💥It's World Autism Awareness Day!💥
As well as it being World Autism Acceptance Month, it's also World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) It's a double whammy of all things autism, hooray!
The UN established World Autism Awareness Day way back in 2007 as a chance for organizations and people to promote the research, diagnosis, treatment, and acceptance of those affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) It's also a chance to celebrate and commemorate the achievements of autistic people.
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
The Oxford English Dictionary describes ASD as;
"a neurodevelopmental condition of variable severity with lifelong effects that can be recognized from early childhood, chiefly characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication and by restricted or repetitive patterns of thought and behaviour."
So contrary to what many still think, ASD is nothing to do with mental health and is not an illness, learning disability, or disease, though 8/10 autistic people do experience mental health problems, which I'll cover another day. ASD means our brains are built and wired differently and it's thought to be genetic. It can manifest in numerous ways and scientists are only very recently discovering actual changes within the brain that may cause this slightly different way of thinking.
Autism is a spectrum, meaning it's not linear as first thought, so there's no "more autistic" or "less autistic", "good autistic" or "bad autistic", as each autistic person has a unique combination of characteristics broken down into the main categories of communication, behaviours, interests and sensory processing. Autistic people can be very different from each other. The presence (or visibility) of these characteristics can vary hugely between autistic folk. This can also change over time, in different situations or if the person is masking. Again, I'll cover masking another day. It is so important not to make assumptions about an autistic person’s skills, abilities or support needs, as each of us are different.
So that's a basic crash course on what autism is and what it isn't.
If there's anything specific regarding autism, ADHD, or neurodivergence in general you'd like to know more about, please let me know and I'll do my best to get something up this month. 😊
Fun Fact; WAAD is one of only seven official health-specific UN Days!
Comments
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Thank you @Albus_Scope for this I learnt a lot
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Glad you found it useful @Lucy_Scope luckily one of my hyperfixations ended up being learning as much as I could about neurodivergence. 😆
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There definitely is a strong genetic factor with autism, no doubt about it.
Just last weekend, my 80 yr old Mother in law announced she thinks she is autistic! And she absolutely is.
I am sure life was much easier in days gone by for ND people because life was more structured.
Education was delivered at forward facing desks, all learning the same thing at the same time, drilled in the same way.
And your destiny in life was practically set from birth.
Hence, my mum in law went dating as a teenager, married by 20, became a housewife and mum.
My husband, who is also definitely autistic but not diagnosed met me when he was 21 and we had kids soon after so he had no option but to go to work and crack on. Though he has been on anti depresssnts for 35 years continuously now, he's managed (good wife!)
And then ALL five of our kids are autistic. I really don't think i am autistic but i do think it's highly likely i have adhd (undiagnosed and it hasn't really caused me too many problems in life so i won't ever have a need to be diagnosed)
And my brother - i know my mum thought he was autistic so i think very likely both my hubby and i are carrying genetic coding for autism to have all of our kids affected.
What's interesting to me is our family history. My dad i'm pretty sure was adhd and we have some really interesting characters on his side who took very impulsive decisions.
A lot of them were army, navy and i do wonder if they were packed off there to "instill some discipline into them"
And, my mum's side - my mum wasn't autistic but her brother (my uncle) i know he was a very difficult baby, his first marriage failed, he had drink issues, temper issues and he also headed off into the navy after failing at on-shore work.
Has anyone else joined the dots with autism in their family?
I think my granddaughter too is showing signs of autism. Her motor skills are very slow. Her dad (my son) is autistic and his partner is dyslexic so this isn't too surprising.
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Thank you for sharing this @Albus_Scope. These posts are really insightful 🙂
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Hi @Albus_Scope Do you have any information on how to support someone with Autism with developing relationships? I have clients who know they want a relationship but find it hard to have one/ know where to start with connecting with people.
I am a professional, so any courses on this to help me support others better would be great but also anything for autistic adults would also be great, as I am very keen on empowering others as opposed to doing it for them.
Many thanks!
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Albus is no longer with us just a bump up for a mod who may be able to help
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Hi @HannahMc, welcome to the community. As Michael mentioned, unfortunately the lovely Albus is no longer with us, but I hope some of this might be useful to you.
There is some more information about relationships and a few links with information and resources here:
Durham University have a guide on forming healthy relationships but this is mostly to help Autistic people recognise 'red flags' in relationships rather than how you can get started. I know that may not be quite what you're after but I'll link it just in case that's useful to you in any way:https://www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/latest-news/2024/04/autistic-guide-to-healthy-relationships/
Sorry that I can't provide any more solid links to courses, but it may be worth getting in touch with the National Autistic Society to see whether they have any further ideas. Hope you're able to find some good leads soon ☺️
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