Are We an Autistic Society?

Donna Williams, a self-described "mad, autistic artist" -- as well as a teacher, author and consultant -- wrote an article for American Chronicle that boldly questions whether our technology-oriented, individualistic society is creating more infants with reactive attachment disorder and autism.

She writes,

Is possible that we’re living in an age where some pregnant mothers being so busy with cerebral, passive interactions with technology and its related increase in time use that they don’t have the range of movements, emotional experience, that it’d be conceivable some don’t develop the same full prenatal bonding with their child that may have been more common before the 80s and 90s?

I'd answer yes to that. But I don't think that technology, and specifically our reliance on computers, is completely to blame. I think that the medicalization of childbirth, cutting mothers off from the biggest oxytocin rush a human will ever get and from the opportunity to bond immediately and bodily with their newborn babies, may be the biggest factor.

Add to that the necessity for most mothers to work, being away from their children for most of the day, and our reliance on television as a surrogate for human interaction, and you have a recipe for isolation and thwarted empathy.

Williams asks,

what if society is improving upon detachment, passivity, being more cerebral than emotional and physical, and progressively then mistrusting and fearing unexercised real interaction with ’strangers out there’?

We are all, already, becoming more ‘autistic’ and the ‘geek syndrome’ generally associated with Asperger’s Syndrome is so widespread that mild cases are not even worth diagnosing lest we end up losing sight of any measuring stick of ‘normality’ (which is all relative anyway).

Williams raises the spectre of the "refrigerator mother," the idea in the 1940s that some women were intrinsically not motherly enough, thereby causing their kids' autism. The pendulum has swung away from blaming the parents -- which is a very good thing. But it may have swung too far.

Mothering matters more than anything else in our lives. Without mother love when we're babies, our brains don't develop the oxytocin response -- as well as many other systems and responses we need to successfully navigate the world.

Williams writes,

If so, if today’s generation benefit from, enjoy or are addicted to those causes, and if voracious consumer economy feeds, encourages and entrenches those addictions through increasingly consumed media, will we ever wake up? Will we be ‘allowed’ to? And in a dog-eat dog society of stone throwing tabloid press, witch hunts and bitching public forums, can we ever calmly look at even hints of the refrigerator mother yet empathically envision ourselves in their shoes?

Comments

[Bolthar]

I think it's horrible that autism is considered something to cure. Autism is just a different way of being. The problems that most autistic people encounter in their lives is due to other people's intollerant behaviour, not to their different way of being: people should be able to understand that an autistic person behave in a social different way, that it's not "bad" just because it's not the "standard" one.
What else do we want to find a cure for? "Unusual" political ideas? I really can't believe that we came to this point.

[Susan Kuchinskas]

I agree with you, and if you look at Donna Williams' website, she clearly is a great example of someone who contributes immensely to the world and other people, and finds meaning, purpose and enjoyment through what she does.

One thought that I have in response to what you say, Bolthar, is about oxytocin and autism. Researchers have found differences in the oxytocin systems of autistic people. At the same time, there is clear evidence that the oxytocin release people can experience when they interact intimately with others has health benefits both in the short term and over a person's life: People who are married or have strong social support tend to be healthier and live longer.

That different way of being of those on the spectrum sometimes -- not always -- *seems to* reduce the experience of intimacy with others. This *could be* detrimental to physical health.

ASD is mysterious, and I think it's so helpful and important when people on the spectrum write and speak about their experiences.

[Bolthar]

I think it's better if i say that i'm an Asperger, and what i think and say comes directly from my life experience.
I strongly believe the problem is not about chemistry. I was diagnosted at age 12, and after a brief "therapy" (antidepressant and group talk, to a person that was not depressed at all and doesn't like to talk about his personal life to strangers, like everyone i guess) i put a lot of pressure on my parents to stop that. They did also because they were noticing that i was actually getting sick, where i was healthy before in their eyes...
What they were doing to me , not in a direct way of course but it was pretty clear,was making me think i was "mental" and i needed "support". Well, i don't know if i'm mental or not but really, i totally like the way i am. And i'm sure that every aspie on this planet would like himself as well if it wasn't just labeled as weirdo all the time...even by the people that are supposed to help you.
Autistic people don't need treatment. They just need respect and confidence. I think that's the real way to improve their condition. You give prozac to a sad person, he's not sad anymore. Have you really cured him? Is that what oxytocin is supposed to do?
Why do you want to give autistic people things they don't want? Social support? MARRIAGE? Is that difficult to understand there's somebody that DON'T want this things? I think understanding that is the first step towards real respect of someone different...to understand that we're not all the same.
I was a really sad child i have to say...i have been mistreated by everybody for a long time. Then i grow up and tried to handle with my problems, with myself, and i succeded. Most of the HFA people around just need some self esteem, respect as persons and nothing more, they will heal by themselves, i assure you. Go on and consider them ill and they will start to think themself as that, and they will never improve.

Sorry for the sharp-edge attitude of this comment, but i'm really upset when i read about those things on the net.

[Bolthar]

I think it's better if i say that i'm an Asperger, and what i think and say comes directly from my life experience.
I strongly believe the problem is not about chemistry. I was diagnosted at age 12, and after a brief "therapy" (antidepressant and group talk, to a person that was not depressed at all and doesn't like to talk about his personal life to strangers, like everyone i guess) i put a lot of pressure on my parents to stop that. They did also because they were noticing that i was actually getting sick, where i was healthy before in their eyes...
What they were doing to me , not in a direct way of course but it was pretty clear,was making me think i was "mental" and i needed "support". Well, i don't know if i'm mental or not but really, i totally like the way i am. And i'm sure that every aspie on this planet would like himself as well if it wasn't just labeled as weirdo all the time...even by the people that are supposed to help you.
Autistic people don't need treatment. They just need respect and confidence. I think that's the real way to improve their condition. You give prozac to a sad person, he's not sad anymore. Have you really cured him? Is that what oxytocin is supposed to do?
Why do you want to give autistic people things they don't want? Social support? MARRIAGE? Is that difficult to understand there's somebody that DON'T want this things? I think understanding that is the first step towards real respect of someone different...to understand that we're not all the same.
I was a really sad child i have to say...i have been mistreated by everybody for a long time. Then i grow up and tried to handle with my problems, with myself, and i succeded. Most of the HFA people around just need some self esteem, respect as persons and nothing more, they will heal by themselves, i assure you. Go on and consider them ill and they will start to think themself as that, and they will never improve.

Sorry for the sharp-edge attitude of this comment, but i'm really upset when i read about those things on the net.

[Susan Kuchinskas]

Being mistreated and rejected is really sad. I was a weird, picked on kid myself. It's so true, respect and acknowledgment can make all the difference, and I certainly support people being themselves and not being medicated for things that don't bother them.

I believe oxytocin therapy is most likely to be used to relieve symptoms that can be self-injurious like head-banging. Let's hope we don't all turn into Prozac zombies.

[Steve]

People should be allowed to go naked in certain recreational areas only

[gay xxx]

Live with your lover before getting married