Societal and cultural aspects of autism


Societal and cultural aspects of autism or sociology of autism come into play with recognition of autism, approaches to its support services and therapies, and how autism affects the definition of personhood. The autistic community is divided primarily into two camps: the autism rights movement and the pathology paradigm. The pathology paradigm advocates for supporting research into therapies, treatments, or a cure to help minimize or remove autistic traits, seeing treatment as vital to help individuals with autism, while the neurodiversity movement believes autism should be seen as a different way of being and advocates against a cure and interventions that focus on normalization, seeing it as trying to exterminate autistic people and their individuality. Both are controversial in autism communities and advocacy which has led to significant infighting between these two camps. While the dominant paradigm is the pathology paradigm and is followed largely by autism research and scientific communities, the neurodiversity movement is highly popular among most autistic people, within autism advocacy, autism rights organizations, and related neurodiversity approaches have been rapidly growing and applied in the autism research field in the last few years.
There are many autism-related events and celebrations; including World Autism Awareness Day, Autism Sunday and Autistic Pride Day, and notable people have spoken about being autistic or are thought to be or have been autistic. Autism is diagnosed more frequently in males than in females.

Terminology

The full name for autism is autism spectrum disorder, abbreviated to ASD.
Although some prefer to use the person-first terminology person with autism, other members of the autistic community prefer identity-first terminology, such as autistic person or autistic in formal English, to stress that autism is a part of their identity rather than a disease they have. In addition, phrases like are objectionable to many people.
The autistic community has developed a number of commonly used terms, such as:
  • Aspie – a person with Asperger syndrome.
  • Autie or Autist – an autistic person. It can be contrasted with aspie to refer to those specifically diagnosed with classic autism or another autism spectrum disorder.
  • Autistics and cousins – a cover term including aspies, auties, and their "cousins", i.e. people with some autistic traits but no formal diagnosis.
  • Curebie – a person with the desire to cure autism. This term is highly derogatory.
  • Neurodiversity – tolerance of people regardless of neurological makeup.
  • Neurotypical – a person who does not have any developmental or neurological disorders. Often used to describe an individual who is not autistic.
  • Allistic – a person who is not autistic but may or may not be neurodivergent in other ways, for example, a dyslexic person, or someone with ADHD. Originally and commonly, however, it is used satirically to describe those without autism.

    Overview

Autistic adults

Communication and social problems often cause difficulties in many areas of an autistic adult's life. A 2008 study found that autistic adults commonly experience difficulty starting social interactions, a longing for greater intimacy, a profound sense of isolation, and effort to develop greater social or self-awareness.
A much smaller proportion of adult autistics marry than the general population. It has been hypothesized that autistic people are subject to assortative mating; they tend to pair with each other and raise autistic offspring. This hypothesis has been publicized in the popular press and is supported by empirical evidence. Out of eleven conditions assessed in one study, participants with autism spectrum disorder exhibited the highest rates of assortative mating.
British psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen said that an increasingly technological society has opened up niches for people with Asperger syndrome, who may choose fields that are "highly systematised and predictable". People with AS could do well in workplace roles that are "system-centered, and connect with the nitty-gritty detail of the product or the system".

Autistic savants

An autistic savant is an autistic person with extreme talent in one or more areas of study. Although there is a common association between savant syndrome and autism, most autistic people are not savants and savantism is not unique to autistic people, though there does seem to be some relation. One in ten autistic people may have notable abilities, but prodigious savants like Stephen Wiltshire are very rare; only about 100 such people have been described/identified in the century since savants were first identified, and there are only about 25 living identified prodigious savants worldwide.

Gender aspects

Autistic women

Historically, autism was thought of as a condition mostly affecting males. Some studies found that males were up to four times more likely than females to be diagnosed as autistic and among those with Asperger syndrome or "high-functioning autism", males were up to ten times more likely to be diagnosed. This may be due to the fact that many of the diagnostic tools used to diagnose autism have been crafted through the observation of autistic males and are therefore more likely to identify autistic men and boys than their female counterparts. To date, the research and support surrounding autistic people has been male-centric; women and non-binary people are seriously underrepresented.
For many autistic women, the lack of diagnosis or a late diagnosis results in them missing out on supports and interventions that are most valuable when implemented at a younger age. For those females who do receive a diagnosis and are provided with those supports, they often have to face the fact that many of them have been created with males in mind and may not acknowledge the physical, psychological, and societal differences that females face.
Some autistic women find themselves misdiagnosed with personality disorders, such as borderline personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder and schizoid personality disorder. Autistic females are "research orphans" according to Yale's Ami Klin; some drugs used to treat anxiety or hyperactivity that may accompany autism are rarely tested on autistic females. Autism may express differently, with many autistic females presenting more subtly than males and may be more adept at developing more sophisticated social masking behaviors. As such, females with more prominent difficulties are more likely to be diagnosed than those who present more neurotypically or exhibit masking behavior. Autistic females are more likely to develop a more sophisticated social camouflage for a variety of reasons. One theory as to why is that women as a whole face more complex social expectations than men, creating a greater need to "prepare more thoroughly for social situations, or risk ostracism".
Another theory suggests that autistic women have a more inborn need for social interaction than their male counterparts, leading many women and girls to be more invested in creating social camouflage strategies. These strategies are developed in a variety of ways such as observing and copying the social interactions of those around them as well as creating strategies to attempt to "go undetected". These coping mechanisms can take an immense amount of time and energy to learn and practice and can, as Shana Nicols states, "more often than not lead to exhaustion, withdrawal, anxiety, selective mutism, and depression". Women may be more concerned with how they are viewed by peers and the failure to connect with people outside of their immediate family could lead to severe anxiety or clinical depression. Autistic girls who have "normal" intelligence may be more socially disadvantaged than males because of the "rising level of social interaction that comes in middle school", when girls' "friendships often hinge on attention to feelings and lots of rapid and nuanced communication".
Autistic girls may suffer additionally by being placed in specialized educational programs, where they will be surrounded by males and further isolated from female social contacts. Autistic women and girls often "internalize feelings of frustration and failure" and are believed to have higher rates of certain comorbidities such as anxiety and depression, due in large part to the desire for along with the difficulties in finding social inclusion along with other social and sensory challenges. Lack of diagnosis can also lead autistic women to have higher rates of depression, anxiety, and self-esteem issues as they are left without a clear understanding as to why they do not "fit in" with their peers. Autistic females also seem to have higher rates of eating disorders, such as anorexia, than non-autistic females. This may be related to social isolation and elevated levels of anxiety along with a need to control their environment more fully, although a complicating factor which is just being explored in the scientific literature is that functional disorders of eating and digestion such as IBS, GERD, food allergies, gastroparesis et al., as well as sensory issues common in autistic people generally, may contribute heavily to "disordered eating" behavior which is physical, sensory, allergic, or pain-related rather than psychological.
Although all autistic people have a higher risk of experiencing bullying, these experiences often present differently based on gender. Although sample sizes are too small to draw firm conclusions, one study suggests that autistic women are less likely than males over the long term to marry, have families, go to college, have careers, and live independently. An intense interest in specific topics plays a significant factor in the lives of autistic people. Autistic females may focus on different topics than their male counterparts. For this reason, females' special interests may be overlooked as they may not be specifically associated with male autistic culture. For example, a 2008 The New York Times article indicated that autistic females rarely have interests in numbers or have stores of specialized knowledge.
All autistic people experience the same or similar core symptoms, but when affected by ideas of gender and gender roles, the autistic traits may manifest differently and lead to different experiences for females and males. The profile of autism may change as more women are diagnosed, which will lead to further medical understanding. There may be current lacks in understanding because autistic females may go undiagnosed.