aspergers. Just thought that was interesting to note.)
In retrospect, I don’t think my son’s regression was typical — I think it was because we moved and the change in environment shut him down until he could slowly adapt. I wonder if his speech delay wasn’t because he couldn’t talk but because he wasn’t ready to interact that way. When he did speak again at age four, it was in complete sentences. (Albeit often a line from a TV show that seemed to fit the moment.) We always knew he understood language — he just didn’t respond in kind.
What I’ve noticed, is my son’s friends all have aspergers. He is in an autism inclusion program at his high school. There are prob 50 students enrolled. My son has friends, sleep overs, phone calls and invites to places. He’s been elected to be president of the autism club. Amongst his friends, he’s totally accepted and ‘popular.’ He’s happy. His current situation has raise his self-esteem by miles, his episodes of very dark depression have almost completely vanished and he has a confidence he didn’t have before. He’s the only one that’s ventured out to the general ed students and made a few lunchtime friends. In doing so, his friends have followed him out and done so as well. Sure, it doesn’t always go so well but he belongs with a group of kids that understand how difficult it is. They understand each other and I’ve even seen them group up and talk another out of a shut down or make sure they have space in order to have one (not sure how they decide what’s appropriate to shut down over, but they do). The kids that are leaving for college this year are promising to share everything they know to the others so they won’t be nervous.
These kids are quirky, eccentric and fun. When with one another their socially acceptable for exactly who they are. What I love is — and what they probably don’t understand yet — they are developing a community amongst themselves.
Sorry for the tangent! Just the whole dying of hair to hide or disappear made me think of these kids who hopefully won’t ever have to do that too much.
I believe Asperger’s can be a bit of who you are and something external. We watched our son change very dramatically and suddenly after his 12-month wellchild visit (and those vaccines…). We never saw anything but a sweet happy baby until then. 5 years later he was diagnosed with Aspergers, then diagnosed again with high functioning autism. He is quirky. He is taught neurotypical behavior so he can fit in when it’s necessary. He’s very “Asperger’s” – but we watched him change so suddenly that it’s hard to say it’s really who he was meant to be, if that makes any sense. I think there are some other neurologically fragile (ahem) men in my family as well as my husband’s – but they haven’t crossed over into autism or Asperger’s, maybe because that external factor wasn’t present during their heavy duty developmental years.
I just found your blog and am really enjoying it so far.