Autism is a mental illness and a disability

[my life is trash]

Autism has no positive aspects, It does not grant you special insight on the true nature of life and society. It's does the opposite. Autism in it's various forms is a severe psychological disability. If you have been diagnosed with some form of Autism, you are handicapped. Most people believe in falsehoods, but that don't change the fact that you are even more hindered in your ability to understand your own life and the society you are emersed in than a neurotypical person. The nature of your predicament is even more hopeless than you realize.

[MrMan]

Autism has no positive aspects, It does not grant you special insight on the true nature of life and society. It's does the opposite. Autism in it's various forms is a severe psychological disability. If you have been diagnosed with some form of Autism, you are handicapped. Most people believe in falsehoods, but that don't change the fact that you are even more hindered in your ability to understand your own life and the society you are emersed in than a neurotypical person. The nature of your predicament is even more hopeless than you realize.

Can it help someone play the piano well, do math, and count the number of matchsticks from a box that falls in one second? How about counting cards like in Rain Man?

[Prince of Cups]

Autism has no positive aspects, It does not grant you special insight on the true nature of life and society. It's does the opposite. Autism in it's various forms is a severe psychological disability. If you have been diagnosed with some form of Autism, you are handicapped. Most people believe in falsehoods, but that don't change the fact that you are even more hindered in your ability to understand your own life and the society you are emersed in than a neurotypical person. The nature of your predicament is even more hopeless than you realize.

Can it help someone play the piano well, do math, and count the number of matchsticks from a box that falls in one second? How about counting cards like in Rain Man?

No. Autism is a mental illness, not some superpower. That's why people who are diagnosed with it are usually on disability allowance.

[Lucas88]

No. Autism is a mental illness, not some superpower. That's why people who are diagnosed with it are usually on disability allowance.

I think people have been watching The Good Doctor a bit too much. Most autistic people don't actually have a "superpower". Lol!

If you take a look at the 102 or so gene mutations found to be connected to autism, many of them are known to have a negative effect on such things as chromatin remodeling, synaptic connectivity and neuronal function, and a subset of them are involved in serious disorders such as Rett and Angelman syndrome. Autism is far from being simply a cute "personality quirk" like the neurodiversity crowd want you to believe.

Furthermore, genome-wide association studies from the 2010s (e.g. Sanders et al., 2015) have found than ASD individuals tend to exhibit significantly more de novo mutations — i.e., those which occur spontaneously and aren't inherited from either parent — than their non-ASD siblings. In light of this finding, the development of ASD might possibly be due to the mutation of genes associated with gene repair and genetic stability, which would in turn give rise to many other gene mutations with potentially negative effects. This could explain why people with an ASD diagnosis are affected by other disorders such as ADHD, OCD, schizophrenia and even transgenderism at a far higher rate than the general population.

Then, in addition to the genetic factors, there is also mounting evidence that pre-natal exposure to environmental toxins such as microplastics, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, pesticides and particulate matter among other things plays a huge role in the current autism epidemic.

Finally, recent studies have shown a link between dysfunction of the microbiome and autism.

So yes, autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder and disability and the medical establishment should be looking for cures in the form of gene editing and fecal microbiota transplantation.

But, of course, most people are scientifically illiterate and prefer to derive their view of reality from TV. Lol!

[Prince of Cups]

No. Autism is a mental illness, not some superpower. That's why people who are diagnosed with it are usually on disability allowance.

I think people have been watching The Good Doctor a bit too much. Most autistic people don't actually have a "superpower". Lol!

If you take a look at the 102 or so gene mutations found to be connected to autism, many of them are known to have a negative effect on such things as chromatin remodeling, synaptic connectivity and neuronal function, and a subset of them are involved in serious disorders such as Rett and Angelman syndrome. Autism is far from being simply a cute "personality quirk" like the neurodiversity crowd want you to believe.

Furthermore, genome-wide association studies from the 2010s (e.g. Sanders et al., 2015) have found than ASD individuals tend to exhibit significantly more de novo mutations — i.e., those which occur spontaneously and aren't inherited from either parent — than their non-ASD siblings. In light of this finding, the development of ASD might possibly be due to the mutation of genes associated with gene repair and genetic stability, which would in turn give rise to many other gene mutations with potentially negative effects. This could explain why people with an ASD diagnosis are affected by other disorders such as ADHD, OCD, schizophrenia and even transgenderism at a far higher rate than the general population.

Then, in addition to the genetic factors, there is also mounting evidence that pre-natal exposure to environmental toxins such as microplastics, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, pesticides and particulate matter among other things plays a huge role in the current autism epidemic.

Finally, recent studies have shown a link between dysfunction of the microbiome and autism.

So yes, autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder and disability and the medical establishment should be looking for cures in the form of gene editing and fecal microbiota transplantation.

But, of course, most people are scientifically illiterate and prefer to derive their view of reality from TV. Lol!

You're quite right. Those who are talking about neurodevelopmental disorders as super powers obviously don't have to live with things like ADHD or autism. It's really ignorant and stupid actually when someone comes out with uneducated bullshit about such people having some kind of super intelligence or whatever.

[Prince of Cups]

No. Autism is a mental illness, not some superpower. That's why people who are diagnosed with it are usually on disability allowance.

I think people have been watching The Good Doctor a bit too much. Most autistic people don't actually have a "superpower". Lol!

If you take a look at the 102 or so gene mutations found to be connected to autism, many of them are known to have a negative effect on such things as chromatin remodeling, synaptic connectivity and neuronal function, and a subset of them are involved in serious disorders such as Rett and Angelman syndrome. Autism is far from being simply a cute "personality quirk" like the neurodiversity crowd want you to believe.

Furthermore, genome-wide association studies from the 2010s (e.g. Sanders et al., 2015) have found than ASD individuals tend to exhibit significantly more de novo mutations — i.e., those which occur spontaneously and aren't inherited from either parent — than their non-ASD siblings. In light of this finding, the development of ASD might possibly be due to the mutation of genes associated with gene repair and genetic stability, which would in turn give rise to many other gene mutations with potentially negative effects. This could explain why people with an ASD diagnosis are affected by other disorders such as ADHD, OCD, schizophrenia and even transgenderism at a far higher rate than the general population.

Then, in addition to the genetic factors, there is also mounting evidence that pre-natal exposure to environmental toxins such as microplastics, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, pesticides and particulate matter among other things plays a huge role in the current autism epidemic.

Finally, recent studies have shown a link between dysfunction of the microbiome and autism.

So yes, autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder and disability and the medical establishment should be looking for cures in the form of gene editing and fecal microbiota transplantation.

But, of course, most people are scientifically illiterate and prefer to derive their view of reality from TV. Lol!

You're quite right. Those who are talking about neurodevelopmental disorders as super powers obviously don't have to live with things like ADHD or autism. It's really ignorant and stupid actually when someone comes out with uneducated bullshit about such people having some kind of super intelligence or whatever.

[MrMan]

Well, I was half joking, but there are the 'savant' type who are autistic but have some amazing ability, for example the ability to do amazing mathematical calculations. There was a movie about this back in the 1980's, I think, where Dustin Hoffman played a heavily autistic older brother whose existence was hidden from a character played by Tom Cruise until after his father died. Tom Cruise took him to Vegas, where he counted cards and won them a lot of money. Hoffman's character saw matches or toothpicks fall on the ground and knew instantly (presumably) how many were laying on the floor.

There is a video on YouTube about a high functioning autistic European man who can do very difficult mathematical calculations instantly who learned Icelandic in a few days.

Most autistic people do not have these abilities.

[Prince of Cups]

Well, I was half joking, but there are the 'savant' type who are autistic but have some amazing ability, for example the ability to do amazing mathematical calculations. There was a movie about this back in the 1980's, I think, where Dustin Hoffman played a heavily autistic older brother whose existence was hidden from a character played by Tom Cruise until after his father died. Tom Cruise took him to Vegas, where he counted cards and won them a lot of money. Hoffman's character saw matches or toothpicks fall on the ground and knew instantly (presumably) how many were laying on the floor.

There is a video on YouTube about a high functioning autistic European man who can do very difficult mathematical calculations instantly who learned Icelandic in a few days.

Most autistic people do not have these abilities.

Counting cards is easy. It doesn't require autism to do this. That being said, people with autism can still be intelligent, but their social skills are severely impaired. It's as though people try to convince mentally ill neurodivergent types they are special superheroes or something as a consolation for being mentally ill.

Fair enough that you were joking.