Problems of an Autistic Person - Straight from the Horse's Mouth

We've seen all kinds of studies about autism. They've been around for a while already but one thing is missing. If you haven't noticed, all these studies are from researchers who study patients. What if we asked the patients themselves what was wrong with them? This is exactly what a recent study did. The aim of this study is to highlight their personal experiences, and to compare them to scientific and medical knowledge and representations.

Adopting an anthropological approach, the authors analyzed 16 autobiographical writings and 5 interviews with autistic persons. The most striking observations were that all of them pointed out that unusual perceptions and information processing, as well as impairments in emotional regulation, were the core symptoms of autism, whereas the current classifications do not mention them.

The results of this study suggest that what has been selected as major signs by psychiatric nosography is regarded as manifestations induced by perceptive peculiarities and strong emotional reactions by the autistic persons who expressed themselves.

These considerations deserve to be taken into account by professionals to better understand the behavior and needs of autistic persons. The Authors propose to include this point in the reflection on the next psychiatric classifications.

This is very disturbing considering that a lot of researchers have studied autism and none hit the mark of what really is going on. Hopefully we can learn more in the future from the patients because only they can really tell us what and how they feel. Maybe then we will understand how to deal with autism.