Autism Acceptance,
This being the end of autism awareness month I though this might be an appropriate time to post something I've been thinking about for a while.
April is when we as the autism community come together and ask the non autism community to learn about autism ,be aware of autism and learn to accept that autism is part of the world. But what level of acceptance are we looking to achieve? What level of acceptance are we, the ones who live with it everyday, ready to accept?
We accept our loved ones diagnosis, that's a given. We accept that others have it too. We accept that currently there is no truly known cause and no known cure or cure like treatment to eradicate the symptoms of autism. But do even we truly accept autism?
If you go to the doctor and he runs some tests and looks at the results of the first few tests back and says to you I think you might have cancer we accept that and move on. He doesn't say I think you have cancer but let me run a lot more tests to be 1000% sure because we dont want to label you as having cancer until we are sure because the label will follow you forever and ruin your life if we are wrong about what you have. No we say okay doc, lets start treatment for cancer and if it ends up being wrong we'll change the diagnosis and move on to a different treatment.Why the perceived shame in an autism working or final diagnosis among medical professionals?
Autism is a medical diagnosis. We should start treating it like a medical condition. No better and no worse than any other condition out there such as asthma, allergies, high blood pressure, etc. We need to bring the same level of acceptance to society in general. All medical conditions require treatment and life style adjustment to accommodate the condition.
Its been proven time and again that the earlier treatment starts the better
the final outcome in autism. Kids who get intensive therapy very early
on in life do FAR better than those who get help later. Doctors need to start using working diagnosis of autism to start treatment before they come up with a final diagnosis which often has to wait until a team of professionals do a ream of tests and then deliberate on the results for a while. Even in the best of situations that means our children loose 2-3 months of treatment when their brains are the most flexible and fluid and able to make the most of the therapy treatments. For most of us that really translates to 6-12 months lost and that is not what should be happening. There are no negative side effect of autism therapy for those who actually dont have the condition so there is no risk of harm to the patient to start treatment NOW and wait for the final diagnosis.
Our medical professionals need to start treating autism like any other condition. No more shame in the diagnosis. If the rate of autism is now 1 in 88 and 1 in 54 boys we need to bring autism out of the medical "closet" and accept its here to stay and just like any other medical condition it needs to be treated openly and with respect. Once we no longer have any shame attached to the actual diagnosis then we can work on acceptance of those with the condition in daily life.
