Could Autism Be an Evolutionary Step Forward?

[hunter]

45. Autism is not some delightful "quirk." Often it's painful.

I've written about my own journey here often. I don't claim to speak for other autistic people.

Here's some of my recent posts:

Diagnosis https://www.democraticunderground.com/115123238

40,000th post https://www.democraticunderground.com/10182232621

Could have killed me https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220675525#post5

If I presume to diagnose myself, the autism led to the PTSD which led to the depression. There may have been some psychotic component in there as well, since my mind did seem to go a little sideways in late adolescence. But most of the misery relates directly to the autistic spectrum stuff.

Personally I don't suffer from any lack of empathy but my lack of self-awareness has caused a lot of problems for me and for those who love me.

Like most mental health issues, autism makes people more likely to become victims of violence than perpetrators of it.

BTW, my selection of this video was not coincidental. My autistic spectrum grandfather (it's clearly an inherited trait in my family) was an engineer for the Apollo Project. During World War II he was an Army Air Corp officer. He never talked about that and may have played a role in some dirty business. His personal life was always a mess and his relationships with coworkers frequently contentious.

Our society does not celebrate diversity. If it did autistic people wouldn't have so many problems. Neither would LGBTQ people. About a third of the people in our society want to actively torture people they don't consider "normal" and a politically significant fraction of the population is willing to go along with that.