Re: So who else here has autism, or knows someone who has it
Guardian G.I. said:
I live in Belarus, and I haven't met anyone who has autism. Some Russian hipsters who are obsessed with Western pop culture often call themselves Aspergers because they think that simple social awkwardness sounds more glorified when it is referred by an American psychiatric term that is not used by Russian psychiatrists, but I doubt that they actually have Asperger's syndrome. Autistics do exist here, but they are very rare.
It's rather weird that there are so many people on autistic spectrum in the United States and Canada. Belarus got hit hard by radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl disaster. For a few years after 1986, there was a large spike of registered cases of Down syndrome and other very nasty genetic illnesses among newborn children in the irradiated areas of the country. Russia had to deal with a gigantic rise of alcoholism and drug abuse during the catastrophic period of 1990s. Yet there are very few autistics in Belarus and in Russia (and in other former Soviet republics). A child who gets born with autism is usually regarded with curiosity by people around here (except his peers, who'd bully the hell out of him). It would make sense if autism and other similar syndromes were widespread in our part of of the globe, but why it is so common in America?
Hey man, I live in the neighboring Poland, and share similar observations to yours. I don't think I've ever met anyone who called themselves autistic.
How does one go about identifying such people in real life without being explicitly told that they have autism? I once known that one guy in college who was somehow a bigger motor mouth than me and I talked with him at length about many spergy topics such as video games and various "The Abridged Series" anime fan parodies on YouTube. I suppose he might have been on the spectrum, but other than that, wearing a bit unfashionable, baggy clothes, and seemingly sometimes lacking social inhibition, he appeared perfectly normal to me. I really liked him, too.
A general rule seems to apply that our countries are a few years behind the West in pretty much anything, perhaps including psychology. Now I'm not very worldly, but it's visible on the internet, and I also noticed that during my visits to the Netherlands and England.
I talked about autism with some Poles and they for the most part had no idea what it was. Up until recently, there was virtually no mass media coverage of the condition. An autism awareness foundation was established circa
2011, I think 1990, apparently, but it's only really been active since 2004. I was directed there by a psychologist when she told me she strongly suspected I had Asperger syndrome. She explained to me that she was not qualified to diagnose autism spectrum disorders in adults.
So, while apparently I am touched by the 'Burgers, I need to go to that group's facility to confirm that, but they only have their agencies in Warsaw (the capital city), which is quite a ways from where I live, and there are no alternatives. I just don't feel like I need to go there right now. I mean, that would be a bit expensive, and realistically speaking, what would I gain from an official diagnosis? Besides a sense of certainty about my condition, and having an explanation (but not an excuse) for why I behaved the way I did. There are no tugboats, no laws that offer me any benefits, unlike in the USA. I'd still like to go to that facility one day, just to be sure, but I'd have to get a job first to cover the travel expenses.
I never really communicated well with my peers. I was usually considered weird. I've had trouble maintaining eye contact since I can remember. I've spent most of my life on the computer. I speak in constant creepy monotone. Whether or not I'm actually on the spectrum is an itch that I'd really like to scratch. And hey, if I am, maybe there is some treatment available to help me function normally. This might be really worth it after all...
Basically, I suspect autism/Asperger syndrome might be some kind of "flavor of the month" mental condition that is being overdiagnosed in the West but underdiagnosed here in Central-East Europe because of the low awareness. Probably both.
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