Only logged in members can reply and interact with the post.
Join SimilarWorlds for FREE »

I Have a Child With Autism

I have a question to ask. Why are most autistic people left out on things? That's very sad. One of my cousins is autistic and she says she is left out a lot and she tries to get involved but our other cousins kept pushing her away or lying. I told them it isn't fair and stop being jerks to her. One said, "Didn't anybody teach you that life isn't always fair. We don't want her around because bluntly, she is different. Nobody wants to be hang with someone that is different. She gets called "SPECIAL" by the older adults. What's special about her. She ain't nothing special. She is not special. She needs to do the hard work like everyone else. You can hang with us, just ditch her." And they walked off. No I'm not ditching her.
Also are people with disabilities called "special"? I don't get it. Aren't we all special in our own ways?
This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »
SW-User
Its all about the label. MANY people in the past.. before the word "Autism" was coined did just fine, excelled even.
Now with certain labels that are supposed to be helpful to diagnose and treat certain things, it also hinders the people it is meant to help.. Social stigmas...
LaurieKitKat94 · 26-30, F
@SW-User Oh wow. So autism didn't exist back then?
SW-User
@LaurieKitKat94 Some people back then would be surely be diagnosed as such today... But then, it did not exist as such, it was before a term was coined and criteria laid down that gave birth to it in an official way...
They were simply "eccentrics"...
ItsGonnaBeOk · 26-30, M
@LaurieKitKat94 no it did but they didnt notice it, its feels differnet when someone is autistic insted of not very social and are the same things
@LaurieKitKat94 Once upon a time, huge numbers of what are considered to be "perfectly able" people were sent to live in asylums just because we didn't understand them or what was wrong with them. Autistic people would have been on that list - though under the symptoms that they suffered from because we had no name for the disorder at the time.
SW-User
@HootyTheNightOwl True, indeed. The lower-functioning people were tossed into sanitariums, etc. And "treated" (by treated I mean tortured)..
But those who were more "functional" quite often excelled without the social stigma attached, they were just branded eccentric.
@SW-User You think so???

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oswUssXzFlY]
SW-User
@HootyTheNightOwl And how. It was the world's way even until the 1970s. Lobotomy, Shock therapy, Insulin induced comas, forced sterilisation, etc.
Now THAT was the real MADNESS...
@SW-User i just found one from the US, too... i haven't watched this one myself yet...

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sgNUCiAp9Q]
SW-User
@HootyTheNightOwl Likely the very same insanity used to "treat" the so-called insane.