352
An Open Letter to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Who Thinks My Daughter is a Tragedy
(www.mcsweeneys.net)
this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
352 points (96.1% liked)
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I'm not sure how people are supposed to talk about autism with precision when the official diagnosis can encompass both someone capable of being a brilliant inventor and someone not capable of even comprehending language. It's broad to the point of being useless. Even RFK can see the difference between people with severe mental disabilities and people who are socially awkward and like math. What's the point of confronting him with examples of the latter group when he's talking about the former group?
For a very crude analogy, you can imagine a normal four wheel car as nuerotypical.
Just because I have learned to balance a two-wheel car through sheer determination and willpower does not mean that I don't notice that I'm missing two fucking Wheels. I'm just exceptionally good at masking deficiencies as I drive from a to b and not letting people notice as my overdeveloped other skills can be used to compensate .
All that high functioning means is that I am aware of what society expects me to do. Manually take corrective actions to meet expectations and maintain appearances constantly. It's tiring. Draining exhausting.
Right, but there are also plenty of people who just ride a bike and get by just fine. Four wheels may be typical, but a vehicle is not defined by having four wheels. And having four wheels doesn't do you a ton of good when they're all flat and misaligned.
I don't think you should have to balance a car on two wheels, and I'm sad that you do need to. But having "a car" in this analogy isn't something that should be baseline necessary to be considered a human being.
You seem to be missing the point of my analogy. I don't have a bicycle frame. I have a car frame but only two wheels
If I had meant bicycle or motorcycle I would have used those words
I chose the analogy that I did because it best illustrates the struggle that I feel internally watching other people operate and live their lives normal lives
Because not only did he not make the above distinction, the comments try to devalue anyone with that diagnosis.
Well 1) he's not making the fucking distinction, and 2) how are people supposed to talk about autism? Well how do you talk about abled people who run the gamut from world champion mma fighter to couch potato who couldn't smack pudding?
Spectrums? Spectrums??
All individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience challenges with social communication and interaction, and exhibit restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests. These are the core diagnostic criteria for ASD, and they are well defined.
The "spectrum" part of the disorder refers to the fact that these can vary in severity, but in order to be diagnostically relevant, they must "cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning." Being awkward and liking math is not ASD unless it meets that standard.
In any event, splitting ASD into distinct disorders by severity was not seen as clinically useful by the editors of the DSM, presumably after much consideration. If you wish to argue that level of severity between one symptom or another should be treated as a separate disorder, you can reach out to the Board of Trustees of the APA -- maybe you'll get your wish in the DSM VI.