I spend a lot of time writing about the difficulties of an adult woman with autism. I am writing about things that need to change in the way we perceive and treat autism spectrum disorders, about how late diagnosis in women can lead to disability, how adults with autism struggle and how mental health problems should be a priority for this population group. But there is another aspect of autism that is often overlooked in this narrative.
The truth is that autism is very difficult, and we who suffer from it struggle with it every day. However, people with autism are some of the most wonderful people I have ever met.
One of my favorite online communities on autism is “Neuroplastic: The Autistic Spectrum According to people with Autism.”I like their opinions and the opinions of many people who write for them. An article appeared this week that said: “Autistic people, people with ADHD and other neurodivergent small business owners, content creators and freelancers, feel free to advertise your page/website in the comments (no official diagnosis is required).”
The comments section exploded. I poured myself a cup of coffee and read all the comments; I’ve learned what I’ve always known, but I’m not commenting enough. People with autism and other neurodivergent people are wonderful. Despite the difficulties, struggles and alienation, the number of autistic people doing incredible things is impressive.
At the time of writing this article, 649 responses have been received to the message, and their number is growing. Companies have many private practices: speech therapists, writers, artists, psychologists, therapists, podcasters, educators, singers, nurses, photographers and many others who publish and demonstrate their entrepreneurial spirit and creative genius.
What surprised me the most is that many of these companies are focused on improving the quality of life or in some way helping other people with autism, neurodivergence and other mental health problems. In a world where people with autism are often portrayed as lacking empathy, this seems very ironic. Many of the companies mentioned in the message show that people with autism are not only creative and intelligent, but also deeply care about improving the quality of life of other people experiencing difficulties.
Why Is It Important
For me, this stream is important in three ways: it provides additional evidence against the toxic extrapolations of the theory of mind regarding autism; it shows the neurotypical world that autistic people are wonderful; and it inspires hope for the future guidance of autistic people.
Theory of mind refers to a person’s ability to make judgments about the inner thoughts of others based on the information they display through body language and other forms of social communication. It has been claimed that many people with autism cannot do this. According to this argument, we cannot imagine “a brain different from ours, a brain that does not have the same information, a brain with different motivations, different feelings, other abilities. They are profoundly unable to put themselves in the other person’s shoes and, therefore, unable to feel empathy.” (ABAAnalysisEdu.org ) This is a common belief held by many people, including some people who work with people with autism, often using methods such as applied behavioral analysis. It is commonly portrayed in popular culture.
However, many of us who have spent our lives working with adults with autism know that this is not true. Many people with autism find it difficult to interpret social communication and understand social cues, but we have deep empathy and we desperately want to understand and help. These dietary reactions are proof of this: hundreds of adults with autism who respond to these foods are working in areas designed to help others. The fact that it is harder for us to interpret social signals does not mean that we do not understand when they are explained clearly, without the strange social Morse code, or that we cannot feel empathy.
In fact, some autistic adults put forward the theory that we have too much empathy. We have so much empathy that when what we feel for a person doesn’t match what he says, we get confused and don’t seem to understand. Often we do not understand the attempts of others to hide their real emotions and demonstrate inconsistencies of social acceptability (Silberman, 2015). In online communities, many adults with autism call themselves hyperempathic.
Another thing confirmed by the mainstream is that people with autism are wonderful. (2015), 60% of autistic people have isolated special abilities. These special abilities predict our ability to function in a neurotypical society, but do not predict the extent of our struggle with autism. Uddin et al.we have pushed this research even further and divided these exceptional abilities into subgroups. The groups they divided people into included people with higher cognitive functioning, people with isolated special abilities, and those they describe as “twice exceptional” with both attributes. Studies confirm that people with autism are wonderful.
I hope this will show us that people with autism have empathy, skills and intelligence, and when we are in charge of guiding our own careers, we can thrive just like any neurotic in the job market. Many problems with job retention are associated with neurotypical expectations that autistic adults cannot meet. But when we build our own careers and develop our strengths, we can do things that will confuse many neurotics.