What you see in the title is something that someone I grew up with said about my autism.
I was reminded of this when I saw something just now.
A lot of people still think autism is interchangeable with being mentally handicapped. And some extremely stupid people think it’s something you can “beat” like it’s some sort of affliction that destroys families.
Autism speaks is one such organization that says it’s like that last part.
I don’t know how to define autism and neither do 100% of autism specialists I’ve spoken to
This is just me venting about people who don’t get it and refuse to learn each case of autism is unique
When you feel things more intensely than others, and something as simple as too much background noise or bright light is enough to cause sensory overload, I think the chances of “beating” it become nonexistent. It’s exhausting just trying to appear normal even when everything seems fine.
True. This could however look different, if public spaces would be designed in a way that would comfort neurodiverse folk, for instance. Why is it even a thing people design such things if they don’t care much about lights and smells and noise and all that? Unfortunately the world is built to exclude certain people, races, genders.
Reminds me of that one time I listened to some talk in a newish building a few years back. There was this extremely annoying sound of air-conditioner, which made it impossible for me to concentrate on anything that was said. Eventually I asked if it could be turned off and as the answer was no, one of the other’s said something along the lines of “You will just forget about it in a few minutes” and I just thought “You have no f*ing idea”
I actually went to school with a low functioning autistic guy who had to wear earplugs everywhere he went.
He was kind of loud an obnoxious and the teachers always tried to talk to him as if he could be reasoned with the same way you can reason with high functioning people, it never worked and the teachers never figured it out