From the soap box on the topic of autism…

***steps onto soap box***

Hi y’all!

Longtime readers know that a bitch’s older brother is autistic.

This one goes out to journalists who report on autism and to my fellow members of the autism spectrum community.

My brother Bill is damn near 40. Lawd, have mercy. He’s profoundly autistic, aphasic and a fantabulous adult.

I want you all to think about that for a moment.

My brother is an adult.

He’s going to be 40 years old next year. Autism is a communication disorder…despite some youthful behaviors, autism will not prevent my brother from experiencing all the physical shit that comes with aging.

Autism is not a childhood disorder.

Autistic kids do not grow out of it. I don’t give a shit about celebrities who claim otherwise or books that speculate about blah, blah and another blah.

The current reality is that autistic kids will become autistic adults.

I learned this morning that a study is about to be release that found that there has been a significant increase in youth diagnosed with autism…and I learned that shit through a report that focused on early diagnosis (a god thing) and children with autism (a logical starting point) but stopped there (the very definition of wrongness, because autism is not a childhood disorder).

I’m not pissing in the Corn Flakes of the cure community.

Go forth and get your research on, y’all!

But my brother is gonna be 40 years old and our life is not a scene from the movie Awakenings…we live our lives in the real…in the here and now that includes a never ending lack of funding, programs, options and support.

The autism spectrum disorder community must stand up and include the needs of autistic adults in their policy and research appeals.

I can speak from personal experience…parents do NOT want to wait for their child to become and adult to address the needs of autistic adults.

Any increase in diagnosis increases the urgency of the need for society to look beyond the first 18 years and at the needs of autistic adults too.

So, I’m saying it here and now…I’m making a request – when journalists report on a study that says the autism rate is going up please include some shit about what that means for society in the future, about the needs of autistic adults too and you might want to toss in a profile of a family with an autistic adult so viewers can better understand that shit.

Time is not standing still on this issue…and this bitch wouldn’t wish the anxiety and frustration over care and finding programs and funding the programs we find and getting comprehensive medical coverage and maintaining nutritional support and so forth and so on that my sister and I currently go through on anyone.

Pause…consider…continue.

Plus listening to reports that neglect to touch on autistic adults makes my Afro hurt.

Ugh…okay…I’m done.

***steps down from soap box***

Sphere: Related Content

Related posts:

1. Hold on just one hot damn minute… A bitch is feeling illish and full to bursting with...
2. How Missouri Republicans celebrated World Autism Day – or – Didn’t I say that not all Fuck Yous are Delayed… A bitch has been involved in a piece of legislation...
3. An outbreak of verbal malfunctions and home training fails… Let’s jump right on in, shall we? A bitch has...
4. Post Person Centered Plan Meeting Recap… This past Friday I attended my autistic brother’s Person Centered...
5. A bitch’s correction of a certain fool’s statement on the current health care debate… Sarah Palin wrote an article and, among other things, said…...