- What up world? Myles Bess here, journalist, host, and someone who can never ignore their
YouTube comments section. Y'all have asked for
a video on autism, so y'all are gonna
get a video on autism. If you look up the
definition of autism you'll get something like this. Autism is a developmental
disability caused by differences in the brain that can affect
how people behave, communicate,
interact, and learn. The official
diagnosis goes by ASD, autism spectrum disorder. It's got disorder right
there in the name, which implies that
autism is something that needs to be fixed. But if you've been
on TikTok recently, maybe the algorithm sent you
deep into the world of creators who identify as neurodiverse. Many of these
creators are autistic and showcase the fact that their differences
don't have to be deficits. It's almost kind of like a
celebration of difference. So today, I wanna get to
the bottom of a binary that I keep seeing people
talk about all over the place. Is autism a disorder to be fixed or a difference
to be celebrated? (upbeat music) Let's take a look at
the old human brain. It has around 85 billion neurons that are talking to
each other nonstop and control just
about everything we do and sense and think about. It's easily the most
complex organ we have, so it shouldn't
come as a surprise that everyone's brain
develops in a unique way. It's just like Cheetos in a way. No two brains are
exactly the same. I mean, look at a Cheeto, man. Those ridges, they're just, they're just not the same. You can pick up two
Cheetos right now. Get back to me. Tell me what you discovered. That's how we get the
concept of neurodiversity, which is the idea that there is no one
universally-accepted definition of what a normal brain is. It basically focuses
on how the kinds of behaviors we consider
normal vary depending on the culture we live in. Like, let's say I
pop by your house with some delicious ramen. We both start diggin' in, and then out of the blue, right in the middle of the meal, I start loudly
slurping my noodles. (Myles slurping)
(Myles sighs) You'd probably think,
who the heck raised you? Ew. Stop, cut it out. But that wouldn't be the case if we were eating
our ramen in Japan. Over there, slurping is a sign
that you like the meal. Not slurping would
be considered rude. When someone behaves as
expected by their society, they can be considered
neurotypical. Most of society is built around how neurotypicals
go about their day, but as I'm sure you know, there are tons of people who don't fit into how
society expects them to be. This includes many people
with brain-based disabilities, like autism, ADHD,
Tourette's, the list goes on. Many of them consider
themselves to be neurodivergent. And this was confirmed
when I hopped on TikTok where so many creators identify
as being neurodivergent. That's where I found Lina Fang, a therapist and
autistic creator. She told me that for her, the struggle is around
communication and social cues. - So as you can tell, the way that I'm
communicating right now, it's, like, I have what's
called reduced affect display. So I don't have a lot
of facial expressions or tone to the way that I speak. And in a lot of ways that
can be misinterpreted by other people when
I'm talking as, like, being disinterested or being bored or something. So that can cause a
lot of misunderstanding and generally, a not-so-good communication and relationships
with other people. - But if there's
one thing I learned from researching this episode, if you've met one
person with autism, well, that you've met
one person with autism. There's no one look or symptom that you can point to and
decree this person has autism. I mean, it exists on a spectrum, meaning it shows up differently
depending on the person. When I talk to Sebastian, a journalist and
autistic self-advocate, he told me about how
he processes senses. - Like me, for example,
I'm hypersensitive, meaning that I experience
things on a much greater level, such as pain and touch. Like, a hyposensitive person
could have a paper cut and not even know it's there. And then for me, if I get a paper cut, it feels like my
whole hand is burning. I tend to flap my hands
when I'm very excited, or when I tend to be,
you know, overwhelmed, that could happen. And I also use this toy to
kind of keep my hands busy, especially in a more anxious
situation such as this. - Can you describe that? Can you describe what the
toy, like, what is that? - So this is called
a Tangle Therapy, and it just basically
keeps my hands busy so that way I have
other things to focus on when I'm in more
anxious situations. Kind of the same function
that chewing gum serves. You know what I mean? - Autism is usually
recognized in early childhood, but it's not uncommon for people to get officially
diagnosed later in life. - I was diagnosed when I was 28, which is later in life, but that's not even,
like, the latest that someone has been diagnosed. There are lots of people, like, especially looking at
my comments section, people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, kind of coming to
understand later in life that they're autistic. And for myself and how
I came to understand that I'm autistic, I think that I've always known that I'm different
than other people. And if you talk to other
late-diagnosed individuals, it's pretty common
across the board, just feeling, like, that
you're different than others, and you have this experience
of, like, observing society and humanity as almost an alien. That's a very common
thing that pops up here, like, this alien watching
things happen around you and not being able to fully
relate on a human level. - To really understand how
autism is thought of today, we have to understand that
for much of its history, it was viewed through the
medical model of disability. Usually that means a
disability is a problem that needs to be fixed. The word autism first
popped up in 1911 when a Swiss
psychologist used it to describe certain
symptoms of schizophrenia. By the 1920s, a common treatment was ECT,
electroconvulsive therapy. Doctors send a mild electrical
current through the brain, which triggers a brief seizure which then causes electrical and chemical changes that
can change how people behave. Turns out that autism is not
related to schizophrenia. And it wasn't until the late 40s that doctors figured out that it typically
begins in childhood. Still, that didn't stop
some pretty wacky ideas of what caused autism, like the Refrigerator
Mother hypothesis, cold mothers who didn't
love their kids enough, and one treatment for
this was separating kids from their mothers. Mommy, mommy, is that you? Mom? Mommy? (Myles laughs)
(playful music) Seriously, it's
called a parentectomy, and shocker, this theory would
go on to be totally debunked. An official autism diagnosis
didn't become a thing until the 1980s, and by the 1990s, autism awareness
became more widespread, in part due to
another debunked claim that the MMR vaccine
caused autism. But I repeat, the theory that vaccines caused autism
has 100% been disproven. I don't care what your
aunt's best friend's first cousin says on Facebook. And it wasn't until 1998 when the word neurodiversity
was first used as we now use it today, and it's since become a movement about supporting the rights
of neurodivergent people. All of this sets up attention, the medical model of disability
versus neurodiversity. And it brings us back to
our original question. Is autism a disorder to be fixed or a difference
to be celebrated? And that's what we call
a false binary folks because many autistic people
identify as being disabled, but that disability
isn't something that needs to be fixed or cured. - A lot of these traits that neurodiverse individuals
exhibit are framed as deficits, and therefore, should
be corrected in therapy or in whatever system
that they're in. And so I had to do
a lot of unlearning and relearning and just
really educating myself on how to not just help myself but help other people
who are neurodiverse. - This is where the social
model of disability comes in. Instead of forcing someone
to fit into society, what if parts of
society could be tweaked to better support the person? - Well, we are perfectly
fine the way we are, but that we do
need accommodations to be able to thrive in life. We can look at it like this. The medical model, you have a person
in a wheelchair where they're trying
to get into a building. Medical model says, well, that person, you
know, has a disability, and they need to be fixed in
order to get through that door. The social model,
on the other hand, recognizes, hey, this
person has a wheelchair, and they need to
get in the building. Let's build a ramp
so they can get in. If you apply that to autism, the medical model sees
autism as the problem, that it needs to be fixed
for society to be better. The social model recognizes that an autistic
person is in a world that just isn't
designed for them. It's designed for
neurotypical people. - The most concise way
I can describe it is, basically, a
different processor. Like, if you imagined
the brain as a computer, and the majority of society
operated on Windows, and then autistic
individuals operate on macOS. And therefore, like, the information you're
intaking is the same as everyone else is intaking. It's, like, reality, but then the way that you
process it is different, and your output is going
to look different as well. - So, in the end, autism can create challenges, but that doesn't mean
the person has a problem within them that
needs to be fixed. Like, there's nothing wrong with disliking
social activities, but that's different
from wanting to be social but being unable to. One requires acceptance
from society. The other requires assistance. But now we want
to hear from you. How do you think viewing
autism through the lens of the social model of
disability could change how it's represented
in our culture? Let us know on the
comments below. Oh, and before you go, we are
looking for your feedback. Each year, PBS Digital Studios
conducts an audience survey. It helps us understand
what you like and what you wanna see more of. You also get to help
PBS pick new shows. It only takes a few minutes, but your feedback is
extremely valuable to us. There's a link in
the description. Thanks in advance. Oh, and if you
like this episode, check out our episode on ADHD, which asks the question, what happens if you
take ADHD drugs, but you don't have ADHD? Check it out. As always, I'm your
host, Myles Bess. Peace out. (gentle upbeat music) (gentle music)
