Is Autism a Disorder or a Culture?

Read now (3 mins) | Here's where koumpounophobia comes into the discussion!

December 6, 2022

Autism is a brain difference that leads to symptoms which can be medical in nature. That collection of symptoms often requires treatment. The thing is, when we address the brain differences themselves as a CULTURAL difference, MANY of the medical symptoms either disappear or don't require treatment anymore.

Many of the medical symptoms actually COME DIRECTLY from calling autism a disorder. 

Like koumpounophobia...When you call autism a DISORDER then we must medicate!!! But when you embrace autism as a culture (like Steve Jobs did), then our traits can change the world. In fact, it's changed yours. I PROMISE! (Gotta listen to this week's pod to find out wtf I'm talking about—link at the bottom!)

If we can accept the brain differences in the way we accept eye color variation, height variation, or skin tone variation; then the need to FIX the brain differences in and of themselves goes away and MANY of the medical symptoms like depression, anxiety, and insomnia also go away.

What's left? Well, sometimes speech assistance might be needed, sometimes seizures need to be treated or mitigated with pharmaceuticals or diet changes, sometimes there is a mental health condition that would benefit from an intervention, but for most autistic people who experience koumpounophobia, that is not a mental health symptom that needs treatment. Left untreated, brain diversity leads to INOVATION and this is exactly how species EVOLVE!

What is not needed are therapies that try to make the variation in your brain go away: like floor time, social skills groups, or (in most cases) sensory integration therapy. 

Can you imagine going through treatment to change your eye color? Think of how painful physically and emotionally that would be. Think of how TOTALLY POINTLESS that would be. Think of how unlikely it would be to achieve success in changing someone's eye color.

Now imagine non-profit organizations being created to host 5K fundraisers encouraging you to change your eye color and government bodies legislating you MUST do Eye Color Change therapy. JIMNEY CRICKETS - JUST NO!

You would start to feel like you were in a Kafka novel, yeah?

When we treat the brain differences from a neurodiversity lens, we can accept that some tulips are large and some are small, some are lilac, and some are yellow. And we can just let the tulips BE tulips. 

Does that mean we never add water, fertilizer, or sunlight? Well, duh! of course not. But it's the perspective we come to autism with that matters in how we decide to treat traits and symptoms of our brain type.

This is why it's important to view autism as a culture first and to see people in the neuro-minority first as humans contributing to the beauty and variety of our world at large.

This is why I co-host The Autistic Culture Podcast.

Steve Jobs was in the neuro-minority. His brain did not work like most brains in the neuro-majority do. This led to a lot of people who worked with him not really understanding his approach and to a LOT of assumptions and misinterpretations because most people in the neuro-majority are simply not equipped or trained to understand or empathize with those of us in the neuro-minority. That’s why Steve Jobs was fired from Apple. 

I am sad about that, and it's why I hope you will listen to our podcast. Education is the key to solving the Double-Empathy Problem which is the scientifically-proven lack of understanding between autistic and allistic culture.

In this episode of The Autistic Culture Podcast (Episode 07: Apple is Autistic),  we look at the contributions to autistic culture made by Steve Jobs primarily through Apple. I think the episode might surprise you even if you are already a Steve Jobs fan!

Can you say koumpounophobia?

How do you honor your neurodiversity as a STRENGTH? Tell me about it in the comments!

Related episodes from The Autistic Culture Podcast:
Episode 09: Fairy Tales are Autistic 
Episode 24: The Trouble with Temple

*Background note: Most people only have a vague (often, highly stereotyped) version of autism in their minds and believe that autistic children need (traumatic) ABA therapy to "overcome" their disability and appear "normal."  After receiving an autism diagnosis in her thirties, Dr. Angela Lauria realized that she too had been mostly unaware of what it means to be Autistic.  Like so many people, she started her journey by first gathering information and resources from the omnipresent (and problematic) Autism Speaks, but eventually moved away from the 'autism community' in favor of the 'Autistic community,' where she found kinship with other Autistic individuals and learned to let go of pathologizing language like 'autism spectrum disorder' and 'Asperger's Syndrome.'  This autism blog (and her autism podcast, "The Autistic Culture Podcast") is meant to share her lived-experience insights to support others on a similar journey of diagnosis, understanding, and community. Embrace Autism--differences are not deficits.