{"id":1434,"date":"2006-02-21T06:50:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-21T06:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog2\/2006\/02\/is-autism-the-new-gay\/"},"modified":"2006-02-21T06:50:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-21T06:50:00","slug":"is-autism-the-new-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/is-autism-the-new-gay\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Autism the New Gay?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I came across an excellent blog and post today<\/a>, courtesy of my ever-industrious, web-surfing husband Ned. “This Mom” talks about a list she found, of all kinds of famous people who had\/have Asperger’s. As I scrolled down and saw the names, some of whom did not surprise me, like Einstein and Ludwig Van Beethoven, my all-time favorite classical composer (for his Archduke Trio, his Piano and Cello Sonata op. 69, for the Pastorale, and for the second movement of the 7th Symphony). Anyway, also listed were Woody Allen and Keanu Reeves!<\/p>\n

Come on. I will grant you Einstein. I will grant you my Beethoven, I studied him in college, I know about the whole “Immortal Beloved”<\/a> thing and his difficulties relating to people, his mood swings, his savant-like skills (he composed when he was deaf??!!). But Woody Allen and Keanu Reeves? Here are my questions: 1) Why Woody and Keanu? 2) What evidence is there?
3) Who diagnosed them?<\/p>\n

But the bigger question here is, what is going on in our society that is making autism so much the catch-all problem, the designer diagnosis of the decade? And don’t tell me that Woody and Keanu had too many vaccines! [JOKING]<\/p>\n

Seriously, this list reminds me of that list that circulated not too recently, outing all the supposed gays in history.<\/a> Or Adam Sandler’s excellent, funny Chanukah song<\/a>, which outs Jews. This Mom’s newest list illustrates that autism has made it officially to being A Trend. I used to wish for this, years ago, when I felt all alone with our diagnosis and no information, no good way to help my Natty. I remember envying the AIDS Action amalgam, with their ubiquitous red ribbons, the breast cancer pink people, wanting so badly for their to be some recognition for what I was going through (but when the puzzle piece ribbon<\/a> finally made its debut, I have to admit I cringed, though, purely from an aesthetics perspective: the glaring primary colors, the canary yellow next to the royal blue and the fire engine red, made me sick. I<\/span> hate<\/span> those<\/span> colors<\/span>! If you look, you will see nary a primary puzzle ribbon on my site; only one puzzle piece, in Restoration Hardware green).<\/p>\n

Now autism has its recognition. And it’s almost too much. I hear about some people who are “on the spectrum” and I think, “yeah, me too.” Some of them simply are not! Like those who “de-auticize” upon trying a new diet (this is my friend NancyBea’s<\/a> brilliant word), a new this, a new that. It is kind of a mystery as to why some lose their diagnoses. Could it be that many are misdiagnosed because autism is the new ADHD? Could it be that there are many different disorders that present as autism when the kid is 18 months old, but clearly become what they are (something else) as the child develops? Could it be that some children develop differently, end of story? I am not saying that these people have no issues; I am saying that perhaps they do not have autism. Or perhaps autism should not be lumped in with Asperger’s? Just a thought. <\/p>\n

The problem with too many people on the autism spectrum? It draws away resources — financial and yes, perhaps even compassion — from those who truly are. I’d like there to be infinite money and love in the world to encompass my Natty, Woody, and Keanu, embracing them in their struggles, but there just is not. And I don’t want Nat to get less of anything because Woody and Keanu have sopped it all up for themselves, only for people to then look at them and say, “Autism\/Asperger’s? Big deal!” It is a big deal. My guy struggles daily and will always struggle just to survive in this world. He needs all the help he can get. Woody and Keanu? Maybe they need help but it’s a different animal altogether.<\/p>\n

There needs to be new definitions, new words for what these other people “have.” Or maybe we can go back to some of the old words. The polite, respectful ones, that is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I came across an excellent blog and post today, courtesy of my ever-industrious, web-surfing husband Ned. “This Mom” talks about a list she found, of all kinds of famous people who had\/have Asperger’s. As I scrolled down and saw the names, some of whom did not surprise me, like Einstein and Ludwig Van Beethoven, my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-n8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}