Is Autism a real illness?

Autism is a severe developmental disorder that begins at birth or within the first two and a half years of life. Most autistic children are perfectly normal in appearance, but spend their time engaged in puzzling and disturbing behaviors which are markedly different from those of typical children. Less severe cases may be diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder or with Asperger’s Syndrome (most of these children typically have normal speech, but they have many “autistic” social and behavioral problems). But can be seen as a real illness in severe cases.

Problems Autistics may have:

Sensory Processing: Sensory processing can involve a person being too sensitive or find it very hard to interpret a person’s facial expressions, (They may not be able to read a person’s face, like a less ill person).

They may be confused about what you are trying to show/convey to them.

Some autistic people may be insensitive to pain, and fail to notice injuries.

Their hearing may also be heightened, so that noises that don’t bother others may hurt an autistic person’s ears. Many autistic people have trouble making out what is said to them, as they have trouble processing sound.

Vision may also be affected. Some autistic people are face blind that means, have trouble recognizing people. This means that learning to recognize someone is hard, recognition may be slow, and faces tend to be analyzed rather than recognized.

Autistic people are vulnerable to sensory overload, this may also result from too much emotional or social stimulation. Autistic people may become overloaded in situation that would not bother a person without this disorder. Too much overload may lead to tantrums or emotional outburst.

Misunderstanding: Autistic people have a great deal of trouble understanding things. This includes both understanding of social cues and conventions, and understanding language. They don’t understand many of the basic social assumptions that we may take for granted. Autistic people lack normal non-verbal communication and body language, and may thus seem more literal minded or unemotional than they actually are. Autistic people also have trouble with verbal communication. Autistic people have other communication difficulties, such as trouble remembering vocabulary, or trouble pronouncing words.

Attention: The problem is that they have very narrowly focused attention, and can’t keep up with more than one thing at a time. They also shift their attention from thing to thing very quickly. It is often a very confusing process.

They may also obsess over a certain thing on their mind. They may become fixated on it for a very long time.

The point I am trying to make that people are ignorant to the truth.

For example: A person I know went to a relieving officer today in Ballyfermot, and the relieving officer said Autism isn’t a real illness. The statistics show that nearly half of the population of Ireland have some form of Autism in some form, be it Asperger’s syndrome or Rett syndrome, Etc…

This person isn’t a doctor; she is an unqualified person in the field. She is a person that helps people to get social welfare payments. It is unbelievable, how ignorant people can be.

The main duties of a relieving officer are:

1. To receive applications for relief, and forthwith to examine into the circumstances of every case by visiting the house of the applicant, and making all necessary inquiries into the state of health, the ability to work, the condition and family, and the means of such applicant, and to report the results of his inquiries to the Guardians at their next meeting, and also to visit from time to time, all paupers receiving relief. In any case of sickness or accident requiring relief by medical attendance, to procure such attendance from the District Medical Officer.
2. To ascertain from the District Medical Officer the names of any poor persons attended or supplied with Medicines. In every case of sudden or urgent necessity, to afford relief to the destitute person, either by giving such person an order of admission into the Workhouse, and conveying him thereto, if necessary, or by affording him relief out of the Workhouse, provided that the same be not given in money, whether such destitute person be settled in any Parish comprised in the Union or not.
3. To report to the Guardians all cases reported to him by an Overseer, and to obey the direction of the Guardians with reference to the relief administered in such cases.
4. Duly and punctually, to supply the weekly allowances of all paupers belonging to his District.
5. To visit, relieve, and otherwise attend to non-settled poor, being within his district.
6. To present his weekly accounts to the Clerk for his inspection and authentication before every ordinary meeting of the Guardians, and to the Guardians, for their approval.
7. To assist the Clerk in conducting and completing the annual or other election of Guardians.

In the above 7 duties of a relieving officer, there is no where that says they are qualified to say that autism isn’t a real illness.