An adult autistic perspective on growing up on the Autism Spectrum.

April is Autism Awareness Month. The title is an oxymoron for autistics like me, who struggle with awareness. It is not that we lack focus, just that we are often overwhelmed or pre-occupied.  

I look forward to seeing the campaigns for autism and watching television shows that do specials on this affliction. However, I feel as if Autism Awareness should be an everyday thing, with no set okay time to discuss it. With the number of children with autism growing at the alarming rate it is, it certainly deserves the publicity that HIV and AIDS had… 

Perhaps all of the controversy surrounding autism and its causes lends to its seemingly taboo. HIV and AIDS was a definite diagnosis, you either had it or you did not and how you got it was simple, through biological contaminants like blood or semen. There is not you are a little bit afflicted or you are severely infected with it. Either you had it or you did not. With autism, the symptoms are subject to controversy and you have to have so many contributing factors. Even the treatments vary. With HIV/AIDS, there is a regimen of treatments that have known results. Those with autism are lucky to find such success and often live with failing behavioral plans, lack the money to pay for necessary treatment, and are shunned in the systems schools and metal health facilities. 

So what are the similarities? Well when HIV/AIDS came out, those afflicted were treated as if they had the plague. There is no substantial cure, but treatment does prolong life. The first signs of both are often unnoticed making both hard to diagnose without further studies or tests. Both afflictions are struggling to find a cure. 

One of the biggest differences though is that we know how HIV/AIDS is contracted and thus can prevent infection. With autism, there is no concrete evidence or substantial theory as to what the causes are, or why some are severely afflicted while others manage to thrive. 

Perhaps my efforts to help spread the word about autism will keep it in the day-to-day world and off the shelf for 11 months out of the year. My only hope is that with the rising awareness that we can learn to prevent autism, treat it more effectively, find a cure, and wipe out a growing epidemic of 1 in 150 children having autism.