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Mutual Support for Adult and Adolescent Autists

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Author: Jorn Bettin

Knowledge archaeologist by day and neurodivergent anthropologist by night https://jornbettin.com/about/. The more we help each other to question in ways we otherwise wouldn’t – and correspondingly discover new insights about the world and ourselves, the more we are able to learn from each other, and the more we start to understand each other. The gift that we all bring to the world is the (re)generative potential of all the trusted relationships that we co-create.

News

This is the excerpt for your very first post.

February 6, 2017February 7, 2017 by Jorn Bettin

Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity is the biological diversity of human brains and minds – the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species.

“Neurodiversity is at the core of creativity. Autists learn and play differently, and only have a limited if any interest in competitive social games. We communicate and enjoy ourselves by sharing information and knowledge, and not by negotiating social status.”
– Jorn Bettin

Autists are often noted for their their honesty, their naivety, and their inability to be exploitative. The lack of self-promotional ability is typically at odds with cultural expectations.

Judy Singer, who coined the term neurodiversity in 1998 takes issue with a culture where everyone, including those who want to do social research, must above all be concerned with [their own] social advancement.

‘The production of a research thesis is a highly individualist enterprise relying on the researcher being a self-controlled individual responsible for shaping his destiny and the social order by competently manipulating his acquiescent standard body with personal skills and technological tools’ (Thomson 1997)

“Taking on the autistic identity for me has meant giving full rein to the side of me that is none of this, causing me considerable inner conflict. By succeeding at the entrepreneurial activity of doing social research, I seemed to be undermining my resistance to the naturalisation of individualism.”

“It feels like cultural appropriation to speak for those whose experiences are further out from the accepted norm, but on the other hand, I’m unwilling to relinquish recognition of my own share in the pain of the oppression.”
– Judy Singer

Autistic life

Neurodivergent people:
– adhere to idiosyncratic moral value systems;
– are okay with exploring ideas that upset the “social order”;
– spend much more time experimenting and implementing ideas that others would consider crazy or a waste of time;
– have untypical life goals: new forms of understanding, making a positive impact, artistic expression.

Autists in particular tend to:
– easily suffer from sensory and social overload;
– have unusually developed pattern recognition abilities;
– have an unusual ability to persevere.

Society is largely unaware that many cultural practices disable those with invisible cognitive differences.

90% of our interactions in a neurotypical world involve big differences in perspectives and a very high risk of misunderstanding. We often require mutual support in order to avoid autistic burnout.

Elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide apply across the entire spectrum. These  co-morbid conditions are a reflection of experiences made in the social environment rather than a reflection of AS specific neurology.

Is it too much to ask for society to suspend the assumption of consistent cultural conformance with unwritten rules when interacting with the neurodivergent 10% of the population?

A mosaic of autistic lenses

The inspiration for this project comes from the multi-lens structure found in the compound eyes of insects, where each lens captures a unique perspective. The objective is to create a library of authentic autistic voices as a counterbalance to the diagnostic language used by the medical profession and the autism industry.

Autistic voices

“The discourse on autism is dominated by the voices of non-autistic writers whose work is based in the pathology paradigm.”

“Autistic voices and narratives that pose critical challenges to this dominant discourse, and to the host of beliefs and practices around autism that are rooted in the pathology paradigm, are systematically marginalized in this literature – excluded, silenced, disingenuously misinterpreted, or condescendingly dismissed.”
– Nick Walker

“I have gained extensive experience simply by living with fairly severe autism for my lifetime. Difference can be wonderful, and autism shouldn’t be tampered with, or altered. Autistic people shouldn’t be changed.”

“An autistic experiencing the outside world experiences it as surreal, not as a made-up work of art in the mind. You can’t judge the world of another as inferior, because you don’t live in that world.”
– Jasmine Lee O’Neill

“The word ‘social’ often implicitly refers to something you are expected to turn over to ‘the guys who understand it.’ This is actually almost always a political move. Somebody wants you to give certain behavioural rules to them to design and decide.”

“One of the persistent negative stereotypes is that we are poor at collaboration. I am on a mission to demonstrate the opposite – that collaboration can take many forms, and that different people have different needs and preferences.”
– Jorn Bettin

“My overall view was that it is near-impossible to make money ethically within the UK business system – and I don’t want to be involved in anything that isn’t fair and balanced.”

“Google – who I spend 90% of my advertising budget with – are partnering with the controversial organisation Autism Speaks on the ‘Ten Thousands Genome Program (AUT10K)’ project to help find a possible cure for autism.”

“I’ve concluded that this is a system where there really is no place for ethics.”
– Lydia Andal

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