Autism in Adulthood

by Gabrielle DeNevyn

Why isn’t anyone dealing with autistic adults? I have read a lot about how to help your autistic child-but what about those of us who have made it to adulthood, we don’t just STOP being autistic when we grow up. I hear so much about dealing with children with autism, and how “early intervention” produces dramatic results. I don’t, however, want to be trained to be the perfect “normal” person-I can put on that act but it’s like a cage, and it’s extremely tiring for me. To train children to be so HORRIFYS me. We’re indoctrinating them. It’s sick.

I would love for someone to look into the correlation between Chronic Fatigue and AS or HFA. I have been tired all my life and I believe it is because of the effort needed to try to interact with people on a “normal” level, when, in truth it might be better served to let me be me-with all my dysfunction. It is society who should become more accepting of differences, and realize that though I AM different, my brain is even different, DIFFERENT DOES NOT EQUAL BAD! It is essential that this fact be understood if we are ever to get along in a global community. We can see the effect of the belief that different is bad, in what is going on in the world today.

I have so much to give to the world in my natural state, normal for ME. How can they talk about shutting us down, making us cut off our creativity? Make us dumb drones to fit in. NO! I rebel against this! It is the innovators and the oddballs who effect change, who are the inventors and the leaders. Hold up Einstein, hold up Edison, and realize that they were not special people because they learned to get along in society-they said Hell with it-this is what I am. They didn’t even think of it-they didn’t care, they were just themselves and look what they accomplished-revered as some of the greatest minds of all times.

What I want is to get over the social anxiety caused by people telling me I have to fit in or change or making me feel bad because I’m different. All that is needed is to teach these children–and adults alike, self-esteem and let them create what they want to be, what WE want to be.

So what if we don’t fit in. We have to make ourselves understand that we are different, we are special, and if we aren’t accepted it is because the other person is not accepting and, if we analyze our own behaviors and actions, and find nothing at fault by our own standards and find in them nothing to harm-then what IS the harm and in what way is it wrong? We often tolerate the “odd” behaviors of persons of religions not our own. We simply say: well, they have different beliefs, so they do things that are different from us. So should we look at any person, each individual is going to have evolved their own beliefs and no two will be alike. Therefore we have to respect each person’s beliefs and actions stemming from them. Respect each person as an individual who is DIFFERENT.

When someone who is drastically different appears, they are no less deserving of the same respect as long as they are respectful of our individual space/beliefs and us. It is this respect we should teach our autistic children and let them be who they are. I feel this will lead to greater happiness and possibly the next great invention of the human race