Slashdot Mirror
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.
People on the autism spectrum tend to have a lot more stress in their lives, various types of stress have long been linked to higher mortality rates, be that from suicide to distracted driving to heart attacks to drug use as a coping mechanism to straight up side effects from medication. I would be mind boggled that this is news but when I saw that this "study" was performed by an autism advocacy group, I realized its nothing more than an attention grab.
Personally I'd rather have my idiots at home glued to the TV than out doing idiotic things
People with autism don't lack the need or desire for socialization, they lack the instinctive understanding of how to achieve social relationships that everyone else takes for granted.
Are they also less likely to marry? Because it turns out people die a lot quicker if there isn't someone there to realize they tripped, for example.
I consider myself extremely lucky to have succeeded in raising my boy, who suffers from a mild type of autism (Aspberger's syndrome), past his 18th year.
At age 6, this boy ran on the frail gutter of a roof, 15 meters from the ground. He escalated a radiator, opened the window and just took a walk on the gutter, and he foresaw absolutely no danger in doing it..
Ten years later, after having narrowly escaped a dozen of such 'accidents', he did it again.
He walked on the roof border from the bathroom window to the room where is computer was locked out.
And again, he did not feel any sense of danger. He told me he just wanted his computer.
There is a reason why autism, even in it's mildest forms, is still regarded as a disorder. It might help you wrap your mind with better intensity around some problems. But that comes at the cost of your awareness to... well, pretty much everything else.
And that doesn't help you to survive, that's for sure.
Autistica are the British name for Autism Speaks. They are a 'charity' staffed almost entirely by NTs. (they currently have two token autistic board members (out of 40)) They hoover up all the donations from well meaning people but spend only 3% of the money they get on actually helping autistic people. Of the rest, over 40% goes on eugenics research intended to wipe us out and most of the rest on advertising and fat salaries ($400K+ in some cases) for their directors. They also make dehumanising videos about autism which completely misrepresent what it is (for example portraying meltdowns as the norm of autistic behaviour when in reality they're anything but) and are proponents of ABA, an abusive therapy which involves training children like dogs and results in depression, PTSD and worse. Do not believe a damn word they say and ffs, don't give them any money. Give it to ASAN if you're in America or Autistic UK if you're in Britain, both organisations actually run by autistic people.
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.
There is another interesting and potentially very important observation: People with ASD appear to have a gut flora that differs significantly from the average population. This is interesting for several reasons - one being that we are beginning to understand that our gut flora has a very big impact on our general health - diabetes 2, obesity and probably a lot of other things, as well as our mental wellbeing. Our intestines also has a nervous system that in many ways is comparable in complexity to our brain (which perhaps ironically lends a new aspect to the expression 'gut instinct'). Just saying.
My son (and I) are the same way. Every year, a museum near us has a butterfly house, and every year my son will go into it for a few seconds only. It's not that he's scared of the butterflies. It's that he's scared he might hurt one. They are flying everywhere and some land on the floor so you need to be careful where you walk/move. To my son, it's like you've laid out a minefield in front of him except a butterfly gets killed if he "steps on a mine." His (understandable) reaction is to want to leave the room as quickly as possible so that he won't hurt anything.
Of course, feeling empathy and being able to express it are two different things. I'll often feel extreme empathy towards someone, but won't be able to find the words to let the other person know how I feel. More than once, this has led my wife to exclaim in frustration that I'm being insensitive or don't care about what she's going through. I do care and don't mean to seem insensitive. It's just that what's going on in my head doesn't translate well to what's coming out of my mouth. Typing stuff up is easier because you can take a few minutes and revise your response. People don't expect an immediate reply. (Plus, as much as I like to denigrate emojis, it can be easier to say "I feel sad for what's going on with you" with a crying emoji than to find the exact words to express your internal feelings. Whoever invents real-life face-to-face conversation emojis will be a hero to people on the spectrum everywhere!)
This is the key with Autism. The saying I've often heard is "If you've met one person with Autism, you've met one person with Autism." My son and I are very similar - so much so that I joke that he's my mini-me. Still, he deals with things that I've never had to deal with and takes other things in stride when I struggled with them. For example, he dives head first into social situations even if he doesn't fully understand how he's being inappropriate. I was always more socially-timid, afraid that I'd make a misstep and embarrass myself.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.