The Elephant in the Room
As an autistic writer, a topic may come to mind that awakens a rush of interest. It feels as if you picked a favorite movie to watch. You become fixated on a need to write about it. This is one of those moments. As I continue to explore more challenging topics, one of my followers on Twitter unexpectedly asked me about something I thought I already wrote about. But as it turns out, I had not done it nearly as much justice as it needed.
Spend one week on Twitter amongst the autism community, and you will likely find a contentious topic that stands out. A heated debate that is rooted in pathologizing autism as a defect and, thus, an important concern autistic people have. Those who are older and know their history are often apprehensive about it. What causes autism? Vaccines? Toxins? Pain relievers? No matter the study, the answer may surprise you.
After I joined Twitter in early 2022, I started doing something I would later discover to be a natural skill for autistic people. In the years before, I followed various sources for the news and was able to track the validity of certain patterns. For example, in 2020, several elected officials defied lockdown measures that were strictly imposed upon the rest of us. This led me to scrutinize the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I was using deductive reasoning and pattern recognition to conclude that the reported facts did not all make sense. On June 16th, 2022, I was offered the opportunity to do a presentation. They tasked me with finding out more information about resource needs for autistic people ages 21 and older. From that moment on, I immersed myself in the autism community in order to learn more. And one pattern in particular stood out.
In some form or another, the headline ‘Vaccines cause autism’ appeared quite often on Twitter. So much that it became clear to me how relevant it was for autistic people. On April 24th, 2023, in my article, “To Be or Not to Be Autistic,” my intent was to begin addressing the self-diagnosis of autism. I also wanted to address all of the vaccine observations I made. But I was publishing every day in support of autism awareness.
So, my focus on what causes autism never materialized in my writing as I wanted it to. Now is as good of a time as any to share the observations I made back then, as they have remained consistent with the conclusion I reached. I should also thank several of my earliest Twitter followers who frequently shared news headlines about the autism question. They allowed me to observe more than what I could find on my own.
I am not an expert in biology or neurology. But back in 2023, I did have the simplicity of deductive reasoning. This approach would serve me well because my judgment was not clouded by seeing autism with any bias or through a complex field of study. I recognized basic patterns of simple information. When I first saw so many studies claiming that vaccines caused autism, one thing stood out above all else.
I remember thinking to myself, “How could anyone possibly be correct if no one knows who all is autistic? You have to be guessing.” I was right. Without taking into consideration a more accurate representation of the autism community, their data had to be inconclusive. Why? I was unknowingly using the scientific method that I learned in high school. If an experiment is flawed or influenced by any bias, then the results will be inaccurate.
For example, last year, I observed a study posted on Twitter that claimed the pain reliever Tylenol (acetaminophen) caused autism. To their credit, they had a reasonable hypothesis and a wealth of well-organized data. But they failed to consider the diversity of the autism community. Without it, they could not account for how factors such as vaccines, toxins, or, in this case, pain relievers like Tylenol would affect all of us.
Their research had to be incomplete. Therefore, the elephant in the room is that these studies simply cannot be correct. Yet, with the credentials the researchers possess, many of these studies have already tainted the public’s perception of what it means to be autistic. Not accurately understanding autistic people perpetuates prejudice against us. This has led to our support needs not being taken seriously, which reduces our quality of life.
No one yet knows who all is autistic. One of the main reasons for this is that autism is still viewed with prejudice. Only ‘low-functioning’ children can be autistic. Everyone knows that children grow up. If bias is not accounted for, these studies will continue to be flawed and exclude autistic people who might not be adversely affected by vaccines or pain relievers. If autism is being taken seriously, then why was I diagnosed so late at age 37?
There is more than one elephant in the room. As much as our autistic individuality makes us different, we are all still autistic people. We all need to be respected if academic studies are to be accurate. Thanks to deductive reasoning and pattern recognition, my conclusion is accurate. You must consider all autistic people in order to be correct in asserting what makes us who we are as human beings.
The benefits of logic and reason are important for more than just this…
