No two snowflakes are alike
If you have had the honor of knowing someone with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, your life has been blessed with the extraordinary. You can honestly say you have someone in your life who is one of a kind. All too often, a lack of understanding the spectrum leads people to misconceptions that pervade reasonable thinking. These false impressions create a divide which can segregate regulars and uniques, causing obstacles for one in sixty-eight, making strides towards understanding and communication a challenging uphill climb. We thought it was crucial to set the record straight and debunk a few misunderstandings in hopes of bridging the divide between the neurodiverse and the neurotypical.
An Autism Spectrum Disorder is not a mental health disability. It is neurological. Individuals on the spectrum are not disabled, they are just wired differently than the average person. People on the autism spectrum have a wide range of intellectual abilities, often underestimated because the brain processes the environment differently, requiring extra time and effort translating emotion and basic social skills from thought to reality. However, where an individual with a spectrum disorder may find it difficult to perform a simple task, they often master advance functions faster than the average person.
Autism is not a disease. Autistic children and adults alike detest the notion that someone wants to fix them. They are not broken. If you want to help someone on the autism spectrum, put yourself in their shoes. Imagine traveling to a foreign Country, where English is not fluid among citizens. That nervous frustration of trying to communicate with another person abroad is an accurate analogy. Exhibit patience and understanding and give your loved one a chance to communicate with you.
An individual with autism is not an apathetic robot. In fact, autistic people feel and sense more than the average person can comprehend. The brain processes information differently by altering how nerve cells and impulses are transmitted and received. This synesthesia evokes the sensation of another, such as hearing a sound produces the visualization of a color. Sensory overload is difficult and can even cause pain. A person on the autism spectrum will endure this in silence, most of the time, which is why people mistake stillness for apathy.
These are merely a few simple misconceptions about Autism Spectrum Disorders we hope to open the public eye to. As part of our Autism Awareness efforts to educate and help the public to understand ASD’s, we encourage our readers to visualize life in the shoes of some of the most beautiful individuals to walk the earth. This editor can tell you first hand how extraordinary a friendship can be when social barriers have been removed and a connection has been built for life.