Autism: The Controversy Continues

What is autism? Does a diagnosis of autism doom a person to a hopeless and miserable life? Can autism be cured? Should it be? Ask these or any other questions about autism and the autism spectrum, and you will get a barrage of answers, many of which contradict each other. Autism is one of the most controversial and emotionally loaded topics around, these days, and there seems to be no end in sight for the conflicts and misunderstandings.

Any subject can generate controversy, but autism is especially volatile because in its current media-promoted state, the public has come to believe that it's exclusively about children and their caregivers. The loudest voices have been those of parents whose children are at the most severe end of the autism spectrum, many of whom believe that their children's lives have been destroyed by vaccines. Their negative view of autism and their desperate search for a cure has drowned out all other perspectives until fairly recently.

Practically unnoticed, the internet has enabled adults with every variety of autism to come together and share their experiences and concerns. On forums and in personal blogs, autistic adults are making their voices heard. Much of what they have to say contradicts the ideas that autism is a devastating disease that must be eradicated, and that their lives are tragedies. This is the source of the current controversies. The beliefs and goals of what has, up until now, been the mainstream voice is being brought into question. These new critics are appearing in ever larger numbers and are organizing themselves to fight harmful stereotyping, the neglect and abuse of autistic children, and the use of often inhumane techniques to change them into something they are not.

It's true that there are immoderate voices among autistic adults. But they're comparatively few. The majority only wish to ensure that all autistics are regarded as human beings with human rights, rather than as damaged objects incapable of understanding their own situation. They also want to serve as models for those parents who are too often sunk in despair when their children are diagnosed with autism.

Many autistic adults lead comparatively normal lives, but still contend with the psychological traumas stemming from the interventions and "treatments" they were subjected to in childhood. And if there is resentment, it comes from the understanding that, very often, those interventions were intended to make them more "normal," not to help them cope with the very real difficulties of a different neurology. They speak out about these issues, not to lay blame, but to make sure that future generations of autistic children don't go through the same suffering.

If there is a real tragedy of autism, it is that it is now divided into two opposing camps, one of which is too invested in its emotional needs to realize that the other side has much to offer. Why do parents of autistic children so often act as if their child's version of autism is the only authentic one? Why do they reject adult autistics who speak out as fakes, believing that "real" autistics can't speak or write, don't get married, hold jobs, or develop professional careers, or insist that they are trying to deprive helpless children of possible cures? How much are they depriving their children of when they refuse to pay attention to the voices of hope in order to concentrate on non-existent cures?

It's true that, for some families, autism is a physically and emotionally draining experience, a battle just to get through each day. But the hopelessly disabled children who have been held up as representative are actually in the minority. For these, society needs to provide far more than it does now - for the beleaguered parents, for the children as they are now, and for the adults that they will inevitably become. For most individuals on the autistic spectrum, life can be far richer and more satisfying than the media-supported public image.