Recently I was reading the blog of someone who propounds that Autism is an epidemic. They asked the question, "Where are the adults with Autism?" To which I reply.
We are here living amongst you. More of us are in your psychiatric hospitals and psycho-geriatric homes. Some of us were born before Kanner identified Autism, many of us were born shortly after. We were born before you knew to call us autistic instead we were called, "strange, shy, antisocial, mentally retarded, childhood schizophrenics, disruptive, bad". The more socially adaptive of us were tolerated to an extent, others were shunned and the rest of those who survived were locked away out of sight.
I remember a particular patient in the psycho-geriatric hospital in which I worked in the 1970s. He was non-verbal and he stimmed the whole time – a rhythmic movement of his right hand in front oh his right hip – I cannot remember what his diagnosis was. I wonder, had he been born fifty years later whether his diagnosis might have instead been one of autism.
You are right to fight for your child. You do not have the right to ignore us for your political ends. You ask where we are, why don't you look? Look in the asylums, look under railway arches and in shop doorways, look in the repetitive and menial jobs, look in lonely rooms at the end of the Internet connection. Look further, we are your parents, your grandparents, aunts and uncles, we are the cousin the family prefers to forget about, we are the one's they don't talk about. You have the right to fight for your child but when you ignore us, when you dismiss us and discount us you become no different from those against whom you fight. We may have been born too early for a diagnosis, we may be differently diagnosed but we hae lived and yet do live. Do not you dismiss us! It may be too late for any treatment to make a difference to us but at least you could see us, we are here! We have as much right to respect as your child. We do not claim the same right to resources, we are older, we have made our lives and reached wherever we are, we will not deprive your child.
All I ask is, do not sacrifice us to your cause. Our Autism has been invisible, see us now and respect us for who we are whatever we have become. We have been the outsiders, if you care so much about Autism perhaps it is time to reclaim us, accept us, make us visible too.
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Comments (5)
Excellent post! I'm hoping that continuing research will help not only the newly diagnosed, but future generations as well.
So true! My son, Brandon is thirty-six, and I understand this all too well. We didn't find out he had Asperger's until he was thirty-two. We need to keep talking, because our loved ones deserve to be accepted for who they are, whether they are children or adults. I wish you and your family a wonderful 2010, and together we can change how people see and treat our children and adults with autism. I am an autism motivational speaker and I address this issue every time I go out to speak. Happy New Year!
I didn't realize adults with Autism were ignored or set aside anymore often than children with Autism. That's a sad thing to find out. :(
Although, I'm still a bit confused about what prompted the post. Did the blogger's question come off as pompous, to ask the question by implying that there were no adults with Autism?
If there are children with Autism, there are adults with Autism. This isn't the kind of thing that you struggle with all of your life and then suddenly goes away once you hit adulthood. :/ Anyone who thinks so needs to learn more about Autism.
For anyone who might want to ignore, dismiss or set aside adults with Autism while at the same time fighting for their child, I'd tell them to be careful. Because, one day their child will grow up and be an adult with Autism, too. And then it probably won't seem like such a happy idea, or such a prudent idea, to ignore adults with Autism, anymore. :(
amen!
@tracezilla@lovelyish - Thanks for your question. Off the top of my head I think it was in a post related to vaccination. I have read so many in the last few months. Trying to find the post again (unsuccessfully) has reminded me of how many people share my point of view which is reassuring.
I think the problem is not that adults with autism have been ignored so much as we have not been recognised. When a diagnosis is introduced people don't look to see to whom they can retrospectively apply it. Also without the benefit of the diagnosis some of us have carved out lives without formal support, this is good as it frees resources for those who need them more but it opens the question of how much more we might have accomplished with appropriate support.