October is Autism Awareness Month. And I think it’s important that we take a few minutes to think about that.
Being a child can be difficult. Not one of us can say we had an entirely easy childhood, free of bullying and pressure to fit in with our peers. A lot of us have also come across someone with autism. You probably didn’t realise it at the time, but what they were going through was a lot more challenging than the judging looks you sometimes got from your friends. Children with autism are often misunderstood – looked at strangely, watched as people keep their distance from them, and even remained confused when other kids chuckle at something that they didn’t mean to be funny about. And unfortunately, it doesn’t stop after they grow up. Many grown ups with autism continue to undergo the same feelings of exclusion that they did when they were kids.
Isn’t it time we all came to terms with what autism really is and got rid of this stigma that surrounds it? Why do we automatically back away from people just because they’re mind works in a different way than ours? We champion for gender equality and gay marriage and all things fair and right, but someone whose social skills don’t match ours scares us into a corner.
Part of the problem lies in people not understanding the details of this disability. If more of us began to research further into autism, I think we’d begin to back away less, and start being supportive of our fellow human beings who are – in my opinion – truly courageous and deserving of a lot more support than they currently get. Knowing that you’re being given weird looks and knowing that people are judging you is scary enough when you understand why it’s happening, but people with autism often can’t understand things in the same way. They can’t understand why someone would treat them with hostility or apprehension just because they’re being who they are.
What we see is someone who acts differently to what we would perceive as “normal”. But did you know that some people with autism have the advantage of being able to concentrate more and have a better memory? This October, let’s begin understanding what this disability is really about and get rid of the negative stigma that has become associated with autism.
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