Autism Associated With Shorter Lifespan, According To UK Charity Study

Cognitive Dissident writes: It's only one study, but the results are disturbing. An article in The Guardian describes a study by the UK charity Autistica showing that all people on the autism spectrum, not just the profoundly autistic, seem to be dying much younger than the average. There is no single definable cause, though a higher rate of suicide is one problem, but the aggregate result is a much higher mortality rate than the general population. There is no single cause, but a higher rate of suicide is noted. "Autistic people with no learning disabilities are nine times more likely to die from suicide compared to the rest of the population, the report states." Looks like something that needs more attention and research, which the charity is trying to organize.

Comments

Re:Lack of friends

[quax]

My boy is on the spectrum, he was always surprisingly outgoing. Chatting up other kids on the play ground and happy to engage in play with just about anybody. But he still couldn't make friends. Mostly that was, I think, because he has the typical autism funnel attention, and only likes to talk about whatever he obsesses about. This typically worked well on adults, and he was able to carry conversations with them way above his apparent age level, as long as they adhered to his interest, but it did not work well with other kids.

He didn't have a friend for the longest time, only now in grade 5 he finally has somebody who always wants him to come over. It probably helps that he now obsesses about Minecraft and video games in general. He is a walking encyclopedia on the history of video games, and the way he now chats up adults is to ask them what their favourite video game was when they were kids.

He is surprisingly also interested enough to attend tap dance lessons, his interest is lukewarm, but so far he is going. He also happens to be quite handsome (of course I am not impartial in that). It is amusing to see how many of the little girls at the dance school go out their way to greet him (while he hardly acknowledges their existence). I think he will be OK.

Re:Repetition leads to suicide

[Opportunist]

This. Someone hand that person a mod.

Autistic people are under constant stress. Every single new situation in life is stress. And we're not talking about something the average normal person would consider new, like, say, a new job or having to meet someone important for the first time. ANYTHING that does not fit the ordinary is a moment of stress. Add on top of that any situation you cannot plan for fully in advance. If you want to put an autistic person into full stress mode tell him to "just wing it".