An Era of Misinformation
Nowadays, especially when it comes to health and wellness, it’s all too easy to confuse facts for fiction. To help you better understand neurodivergence, here are 20 things you should know about autism.
1. It’s A Disease
While some people think autism is a disease, they couldn’t be further from the truth. Autism is a developmental disability and has nothing to do with something that can be transmitted. People with autism simply have not had their brain and functions developed the same way that someone without it has.
2. Vaccines Cause Autism
There are a number of people who believe in the myth that vaccines cause autism. This has been critically ridiculed, and studies around it are majorly flawed. While there were studies that were focused on the correlation between vaccination and autism, a study done in 1999 disproved all the conspiracies and myths regarding this issue.
3. Autistic Kids Are More Violent
Thinking that autistic kids are more prone to violence is simply incorrect. While all kids have a tendency to cry or throw things, or even bite sometimes, this is not an exclusive thing to kids with autism. Autistic children are simply more expressive when it comes to their emotions, giving the impression that they are more violent when in reality their emotions are just more amplified.
4. Bad Parenting Causes Autism
This is one of those myths that just doesn’t make medical or logical sense. Being a bad parent in any way cannot cause a child to become autistic. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder; it’s not determined by a parenting style.
5. Autistic People Can’t Learn
Just like people who don’t have autism can have learning disabilities, so can those with autism. Even though autistic people may have more challenges, that is not directly related to them not being able to learn. As a matter of fact, autistic people may even have certain strengths and abilities that can help them learn better.
6. You Can Grow Out of Autism
Autism is a genetic and lifelong condition that cannot be grown out of. While it is definitely harder to go through life, there are a number of treatments and things that can improve the quality of life if diagnosed early. Some kids with autism may start to show signs of “outgrowing” the symptoms, but this could simply be due to them masking their behaviors, or in rare cases, a misdiagnosis of autism.
7. Autistic People Have a Low IQ
While autistic people have a harder time going through life than many, low IQ and autism are not directly related. An IQ study done in 2021 with 890 individuals with autism proved that over 59 percent of the candidates scored an above-average IQ score or higher. This directly disproves the myth that autistic people have a low IQ.
8. They Don't Feel Emotions
This one is simply completely backward when it comes to the facts. Autistic people not only feel emotions, but they feel them more amplified than others. The heightened sensitivity to their own emotions, as well as those around them, comes due to the fact that people with autism have a hard time regulating their emotions, leading to them feeling too much or being hypersensitive.
9. Autistic People Have a Superpower
Although some autistic people have been shown to have better attention to detail or heightened memory, this can be the case with almost anyone. While increased focus and concentration can seem like a superpower at times, they are simply a result of the brain neurons being out of order and over-focusing on one thing. People with autism have many challenges they face every day, and sometimes things that seem regular and normal to others can come across as a heightened sense in autistic people.
10. Autism is an Epidemic
The rise of autism diagnoses has led many people to believe that it is an epidemic. This is, however, factually incorrect, as the reason for increased autism diagnoses is due to improved diagnostic criteria, advanced medicine, as well as increased autism awareness. Scientific research does not support the idea that an autism epidemic can ever be a thing.
Now that we have discussed the common misconceptions, here are 10 facts you should know.
1. Autism Doesn’t Go Away
Autism is a lifelong condition that does not go away over time or with age. While there are many challenges people with autism face, there are also lots of treatments and help that can make their lives better. Learning to live with it and work alongside it can be of great help and improvement of quality of life.
2. Boys Are More Likely to be Diagnosed
While both genders can be diagnosed with autism, it is a lot more prevalent in boys. The statistics show that for every four boys diagnosed, one girl gets diagnosed. This could be due to one study showing that girls get misdiagnosed with other things that are actually proven to be autism later in life.
3. The Statistics
With the increased awareness of autism, as well as medical improvements and advancements, it’s good to know the numbers. Studies and statistics show that roughly one in thirty-six children in the U.S. are diagnosed with autism. The number differs when it comes to adults, as it gets to one in forty-five.
4. The Spectrum is Not Linear
Contrary to common belief, the autism spectrum is not linear. It has many different symptoms and aspects to it. The best way to think of it is in the form of a spiky profile. The dots on the profile closer to the center of the circle would represent a domain or skill with more support needs, while those closer to the edges are areas of strength.
5. People With Autism Can Live a Normal Life
Although some people with autism need substantial help in life, others can live a fairly normal life. Even with challenges that they face, autistic people can in fact thrive in many areas. The key to this is proper guidance and coaching, as well as preparations and training of life skills.
6. The Levels of Autism
There are many different forms of autism. When it comes to how severe they are, they can be categorized into three levels. The first one is people who require very little support or help; the second is people requiring substantial support, and finally, the third is people requiring very heavy and constant support.
Susan Holt Simpson on Unsplash
7. There Is No Cure
Unfortunately, there is no known cure when it comes to autism. As autism is not an illness or a disease, a cure for a differently developed brain and neural system is beyond our current medical understanding. This doesn’t mean that people with autism necessarily need a cure, just that they will be the way they are born likely their whole lives.
8. It Can Affect Any Race
Autism is not something that is fixed to a certain race. People of any race and from any part of the world can be diagnosed with it. While there were substantial studies done when it comes to racial and ethnic groups showing different numbers, all of them have proven one thing, and that is that autism does not target a specific race.
9. Over Honesty
When it comes to social interactions and emotion control, autistic people can be a bit extra in some aspects. Suppressing or holding back emotions and feelings is something that people with autism are not the best at, which can lead to brutal honesty at times. This also means that they feel negative emotions more too, so be a kind human being and don’t be rude or mean to anyone, especially autistic people.
10. Do Not Talk Down to Autistic People
Talking down to anyone is quite a rude thing to do, and that goes double for people with autism. As they feel emotions more amplified than others do, it can be a very hurtful and disrespectful thing to do to talk down to them. This can also have a much longer-lasting effect on them, way more than some might think.
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