Autism and Asperger Syndrome in Adults by Luke Beardon

Author:Luke Beardon [Beardon Luke Dr]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847094469
Publisher: SPCK

7

Diagnosis, identification and understanding of self

Let’s start off by thinking about getting rid of the term diagnosis, shall we? I think a far better term is ‘identification’. Generally speaking, the route towards being ‘officially’ identified plunges head-first down a heavily medicalized route, usually via a GP referral. I worry about the kind of message this gives you right from the outset. Most of us associate going to the doctor with being ill, or with having our symptoms identified to ascertain what is wrong with us and how it can be fixed.

If this is your mindset when it comes to autism, then straight away you are in potentially dangerous waters. Being autistic does not mean that there is anything wrong with you. You are not ill. You are not disordered. You are not impaired. Being autistic means that you are not part of the PNT; this does not make you a lesser person in any way. You don’t need fixing. And you don’t have symptoms! I am well aware that, for various reasons, being autistic can be hugely problematic for many people – but equally I am aware that many autistic adults fare extremely well and have happy lives; therefore, it is absolutely wrong to declare that all autistic individuals face problems as a direct result of being autistic. The number of people who go to a clinician to be told ‘there’s nothing wrong with you’ is sinful; the individual is seeking an autism identification, and being autistic does not mean that there is something ‘wrong’ with a person.

I am not a clinician. I can’t identify (i.e. diagnose) people as autistic, but I can, and do, have quite strong feelings about the pathways that people go down to gain an identity. I don’t think that medical definitions based on an impairment model are healthy for autistic individuals. Nor are they healthy for parents, partners, employers – indeed, for society in general. To have to see a consultant via a GP referral, to sit in a waiting room, to be ‘assessed’ in a formal clinical environment, often by someone you have not met before – often with a heavy reliance on the things you might struggle with – all these things, consciously or otherwise, perpetuate the notion that being autistic is somehow being lesser. This may have major implications for the way you view yourself further down the line when coming to terms with the fact that you’re autistic. If at every step of the way the identification is based on negative value judgements, then the concern is that this is how you may feel about yourself as a person long after the identification process.

At present there is no autism ‘test’ that will give you a definitive yes or no answer. Problematically, some sets of criteria include a reliance on observable behaviour – and yet one of the few things we know about autism is that there is no such thing as ‘autistic behaviour’. In other words, there is no single behaviour

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