i thought that it’s lonlyness but what is it exactly???
In: Biology
it’s effects are very different from person to person. My nephew is severe. He’s at the very very worst end of the scale and needs constant supervision and support. I’m at the opposite functioning end. The Spectrum of disorders that make up autism can sometimes make the sufferer a type of savant in unexpected and inexplicable ways. I’m an adult with autism. I was mute as a child and I have repetitive behavior issues still, I’m outwardly mostly normal. I am unable to make food for myself. I have no idea why and I have gone days without food for the lack of someone to help me get some. 60% of all autism sufferers have some form of gastrointestinal issues. I’m a celiac. I have extreme difficulty reading and writing, and in contrast to that I am employed and have been for many years. I am autodidactic. I’m computer engineer by profession. I started as a Unix admin and now I program multi million dollar networking devices. What I cannot read I have others read to me. I work in the network data stack between layers 3 and 7. Anyway, I’m a functional idiot in most other respects of my life. I’m a twice recovering alcoholic who’s 5 months sober today, actually yay me 🙂 I didn’t grow up in a good place and life was very very hard. Dirt poor in a poor part of a very backwards Ireland in the 1970’s. Good times, I think not. Anyway the point I was trying very badly to make is autism is a spectrum of disorders with different severity’s in different people.
Shortly put, autism occurs due to the brain functioning in a different way. For some, this can be a barely notable “different” air about them while others are not very functional due to a brain that cannot function as most other’s do.
It is a spectrum, meaning “autism” has many severities and even comes under different names for different severities or depending on how it impacts someone’s life.
This can, of course, lead to loneliness yes as many on the spectrum have trouble connecting with people. They can be very socially awkward and even a little cold and logical at times depending on who it is and what flavor they have.
Even shorter put: Autism is considered a developmental disorder of the brain that can have symptoms ranging from being a little awkward and high functioning to being unable to care for yourself and basically trapped in your own body as if it were a malfunctioning robot with you inside trying to pilot it.
A person with autism has difficulty relating to others, at their most basic level. It’s not “hard,” it’s something that person can’t do like the “typical” poplulation.
Maybe the person can’t talk at all, or maybe they can only talk about airplanes and airplane parts. This makes it almost impossible to make friends, or talk about big things like marriage and kids.
Typical person: so do you want 2 or 3 kids?
Person with autism MIGHT respond: in 1872, pilots were not allowed to have children. So pilots of airplane xyz carried baby dolls and pretended they were children. They sometimes carried up to 5 baby dolls!
The person is TRYING to connect, but completely missing the mark.
People with autism can learn “rules” to connect with others. I.e. when someone says hi, I should say hi back. However, there are many conversations that you can’t just “learn the rules,” like how to make friends, or how to ask someone out. Or, if someone can learn how to have these conversations, they still might not be able to understand at all when a friend says, “my dad hit me. I’m scared to go home, I don’t know what to do.” Uh oh! Now the person with autism might not know how to feel empathy for their friend, or how to problem solve for their friend. They might give useless information, or not say anything, or not notice that their friend is really scared.
Everyone who has autism is different, so some people with autism COULD see their friend is hurting, and offer some good advice. But it might be really hard to share hobbies, or talk about the future, etc. but the fundamental issue is, somewhere the person does not have the tools and/or language to connect to others naturally.
Follow up question: how is autism diagnosed? Is it purely behavioral or is there an actual biological difference?
Latest Answers