Depathologizing Asperger’s / autism ~ it’s a normal and healthy neurological orientation

It’s about self-acceptance and self-advocacy in the LGBT community have laid the groundwork for the same in the autism community. Noteworthy is the 2016 book, NeurTribes, by Steve Silberman. Silberman, long active in the gay community, has created a masterpiece about Autism acceptance. This blog article is in that way similar. Further reading with links is included.

the silent wave

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a very long time.  The thought struck me sometime in April of this year, shortly after realizing that I was most likely on the Asperger’s/autism spectrum.

At that time, a whole new world was opening its arms and welcoming me.

Suddenly, Asperger’s/autism was not what I thought it was–nothing at all.

Suddenly, my background in neurology, a fellowship program that I had stopped just short of completing, came to my side, as did my genomics (genetics) background.  The two came together to lightning-strike me with a sudden theory: Asperger’s/autism is a normal and healthy neurobiological/neurophysiological variant.

That’s right.  Autism is not a disease.  It’s not some “monster” that “locks us up” in a “cage” (at least, not for many of us).  It doesn’t “steal” us or “distort” who we are.  It doesn’t corrupt us, tangle us, or hover like dark clouds over…

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