Addressing A Problematic Article

My attention has been drawn to an article by Tom Clements on The Guardian's opinions section of their website. The article is titled What Is Autism? How The Term Became Too Broad To Have Meaning Any More and revolves around a recent study that apparently concluded that the difference between neurotypical people and autistic people is shrinking. In 10 years Dr. Laurent Mottron who conducted the study believes that there will be no difference at all.

Let me go through the article and address some of the issues with it and why it's drawn the ire of the autistic community. In the very first paragraph Clements states that autism means different things to different people (fair enough, the autistic spectrum is a broad one meaning no 2 autistic people are the same) and ranges from just being socially awkward to being "a medical disability that entails unpredictable bouts of aggression resulting in torn upholstery, cracked skulls and savage bites." These bouts of aggression that he refers to are not bouts of aggression at all, they're autistic meltdowns. I've already covered what a meltdown is in a post a few weeks back but just to reiterate, a meltdown is the body's response to overload whether that's from sensory input, stress or anything else. Because of the distressing nature of meltdowns it can mean that some people hurt themselves while in meltdown, which is why I offered some safety tips in the other post. But the vast majority of autistics don't hurt anybody else despite what's implied by the words "cracked skulls and savage bites." If an autistic person is being aggressive and proving to be a risk to those around them, chances are there's something more than autism going on.

The next thing the article states is that families of autistics "often experience PTSD and stress similar to that of combat veterans." This statement alone is incredibly harmful as it depicts the families of autistic loved ones as victims of some horrible disease or atrocity that nobody deserves to ever go through. While admittedly some families with autistic members do struggle, it depends on the individual because - as I mentioned before - autism is a broad spectrum that affects everyone differently. The family's level of understanding and acceptance can also play a huge role in how much they struggle.

Clements' article later goes on to bash the neurodiversity movement, saying that it trivialises conditions such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia, and also that it's exclusionary of those on the "severe" end of the spectrum. Neurodiversity does what it says on the tin. It encompasses any and all neurological types. While it may be difficult to reach out to individuals who may for example be non-verbal or require regular support or representation, what neurodiversity is all about is instilling the mindset that every life is equally valuable and having a different neurotype to somebody else is no different to having a different skin colour or a different gender. Clements again takes a shot at those whose autism has more of an obvious external effect by saying that you won't see any autistics at a workplace neurodiversity event who have an IQ under 30 and regularly lash out and soil themselves. Again, the kind of people that he's referring to more than likely have other issues aside from autism.

Another point that the article makes is that by advocating for ourselves we autistics are creating a divide between us and autism parents, and he also follows up on his put down of self-advocacy by taking a shot at self-diagnosis, which I'll get to in a minute. At the end of the day nobody knows an experience better than those who have lived it. When I still lived at home my dad would sometimes be a backseat driver despite the fact that I've been driving since I was 20 and he's never driven a car in his life. As a driver I'm the one who's qualified to comment on driving, just like as an autistic person I'm qualified to explain and describe autism to neurotypicals. Rightly or wrongly, autism parents do have a reputation for playing the victim and wanting their child's autism cured, although in fairness I have seen some autism parents on Twitter actively asking for help and support directly from autistics using the hashtag #AskingAutistics, and this is how it should be.

With regard to self-diagnosis, Clements credits this for the watering down of the term autism and discredits it as nothing more than a fashion label. Self-diagnosis is perfectly valid, and anyone who genuinely identifies as autistic (regardless of any formal diagnosis - or lack thereof) is more than welcome in the autistic community. Without going into too much details, the reasons for this include but are by no means limited to:
- The fact that it's difficult to actually get a diagnosis (I myself went through 2 separate assessments and waited a number of years before I was finally diagnosed this past December),
- Diagnosis can depend on gender although autism is now being increasing recognised in women which is great, and
- Ultimately, who knows you better than you?

One of the final things that Clements does in his article is he makes a comparison between his own autism which he claims was diagnosed as "upper-end autism", and his brother's autism who he notes will need full time care for the rest of his life. He also states that himself and his brother clearly have completely separate conditions. Now I don't pretend to know anything about his brother, but if his brother is anything like the comments Clements has made regarding unpredictable violence, soiling themselves and so on, at the risk of sounding like a broken record I'm going to say that there are probably other things going on besides autism. And if that's the case then he's absolutely right - he and his brother do have completely separate conditions although they both share the fact that they're autistic.

Clements concludes his article by saying that autism needs to be divided into separate conditions and that we should start by reintroducing Asperger's syndrome, which is still currently being phased out in many areas. I'm actually planning a whole separate post on Asperger's for a later date, but just quickly, the reason Asperger's is being phased out is because if somebody is diagnosed with Asperger's it doesn't mean they're any less autistic than somebody diagnosed with autism/ASD. And also, there are many people who no longer want the label of Asperger's after the news came out not too long ago that Hans Asperger was a Nazi sympathiser and they don't want to be associated with a condition named after somebody who did the things he did.

The closing sentence of the article states that Clement's intentions are to look out for the wellbeing of the most vulnerable in society, and for the "lower end" of autism to be treated with the seriousness that it deserves. I completely understand and appreciate his intentions in standing up for society's most vulnerable, but I genuinely don't think that their vulnerability has as much to do with autism as he says it does. There are also much better ways of going about it than making harmful statements about a community in an article published by a national newspaper.