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Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

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Re: Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

#131

Post by TangoTrotFox »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #130
TangoTrotFox wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, people are different. Attributing differences to disorders is not productive, and tends to lead to things such as medication and expensive treatment and therapy when such things are not only unnecessary but absurd and can even be harmful - especially in the longrun. It's reminiscent of various 'treatments' for homosexuality in the earlier years of psychology/psychiatry, which by the way does not mean t…

> Imagine if we treated things like schizophrenia the same way we do autism. We better stick every single religious individual that claims to be able to communicate with or hear the voice of god on antipsychotics and scheduled 'treatment', as they're clearly on the scale. You seem to be under the impression that all autism, regardless of location on the spectrum, is treated the same way (and that way invariably invol…

I would recommend reading the names attached to posts before attributing ownership to them.

In the most expansive 'recent' study I am aware of, 64% [1] of children diagnosed with autism end up taking at least 1 psychotropic medication over the sample period, which was ~3 years. Substantial numbers ended up taking multiple, different, psychotropics. This is speaking specifically of children. In older subjects medicating rates are higher, and all rates have been increasing sharply over time.

[1] - http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/132/5/833

Re: Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

#132

Post by occams_chainsaw »

jscholes wrote: post #50

> Facial expressions, body language, and eye contact are the bones of communication and it’s quite difficult to build and maintain relationships without the ability to read them. As a blind person this was quite difficult to read (emotionally). I don't have any additional mental needs, but for obvious reasons I'm unable to read other peoples' visual body language, maintain eye contact or gauge their facial expression…

People won't expect you to pick up on visual cues like the person you responded to, though.

Re: Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

#133

Post by emodendroket »

vinceguidry wrote: post #91
mockingbirdy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's like the cognitive part of your brain just isn't connected to the emotional part I have this problem. Most of the time I call it autism for convenience although I know it isn't accurate. Deficient/Immature emotional processing is a better phrase that is more accurate. I think that development issues in the psyche can lead to delays in areas like emotional processing and theory of mind. Oftentimes I have to sim…

I'm starting to call it "cognitive empathy". Rather than having emotions and theory of mind operate in the limbic system where they belong, and not having the option of not having an empathic center, the mind starts to build its own version of the limbic system in the forebrain. This brings the functioning of that system into the cognitive purview. It's definitely in the Cluster B 'spectrum' but in order to make sens…

> What I'm calling here 'cognitive empathy' is when the trauma doesn't really reach the point where it affects functioning. The person knows something is wrong but can't put a finger on it. What's happened is rather than trauma pushing all the way down into the reptile brain / basal ganglia, or so deep into the limbic system that it rewires or completely turning emotional processing off, (psychopathy) the person gets 'shadows' of emotional processing that they then need to 'shore up' with cognitive processing.

But this is the experience of many people with "high-functioning" ASD, even people who have received formal diagnoses. "Something" is off and affecting their relationships, but until they receive their diagnosis they can't understand what it is. It seems to me as though you are inventing your own idiosyncratic definitions for these ideas.

Re: Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

#134

Post by emodendroket »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #5

My mother teaches autistic children and I think this woman must have an incredibly mild version. My mother’s students can barely take care of themselves and touching someone is largely out of the question. I’d love to see her face when I mentioned I read an article about a woman with autism being a stripper. And yes I know there is a spectrum of autism from severe to not as severe, but when someone is as high functio…

> And yes I know there is a spectrum of autism from severe to not as severe, but when someone is as high functioning as this does the word have any meaning anymore?

I should think so given the challenges the article describes. You can't really believe that only people who act like the Rain Man are autistic. I suppose this kind of misunderstanding is one thing that makes the elimination of the name "Asperger's" in favor of "ASD" a problem.

Re: Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

#135

Post by emodendroket »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #70
Fnoord wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having a mild form can be even more difficult. Yup, people with severe autism get diagnosed early in their life, as child. They're clearly impaired by their autism, and get help. People with a mild version get un(der)-diagnosed, especially women. They're expected to just blend in with society yet when they have difficulty in life, they're being told to e.g. "man up". Which might work with NTs shrug . If you don't s…

I think the real question is where is the line between it being a character trait (aloof, stoic, introverted, a bit weird, you name it) and a disability. I don't think high functioning autism is a disability, it's a character type that is a bit out there - but with the person knowing it and other people learning about it, we can all get along just fine.

But isn't that the issue? As this article describes, many people do not know they have it, let alone have people in their lives aware of it, and so they cannot understand the barriers that form in all of their personal relationships

Re: Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

#136

Post by lifeisstillgood »

jscholes wrote: post #124
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking that throw away comment for all it's worth, are there poker competitions that use braille cards ? [0] It sounds like you might have a serious advantage? Or is the disadvantage of missing other people's tells too great? Any poker players care to comment? [0] http://www.braillebookstore.com/Braille-Playing-Cards,-Plast...

> are there poker competitions that use braille cards ? I did once enquire at the local casinos (UK). They were concerned about cheating or card tampering, even though they would obviously be purchasing the brailled cards, not me. I guess they have certified suppliers or something. Then again, this is the gambling industry so it's easy for them to shut down questions like this without having to do much explaining. I…

well it seems a good idea for real life casinos. but they seem a long way behind the times - https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/faq-health-vision-impaired/

Sadly

Re: Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

#137

Post by emodendroket »

yenwel wrote: post #100
blanche_ wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Autistic are not necessarily introverts. Autism is more like social blindness than introversion. Considering the fact that human is highly social animal it makes life harder. Calling people with ASD introverts is like calling people with depression just sad.

Autism is a problem with cognitive empathy (understanding and recognizing emotions in one self and others). Versus sociopathy and other dark triads which have a problem with affective empathy (experiencing an mirror emotion to the emotion of others). The latter makes sociopaths able to exploit people around them (recognizing emotions and no bad feeling exploiting it). You can also miss both but these will be severely…

In fact sociopaths are often exceptionally successful in society because they're very good at manipulating people. It's in some sense the opposite of autism: the actual emotion is not there but they are very natural at feigning it.

Re: Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

#138

Post by emodendroket »

Fnoord wrote: post #61
newnewpdro wrote: post #37

This person hasn't even been diagnosed with autism by a professional, yet the title strongly suggests so. I guess the article wouldn't be particularly appealing with "Autistic" missing from the title. I've met a few people who have self-diagnosed themselves as autistic. It's kind of become a catch-all for people with eccentricities and/or offensive tendencies. In the cases I've seen, the people are either just unsoci…

First of all, I agree with you that self-diagnosis is dangerous. However, I'm from a rich country with a great healthcare system (The Netherlands). Others with ASD might not be as fortunate as I am. > I've met a few people who have self-diagnosed themselves as autistic. It's kind of become a catch-all for people with eccentricities and/or offensive tendencies. In the cases I've seen, the people are either just unsoci…

> However, I'm from a rich country with a great healthcare system (The Netherlands). Others with ASD might not be as fortunate as I am.

I feel reasonably comfortable saying that strip clubs are probably not generally giving their dancers generous healthcare plans; if the woman feels like she's got things under control it's hard to say what benefit an expensive diagnosis would give her, beyond satisfying doubting online commenters.

Re: Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

#139

Post by emodendroket »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #60
0xdragon wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like you doubt their legitimacy, it's not constructive. You don't get to decide whether they are selfish.

It seems reasonable to doubt a person's self-diagnosis of a condition that is difficult for a trained doctor to diagnose. Moreover, surely it's not "whether they are selfish" that's at issue but why?! Still further, if someone has a diagnosis of having different brain states that affect social interactions that doesn't mean one must accept deleterious interactions -- generally people don't accept violence because it'…

I think psychopathy is quite a poor example because psychopaths are capable, if they choose, of not hurting people or breaking the law. On the other hand, I think there are a great number of things we wouldn't expect the mentally retarded to do that we would expect of people who aren't retarded.

Re: Secret Life of an Autistic Stripper

#140

Post by rbanffy »

Fnoord wrote: post #54
rbanffy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You appear different enough that people can tell, but your similar enough to other people And that does wonders for you when trying to be diagnosed and, if you are lucky, treated.

Treated? You should know that may sound very offensive (I assume it wasn't meant offensive though). Autism cannot be treated as it isn't a disease; it is a development disorder. You learn to live with it, and its part of how you are as a human being; you don't know different. You learn to live with it without a diagnosis as well, but a diagnosis plus various therapies can help you being more functional in life. That'…

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend. Many people believe ADHD is related to Autism and, while I never heard it of being cured, it can be managed/tuned with medication. Maybe autism can be managed in a similar way - and we just don't know how yet.

BTW, I also don't think of ADHD and ASDs as diseases either. Like you said, it's more like the way we are wired. I am wired in a somewhat odd way, but I wouldn't trade my brain in for the standard model, even if it is inconvenient sometimes.

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