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Kristen.NewCreation and FreeinChrist
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New in the forums so I thought I'd pitch in.
I feel like my autism has slowed down my ability to approach God.
Going to church has always been about managing the social contact and the loud noises, rather than learning about God.
Reading the bible has been tough because there are so many people and places mentioned, I can't keep track of who's who and where they're located.
Meeting humans feels overwhelming and difficult enough, so approaching God feels very difficult.
I've accepted Jesus as my saviour but I feel no connection to him, just like I feel no connection to other people. It makes me sad, because I want both people and Jesus in my life.
No matter how slow my progress is though, I keep coming back. Maybe that's a little piece of Jesus in me.
My love for Him has grown out of the deepest respect for Him as the most elegant* Engineer. His engineering prowess touches every part of my life and, indeed, all of Creation. (One of the functions of the Holy Spirit is Mentor. God is my cherished Mentor/Father.)When people talk about how passionately they love Him, He's the most important thing in their lives and He's all they need, I can't identify or make myself 'feel' the same way. I feel perplexed (and sometimes condemned) by Mark 12:30 - but it's got to mean love as more than just a deep heartfelt emotion, surely?
Hate to rain on that parade, but even after seeing a far more friendly and open church in the Episcopal Church and plenty of others when I went to a college nearby, it still didn't pull me back in even after I'd essentially abandoned any need for belief in any kind of deity, let alone a personal one like the Abrahamic faiths speak of.A lot of you are saying it's harder to be close to God, but my autism has actually helped bring me closer to God because it has taught me a lot about how Jesus sees people and how I ought to love others with various experiences and struggles.
If anything from the experiences I have heard from autistic who turned from the faith involved a lot of abuse in the church growing up when they should have been loved on instead.
What complicates autism politics is the failure to recognize that...but a more fundamental solution would be more acceptance and understanding of neurodiversity from the start and seeing how it interacts with things like faith, politics, etc.
Not sure where advocates are suggesting we shouldn't address mental health issues even taking into account something not solely social in terms of what constitutes mental illnessWhat complicates autism politics is the failure to recognize that
#1 includes ASD1s & gifteds.
- neuro-diversity is good, but
- severe co-morbid conditions are bad (whether one is autistic or not).
- Minor co-morbids are just quirks.
#2 turns ASD1s into ASD2s & 3s. Their healed (and pre-injured) state is ASD1.
Some 2s & 3s expect their co-morbid conditions to be embraced without question as much as their base neuro-diverse condition.Not sure where advocates are suggesting we shouldn't address mental health issues even taking into account something not solely social in terms of what constitutes mental illness
In the DSM-5, ASD has severity levels assigned.Also uncertain how one distinguishes the severe and minor comorbidities, because if they both interfere with daily life in some way, not sure the distinction is entirely necessary
So someone with autism that has comorbid, say, depression and some other comorbid condition doesn't need more assistance?Some 2s & 3s expect their co-morbid conditions to be embraced without question as much as their base neuro-diverse condition.
In the DSM-5, ASD has severity levels assigned.
They are not based on IQ, but on how much support the person needs in their daily lives.
If one's severity level is 1, their total co-morbid impact is minimal.
That is not so with severity levels of 2 or 3.
Does the therapist assigning one a severity level mean that?So someone with autism that has comorbid, say, depression and some other comorbid condition doesn't need more assistance?
You are still conflating base autism with severe co-morbids, which are auxiliary.And embracing the condition does not follow to treating it the same as things that can have benefits to them, versus those that are more maladaptive than any attempt to find a silver lining, such as one can with ADHD, ASD, etc
Does the therapist assigning one a severity level mean that?
Severity level is a measure of total incapacitation, not a description of the particulars contributing to it. I am sorry if I didn't make that point clear, earlier.
And one can certainly get help for their depression, even if they are able to manage their daily affairs, otherwise. That is what depressed NTs have to do, too.
You are still conflating base autism with severe co-morbids, which are auxiliary.
A co-morbid load is only severe, if it brings your ASD level to 1.x+ .
My main co-morbid is prosopagnosia. It doesn't move me away from ASD1. I have all of the social abnormality that one might expect in a 2e, but none of them diminish my functioning level below that of base autism.
So, the DSM-5 severity levels should be disregarded, then...?Even the numbers can be subjective to a degree, given that it's autism spectrum disorder
It is a cumulative estimate. It could be the result of one big co-morbid (like severe cognitive deficit) or multiple smaller ones, etc.So where do we draw that line? Is it 2 co morbids or is it 3/4/5/etc? Would just having 1 of a certain "level" move you to level 2 ASD?
So, the DSM-5 severity levels should be disregarded, then...?
It is a cumulative estimate. It could be the result of one big co-morbid (like severe cognitive deficit) or multiple smaller ones, etc.
You do not have the standing to exert such revisions. (And I refuse to move this dialogue to the less objective "my ideals vs. your ideals.")Disregarded, no, better qualified and specified, which is the goal of any DSM change, afaik.
Not sure I ever claimed I could change revisions, you're taking my statements in a way that seems very uncharitable to my objections about how the DSM V is more than just authoritative, it might as well be taken without question, which is unscientific.You do not have the standing to exert such revisions. (And I refuse to move this dialogue to the less objective "my ideals vs. your ideals.")
Not sure I ever claimed I could change revisions, you're taking my statements in a way that seems very uncharitable to my objections about how the DSM V is more than just authoritative, it might as well be taken without question, which is unscientific.
Fine-tuning how you think they should be understood is a personal revision. (I won't go there with you.)Disregarded, no, better qualified and specified, which is the goal of any DSM change, afaik.
Not sure I debated those categories, but how comorbidity is going to factor into that assessment. There's going to be fluidity and you acknowledge as much, they're not non overlapping in terms of one potentially leading into another, especially if there are issues of communication, masking, etc.Fine-tuning how you think they should be understood is a personal revision. (I won't go there with you.)
I am an ASD1 father of ASD1, 2 & 3 children. Squabbling over where the exact lines between them should be, in terms of support needed, is really a waste of bandwidth (and only serves to obfuscate the issue). Uncertain cases are colloquially known as ASD0.x, ASD1.x & ASD2.x. (That is refined enough for me.)
In practical terms,
ASD3 usually requires a legal guardian of person;
ASD2, a legal guardian of estate; and
ASD1, neither.
Do you (or would you) need a guardian of person or estate to maintain your affairs?I put up a good front, but honestly, my executive function has gotten far worse, not to mention imposter syndrome and even possible social anxiety disorder or related problems that make me so self conscious that I can't take compliments remotely. But to everyone around me, even my family, I seem "fine" because otherwise I would be seen as a "burden" if I admitted a problem because of an upbringing that implicitly treats mental illness like a character flaw that you can just "work past" or such.
Do you (or would you) need a guardian of person or estate to maintain your affairs?
Before Dr. Lorna Wing (and to many people today), autism was what we now call ASD2 & 3. (Aspergers/ASD1 was not even a diagnosis. We were just geeks, nerds & other eccentrics.)
Before 1979, said autism only occurred in 1:10K births, which is the same rate as naturally-occurring triplets. In studying that increase, they found us, the ASD1s.
Dr. Martha Herbert believes (as do I) that ASD1 is the base, hereditary condition. It is an expression of neuro-diversity that is very similar to the neurology that we call giftedness.
One of the down sides (to both) is that we tend to have oversensitive immune systems that are more easily injured than those of NTs. After 1979, there appears to be a new [unknown toxin?] that is injuring us in unprecedented numbers, during early childhood. Those secondary injuries are not autism. They are auxiliary incidents of brain damage [co-morbid conditions] that we happen to be more susceptible to. They --not our base autism [ASD1]-- are responsible for the increased severity [2s & 3s] that we are seeing.
At their pre-1979 rates, they were so rare that it was nearly impossible to compare those cases, to look for common denominators. When you factor in the (now-recognized) ASD1s, those severe co-morbids were extremely rare even for us.
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