So if we don’t blame the cheese, what should we blame?
If autism isn’t the real problem, what is?
Well, some people believe vaccines are to blame. There’s a heated debate about whether vaccines cause autism and new information seems to be added to that debate every day. The problem is that people are looking for a single solution. Yes, vaccines probably can cause autism, but most likely this is only the cause in a small number of children. And even if it is vaccines, it is more than likely the mercury content in those vaccines. So really mercury poisoning is to blame, not autism.
Then, once you get past all the causes of autism, what is to blame for the hard things that come with autism?
Things like self injurious behaviors aren’t really from autism as much as they are from other things that interfere with autism. For example, a child could self injure because they have a medical problem causing them pain and are either trying to communicate that problem or trying to distract themselves from that pain. Or they could self injure because it focuses their attention on something tangible rather than the intangible anxiety or uncomfortableness of their environment. So in those cases, medical problems or anxiety are to blame.
When it comes to not being able to make friends or being bullied because you have autism, shouldn’t it be society and our skewed ideals that are to blame? If we valued people despite their disabilities or differences, these problems wouldn’t be so prevalent.
What I’m trying to say is that blaming autism isn’t always the most beneficial or correct thing to do. Some things are autism, but some things aren’t. Blaming autism for everything that’s hard or any time something goes wrong leads children and adults to believe that they’re broken. It leads people with autism to feel damaged, unworthy, not good enough. Because even when we can hide our autism and blend in, sometimes we still feel autistic and if being autistic is equated with everything negative, it’s easy to extrapolate that to yourself. Then we become broken people and even if you’re a broken person, you still don’t want to feel broken…
autismthoughts 
Society is still maturing. The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals) was formed in 1824 in the UK BEFORE the rights for children were established, later in 1884, the NSPCC (National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children). We have come a long way but there is still far to go.
Unfortunately bullying is a dirty part of society for now, we see this in business, communities, religion, military, schools and online. Competition and ambition is encouraged and for those who feel insecure within themselves they feel the need to compete with others, but I think competition should be with oneself, to better oneself. I don’t really believe in competition in the traditional sense. It implies that someone loses. Ambition tangles itself with monetary gain and people rates success with one scale, how much money one makes. Success can be measured many ways. It depends on what one values or what ones goals are.
Until everyday people stand up and say it is unacceptable behaviour to bully or abuse another person the cycle will remain. Leadership is the issue. The Bystander Approach is talked about here…
http://www.ted.com/talks/jackson_katz_violence_against_women_it_s_a_men_s_issue from about 8.09 – 13.09
Stigma of mental illness, disability and being different is prevalent in society. Ignorance and fear is the cause of much misinformation. Awareness and knowledge forms a path that makes it easier for society to understand, accept and welcome those differences. Autism and Aspergers are words that are in more use today. There is still much to learn but it being talked about. That’s a start.
The more I read about vaccines and autism the less I understand.
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Yeah, hopefully society will continue to mature and become better at this sort of thing.
As far as the whole vaccine issue goes, if people keep insisting it’s either the reason for autism or not, we’re never gonna get anywhere. It may be a reason, but it’s not the reason. So it has been at the point of ridiculousness for years.
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I often think that we have all these boxes on the autistic spectrum that difficulties are shoe horned into to satisfy a standard that is easier to work around. The more I think of it the more I would like to see a ‘normal’ being described including ALL ‘dis-orders’. This would mean everyone and society as a whole would not be treated as ‘different’ but accommodated as normal. I am not sure if i have explained this well…
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I think I got it. It’s been shown that it does help to normalize children with autism (and by normalize I mean make their differences seem normal, not the other way around). If other kids view them as normal then they’re less likely to get bullied or isolated. If everyone realized how normal it is to be different, I think we’d all get along a lot better.
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Loved this post and especially your last sentence on the last comment. Completely true, I hope the world catches up to you someday!
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Thanks! Glad you liked it 🙂
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