Health
Are you being stereotypical when it comes to mental
disorders ?
“These stereotypes happen more often than you think.”
By Elayne Susana Matos
December 3, 2019
Most people just assume things all the time about anything. Imagine something complicated like a mental disorder. Let’s focus on autism, “ people with autism are retards”. This is one of the most common stereotypes I’ve heard followed by “They don’t feel emotions”. There is always a stereotype for every group of people. It’s wrong but hey it’s true. Now how would you if you’re being stereotypical? Well, you would have to know the facts first.
The facts
People with autism have trouble with acknowledging people’s feelings. According to the National Autistic Society, “ Autistic people often have difficulty ‘reading’ other people”. This means that they will know if you’re sad or happy eventually. It would just take them longer to process that you are feeling this way. Not knowing this information when interacting with a person with autism waiting for a quick reaction might be awkward and might make you assume things that are not true.
Autism first and foremost has 4 different spectrums. Yes, there’s 4 different types of autism! According to Autism speaks,”In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association merged four distinct autism diagnoses into one umbrella diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder” (What is autism?). The different types are autistic disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome. During my research I read about an autistic child who used typing as a way of communicating. I’ve also seen and read about others with photographic memory. Autistic people can range from solving the quadratic formula in seconds to struggling with just 2+2. They do not fall under one category. They come in many different shapes and sizes just like the majority of the population with no mental disabilities.
Something interesting that most people don’t know about autistic people is that they carry a certain interest with them all the time. What do I mean by this? Okay so, as seen on the netflix show Atypical by Robvia Rashid the main character is let’s say obsessed with penguins. The penguins are his main interest. Now how does he carry this interest with him? When in a situation or before a situation happens in his regular life he thinks what would penguins do?When he developed a crush on his therapist. The main character followed the steps penguins make when finding a mate. These interests help them understand and deal with what is going on around them.
After reading these facts did you find yourself stereotypical to this group of people? Did one of these facts clear up something you had in your head about autistic people? When we read the facts we find our faults to the stereotypes in our heads.Next time please just even look up online instead of assuming. When interacting with someone with autism please remember these they have feelings too!
https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism
