An Autism Diagnosis That Isn’t Always Permanent
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I'm convinced my father would've been diagnosed with 'high-functioning autism' had it been a thing in his day/environment.
But he's happily married to someone who compensated for many, if not most of his deficiencies. Together they form a pretty functional human, and as a son I'm very lucky to have grown up with that.
At the same time, many of his quirks have become very noticeable now that I've been officially diagnosed with 'high functioning autism' too.
From his inability to deal with emotions of any sort to OCD(-ish) behavior around the house, from a lack of social life independent of his wife to obsessive interest in the most specific things, all of it strikes me as rather autistic, and uncomfortably recognizable, but softened by a life-long partnership.
It often makes me think about such diagnoses and how insular/individualistic they can often be, and how powerless they can leave one feeling when diagnosed. If you're 'on the spectrum' but your symptoms are mediated by partner/family/culture, are you still on the spectrum? In some ways, yes, but perhaps we don't talk enough about the influence of others or environment.
All this not in direct response to the article, just saying.
I do think that there's a ton that can be done by support. I think it's especially interesting since, as my parents have aged, many of their supports have been removed or become irrelevant, as you say, making their neurological quirks more and more evident. I hope when we get older there will be a better support network in place for aging ASD folks.
In my case a big challenge for me has just been accepting that I do need a significant support structure, and not feeling like that makes me less of an independent adult.
Powerlessness was the furthest thing from my mind when I was diagnosed. Having a classification means that you have options and measures and an implicit community. I always suspected I was on the spectrum, but the diagnosis gave me access to professionals who specialise in these conditions.
> If you're 'on the spectrum' but your symptoms are mediated by partner/family/culture, are you still on the spectrum?
Yes, 100% yes, completely, utterly yes. Having coping strategies are great. Having the "tools in the toolbelt" is completely necessary and being able to "pass" is critical. But ASD is a problem with managing stimulation and all the behavioural controls in the world aren't going to do squat to your frustrations, mood or exhaustion levels if you spend the day with overloaded inputs.
Autism spectrum is a very wide field, I realize, so I tell you that my son probably has neither Asperger nor AD[H]D, but perhaps early infant autism and as it seems not in a very severe manifestation but distinct enough that I sometimes have to explain it to other parents at the playground, for example.
August he will start kindergarten in a private school with Montessori pedagogy, in fact, he already attends a playgroup there two times a week and one afternoon outside in the woods and he always returns happy from there.
"Children who are longer diagnosed with ASD show improvements with communicating and interacting with other people, which can include more eye contact and an easier time with back-and-forth conversations.
The children, whose mean age was 2.5 years old, were diagnosed and treated at a university-affiliated early intervention program in the Bronx. They were re-evaluated four years later, on average. Most of the children received a mix of speech and occupational therapy and applied behavior analysis, the standard treatment for ASD."