A Term, A Term, My Old Car For A Term

Welcome back! This week we continue to look at the article from THE ASPERGIAN A NEURODIVERGENT COLLECTIVE (their all-caps, not mine. Probably trying to be all dramatic and such) AND THE TOPIC OF...sorry, forgot I left caps-lock on, and the topic of the article: spectrum; does it really mean what we think it means? Last week I was going on about how the author is using the colour spectrum as an example of the Autism/Aspergers spectrum, but it’s also not like the Autism/Aspergers spectrum (and how I was not able to cover that last week but hope to do so this week). So just how exactly is the colour spectrum not like the neurological spectrum? Well let's take a look-see.

You know how a black hole is a hole that sucks in everything, including light (hence the name black hole), this looks like a pic of what a white hole would look like: a hole that spews out everything, including light. Lots and lots of light.

Firstly, according to the author, we talk about the spectrum as if it’s a gradient, rather than an actual spectrum. You can either be a “little autistic/aspie”,  “a-lot autistic/aspie”, or somewhere in between (alternatively, the author notes, “a-lot autistic/aspie” is also known as “tragic autistic/aspie”. Something we may have all heard of before). But, like all other stereotypical ways used to define minority groups, this is a rather simplistic way of categorizing a diverse group. It's not like your traits get worse as you move up on the spectrum (or for the nerdy/geeky, it’s not like you levelling up your character but instead of getting more powerful skills/powers, they just get worse).

Apparently, according to the article, the whole spectrum thing is so far off that even the DSM-V is against it. Calling Autism/Aspergerss an “uneven profile of abilities” (THE ASPERGIAN: A NEURODIVERGENT COLLECTIVE). Must be why there is a saying of “if you’ve seen one person with autism, you’ve met on one person with autism” (or so the article says, this is the first time I’ve heard of it). Autism/Aspergers’s, the article claims, is not one condition but a myriad of related neurological conditions, impossibly intertwined that professionals have stopped trying to sort them in neat boxes (weather the article means actual professionals or “professionals” is unclear, but probably the former).

Ever wonder how many boxes they came up with to try and fit us in? My guess is thirty, but chances are I’m not even close.

Instead, the article says, the spectrum is really more like a rainbow of traits, rather than a spectrum of traits. The colours being: Pragmatic language, Social awareness, Monotropic mindset, Information processing, Sensory processing, Repetitive behaviours and Neuro-motor differences (I won’t post the meaning of all the phrases above here, as that would take more time than I want to. If you want to see the meanings, then I suggest you visit the article here. Yes, I am that lazy). How do you know you’re Autistic/Asperger? If you check all, or most of the boxes on the list, than you, dear reader, are on the spectrum. At least as far as the article is concerned, still might want to get tested by a professional rather than a random site online, unless you like webMD.

Ever heard of webMD? I ran a test where I put in some symptoms (runny nose, sneezing, eye blinking), that happens when I get allergies, and I got a list like this: ADHD, Epilepsy, intoxication and more, in that order. I guess allergies didn't even make the top ten.

Well that does it for this week’s post. Next week we will continue to peer through this article, and maybe find out what what we are supposed to call the Autism/Aspergers’s, if not a spectrum (just looked at the article now, and it is a loooooong one, probably won’t cover all of it). But until then, this continues to be, The Audacious Aspie.    

P.S. After getting some feedback and doing some research, I now regret writing my posts about CASDA and it’s proposal. I was unaware that they worked with Autism Speaks, and therefore wrote a couple of posts promoting their plan in my error. Next time I will do better.

Source used:

https://theaspergian.com/2019/05/04/its-a-spectrum-doesnt-mean-what-you-think/