“Share, connect and engage with supporters to help increase autism acceptance and awareness. Join the online conversation.” National Autistic Society
This week, there is a focus on fundraising to raise vital funds and help create a society that works for autistic people. That much is true, but in my experience, the focus this week and every week needs to be on creating awareness of what autism is, how it affects the individual with the condition, and how it impacts those around them.
There remains a widespread media focus on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, with individuals explaining how they navigate the world, their relationships, their attention to detail and how they work with their condition.
There remains an absence of media coverage of the more severe aspect of the spectrum. An estimated 60% of individuals with autism are imprisoned or in trouble with the police, not through anything done wrong but more a misunderstanding of words used: Echolalia, sensory-triggered meltdowns, and a lack of social interaction skills.
Similar aspects of autism lead to isolation, depression, and anxiety—a sense of futility and worthlessness. A person with autism, suffering from sensory overload, cannot walk the length of a shopping mall without either curling up in a corner somewhere, trying desperately to hide from all the stimuli or falling into a rage triggered in defence of the sensory attack.
A person at this end of the autism spectrum can suck the life and optimism out of their souls and that of those who are around them and fall into a spiral of misery akin to Dante’s Inferno.
Awareness and understanding of these conditions can help people recover their minds and well-being and bring peace to their world.