Autism

They way I think if it, I have an Autism. Just like two people are unique, those who have an Autism have an Autism unique to them. The consequences of having an Autism, for those who do, are likewise unique to their life. There is a lot in common between many who have an Autism, and where there is overlap there is the potential for 'technology transfer' in the sense that progress one person makes grappling with their Autism, if shared, can help others make progress without the effort and hardship that would otherwise be required.

Spectrum and Diagnosis

Another consideration of importance is that, not being a single well-defined thing, Autism can be thought of as being on a spectrum. This can be slightly misleading, as it gives the impression of a straight line from 'not Autistic at all' to 'totally Autistic' that people lie on, and so it makes sense to ask whether 'Alice is more Autistic than Bob', in the sense that everybody's Autism can be placed in a nice ordered line based on 'how Autistic' they are. Alas things are not that simple.

Moreover, whether one has Autism or not is not a simple yes/no thing. Rather, we ask whether or not somebody is 'Autistic enough to merit a diagnosis of Autism', rather than whether or not somebody is 'Autistic'. People may have some Autistic features, but not enough to warrant a diagnosis. For those people, the insight and workarounds that work for those with an Autism may well be beneficial.

An vs The

Usually one says 'Alice has Autism', or 'Bob has Bipolar Disorder', or that 'Charlie is experiencing psychosis'. But there is (what I consider to be) a linguistic gotcha there: the temptation to believe you are 'comparing apples with apples' when, in reality, you are not.

If one says 'Alice has Autism', it is easy to implicitly read this as 'Alice has THE Autism'. In so doing, when we say 'Alice has Autism' and 'Bob has Autism', we the interpret this as 'Alice as THE Autism' and 'Bob has THE Autism', and hence 'The Autism that Alice has is the same as the Autism that Bob has'. Thus we implicitly think 'autism=autism' when we don't use the indefinite article, whereas in reality is is more the case that 'an autism≠another autism' but there is overlap. \[\mathrm{autism}_1\not=\mathrm{autism}_2\] \[\mathrm{autism}_1\cap\mathrm{autism}_2\not=\varnothing\]

Thus, in seeking to help autistic people in general, we must think in terms of looking for overlaps, in the sense of things which are common to many autistic people, and remedies which work well in general. Then there is the task of helping an individual with their particular autism. For that one requires a number of things:

1. Introspection on the part of the autistic person: to be able to see their autism from the inside;
2. Understanding and Open-Mindedness on the part of others: not to think they understand what they do not, yet a willingness to be educated by the autistic person as to what it is really like;
3. Communication: getting meaningful information both to and from the autistic person.

Interior/Exterior Communications

Those on the Exterior can see only a small fraction of what somebody, autistic or otherwise, experiences on the inside. Everybody must reason with limited information, including the person on the Interior. Good communication enables people on both sides, the one on the Interior, and those on the Exterior, to increase their understanding. But in our fast-paced, pressured world, who has the time to spend developing this? Most professionals do not: they have too limited an amount of time to spend with a single individual. Most family members do not: they all have day jobs to contend with. Likewise most friends do not. So there are myriad problems to solve with communications-related problems before one even has the chance to get to grips with the actual communications problem.