Gonna read "Supporting Transgender Autistic Youth and Adults" by Finn Gratton (the author is both trans and autistic which is good when writing about both those things ha)
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Author has made the choice not to use the term “autism spectrum” "because it generally refers to a one-dimensional line that extends from point A (those people perceived as furthest from allistic functioning) to point B (those perceived as most like allistic people)."
One of those things in which I agree that it is often used/understood that way even though it wasn't ever intended to be taken that way.
IDK I've been stubborn trying to get folks to understand that ain't what a spectrum is. but maybe it is better to just chuck the term out all together.
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We are talking about the "extreme male brain theory" again.
I just can't help but laugh every time someone has to bring it up.
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"This theory of male traits associated with autism has been promulgated by the “extreme male brain theory of autism” developed by Baron-Cohen (2002), arguing that higher rates of prenatal testosterone among autistic people results in higher “systemizing” and lower “empathizing” scores on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Since higher systemizing and lower empathizing scores are associated more with men than women, Baron-Cohen proposed that autistic gender identity difference is related to this “extreme male brain” (Baron-Cohen et al. 2001; Baron-Cohen 2002). Yet recent research indicates that autistic males considered themselves “considerably less masculine than typically developing males,” and transgender and gender nonconforming AFAB people were more than three times as likely to identify as non-binary than as men (Cooper, Smith and Russell 2018). Perhaps greater systemizing results in recognition of the illogical nature of the binary gender system or of societal gender roles."
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"The first study [about autism rates in transgender folks] (de Vries et al. 2010, p.930) found that 7.8% of a cohort of 204 youth with gender dysphoria met criteria for “suspected” autism spectrum, based on the Dutch version of the Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders (10th revision) (van Berckelaer- Onnes et al. 2003). De Vries and colleagues (2010) noted that the 7.8% figure was most likely an under-representation: (a) several known autistic gender clinic patients were unable to complete the assessment due to autism-related impairments; (b) for some patients, autistic traits were observed by clinicians but parents seemed to under-report; and (c) assessing clinicians had a high threshold for recognizing autistic traits, thereby leaving out those with autistic traits who did not appear to meet full criteria for diagnoses. Similar studies followed, most of them using screening tools to identify those who were probably autistic among a cohort of youth or adults who had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Rates of co-occurrence of suggested autism spectrum diagnoses among study groups of people with gender dysphoria ranged from 5.5% of an adult sample (Pasterski, Gilligan and Curtis 2014) to 23.1% of a youth sample (Shumer et al. 2016). Other co-occurrence rates include 13.6% with assigned male at birth (AMAB) adults and 21.3% with AFAB adults (Jones et al. 2012)"
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for reference the rate of autism in the general population is usually stated to be 1% (tho its probably higher)
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"Several studies looked at the co-occurrence of autism and gender dysphoria from the other direction, identifying probable gender dysphoria among people identified with autism. these studies found rates among youth of 5.1% (Janssen, Huang and Duncan 2016) and 5.4% (Strang et al. 2014). For comparison, 0.7% of US youth and 0.6% of US adults identify as transgender (Herman et al. 2017). the high coincidence continues to hold in these early studies, indicating the need to go deeper into this exploration of gender dysphoria among autistic youth and adults. Both of these studies relied on parental reporting of one item on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (ASEBA 1971), question #110: “Wishes to be of the opposite sex.” Many would say this would result in net underreporting, as it leaves out non-binary people, and it does not catch many youth who have not disclosed their gender dysphoria to themselves or their parents at the time of the CBCL completion, though positive responses to this question might also include some individuals who say they want to be the opposite sex for reasons that subside over time. Positive responses might also include children who are gay or lesbian who have not yet sorted out gender identity from sexual orientation."
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talking about the history of the way these two things have been treated in the mental health field so naturally we are talking about the "feminine boy" project which always is unpleasant to read about.
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which affected of course the treatment of all LGBT people and all autistic people (both ABA and Conversion therapy were essentially born out of this project)
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"Positioning the mental health provider as gatekeeper presents a real challenge to the development of a strong therapeutic relationship."
you don't say
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"The gatekeeper role becomes even more fraught when working with trans autistic individuals, as many autistic youth and adults know that mental or medical health providers have historically considered autistic people’s transgender identification, experiences, and decision-making capacities as suspect. If trans autistic people are sharing with others on the Internet, they are often aware of historical denial of medical referrals for autistic people. Because of this knowledge, they may not want to receive an autism diagnosis if they don’t already have one, and will try to present with better executive functioning and with less need of support than they truly have."
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which yeah bingo. I see no benefit to receiving an autism diagnosis as an adult (for me personally)
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end of first chapter has a long list of resources and such. I've heard of a few of these but a couple new ones to me.
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beginning of the book has a list "of related interest" anyway a book titled "Gender Identity, Sexuality and Autism: Voices from Across the Spectrum" is getting added to my reading list.
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There is a "cisgender privilege checklist" and a "neurotypical privilege checklist"
http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2011/11/list-of-cisgender-privileges
http://aspergersquare8.blogspot.com/2009/08/checklist-of-neurotypical-privilege-new.html
Guidelines for Creating Autistic Inclusive Environments
https://www.autismcrc.com.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/Guidelines%20for%20Creating%20Autistic%20Inclusive%20Environments%20(002).pdf
Some neurodiveristy websites. I've never heard of neurocosmopolitanism but "thinking person's guide to autism" gets mentioned by lots of folks
http://neurocosmopolitanism.com
http://www.thinkingautismguide.com
http://neuroqueer.blogspot.com
and then I've literally never heard of any of the transgender resources
Transgender Europe: https://tgeu.org
Genderdqueer.me: https://genderqueer.me
Them.: http://www.them.us
Alok: http://alokvmenon.com
Kat Blaque, video blogger with multiple blogs about trans experience: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxFWzKZa74SyAqpJyVlG5Ew
Then a couple reading lists
http://www.pflag.org/resource/transgender-reading-list-adults
https://bookriot.com/2018/07/02/transgender-fiction
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"In a study of diagnoses received before an autism diagnosis was made (Mandell et al. 2007), Black children were found twice as likely as children of other races to be given a conduct disorder diagnosis prior to being given an autism diagnosis, and non-white children were five times more likely to receive an adjustment disorder diagnosis prior to receiving their autistic diagnoses than were white children."
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Yeah "conduct disorder" is so fucked.
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Responding to these clues regarding gender and neurological diversity is delicate work. It is difficult to predict how individuals and their families will respond to invitations to consider transgender or nonconforming gender identities or autism. Youth and adults may be upset if a provider does not recognize the clues they are consciously providing, or dismayed that no one had until that moment communicated to them that their issues may be related to autism or gender identity and expression. Alternatively, they may feel disturbed that a provider has perceived them as possibly gender nonconforming or autistic when they feel that they are neurotypical and cisgender.
Waiting for the youth or adult to bring up TGNC or autistic self-identification is also a risky route because of the high levels of suicidality, depression, and anxiety associated with both experiences. By remaining quiet, you may further enable a social or family injunction against speaking of these issues. This stigma, along with societal misunderstanding of the range of autistic and transgender presentation, makes sharing more difficult and causes the client to wait for you to open the door to discuss these vulnerable topics. To make things more complicated, you also do not want to take away individual agency and self-determination. the skillful path between these pitfalls involves the application of judgment-free curiosity and acknowledgement of stigma, along with faith in the individual’s ability to explore their own experience. It also requires provider familiarity with the personal experiences and characteristics of a wide range of trans autistic people.
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ok but like for real, do people actually like the damn unicorn?
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replacing the unicorn with this thing
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anyway I'm about to curse y'all with the gender unicorn just in case you have no idea what I'm going on about.
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look at this smug mf. (its one of those models of gender and stuff)
Anyway I personally do not care for the damn unicorn. There are worse things, like its better than the genderbread person (though fucken genderbread, GENDERBREAD!)
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"Because non‑binary identity is rarely present in the public narrative, professionals and families may not know it is common. However, 35% of more than 27,000 US transgender adults surveyed in 2015 identified as non-binary (James et al. 2016)."
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"It is estimated that about 0.1% or 1 in 1,000 people have significant genitalia ambiguity. About ten times as many people have biological intersex characteristics, including hormonal, chromosomal, and other anatomical differences. Including these, the rate of intersex conditions is estimated to be about 1 in 100 (Intersex Society of North America 2018). Often people do not know they are intersex until conditions arise in puberty or until tests are run later in life. Intersex people may also identify as transgender, but being intersex does not make them transgender."
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Ok, like I know this chapter is supposed to be 101 for people not up on gender stuff but like the first thing the author lists in their list of "Signs that someone may be transgender or gender nonconforming" is "They tell you they are transgender or another gender nonconforming identity."
like, is that even a "sign" at that point
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• Sensory experiences include not only external senses of sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste, but also internal experiences of proprioception (internal sensory stimuli related to movement of the body), interoception (sensory stimuli from internal organs), and vestibular sensation (sensory stimuli related to balance and spatial orientation).
• Reactions to sensory experiences that may be seen as hyposensitive or even non-sensitive may actually be a dissociation in which the body is responding internally in a hypersensitive way, but this experience is not felt or reacted to consciously.
• Autistic people become very practiced in suppressing and repressing sensory reactivity in an effort to be neither internally overwhelmed nor externally shamed or judged. This repression and suppression can cause physical and psychological distress. When autistic people fail at efforts to suppress or repress hyperreactivity, the consequences are meltdowns that are overwhelming, affect social standing, and often result in overt or covert punishment.
• Because emotions are experienced physically, not just mentally, and because the internal experience of the body is also hypersensitive and reactive, autistic people often feel emotions more intensely than do most neurotypical people.
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this list actually helped me understand a couple things about myself. Just never had things phrased exactly that way before.
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"Many autistic people have difficulty with auditory filtering; they cannot easily distinguish a single human voice when there are many competing sounds. This characteristic of attending to all sounds— rather than being able to select only salient sounds—can make social communication very difficult and also make it challenging to distinguish teachers’ instructions or to discern public announcements at a train station or convention."
See here I was thinking that PA systems were incomprehensible for everybody.
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text/gemini