Autism: Let's get real about it!

This post came about after witnessing endless arguments on various autism blogs. Arguments that do not make much sense to me because in the end, we all want the same: the best for people with autism. Autism is complex and touches us in many ways. Everyone sees the issues from their own perspective, none of which is fully accurate and complete. None of which is wrong either. We have more to gain to find ways to complement each other than stay divided. My own journey through autism illustrates the sort of mind changes that took place for me. In a way, I have been every one of your little fractions at some point of my life. I can now carry all of these within me with some inner peace and faith, because I believe that life and knowledge are what will prevail at the end of the day.

It is all too easy to forget the reality of the life of people who appears overall to be functioning, their daily struggle to reach a true inclusion in our society, happiness and independence. It’s all too easy to forget the extreme chalenges other people more affected still face, those who cannot speak, those who can not make sense of their world, those who are in total dependency, at the mercy of the worse possible abuse.

If I did not know about autism, I would be a fool myself.

I learned about autism and got into it much before my son was born. The book that got me into this was from a German autistic non verbal boy, written in 1993 when he was 20 year old. His name is Birger Sellin, his book, I Don't Want to Be Inside Me Anymore: Messages from Autistic Mind. The book raised a huge controversy at the time because it was thought that non-verbal autistic people were mentally retarded and unable to communicate and express complex thoughts. This boy was presented through his writing as being trapped inside himself, only able to communicate the most eloquent form of poetry through assisted communication with the help of his mother. She seemed to be the only person understanding him and enabling to let him be expressive. To me, this book represented a sum of cumulating influences; anti-war, revolution, politics, freedom, individualities of mind, and definitely very socialist ideas. It was presenting a view of autism that I would now call, romantic, because it was in a way very abstract and idealist.

And if my son was not born after that initial book, I would have then moved on to others books, no doubt some of them would have been from Simon Baron-Cohen and guess what? I would have found them to be highly intellectually pleasing.

What did we once said? Autism as a good dinner table conversation? Yeah, a good table dinner topic, no reality to it, other than a spectral academic and intellectual one. I have lived in academic illusions most of my adult life, I know what it feels like.

Well, I have not stopped at that romantic glossy autism picture. I have seen most its facets, experienced it personally with my guts, hated it too, more than once. I have felt it with my hands and with my tears. With my smiles too and with my love.

This is to come to the point that should bring us together, fighting for a common cause, our children. The emotions surrounding autism should bring us together and not apart. Let’s always, always, always be real about autism.