Response to Loving Lampposts

I really enjoyed watching Loving Lampposts, a documentary (available on hulu for anyone interested). It reaffirmed my belief that we don't need to find a cure for autism (there isn't such a thing anyway), but rather find the best-fitting treatment for each individual and create an understanding of what the world is like for someone with autism. When we understand the world from someone else's point of view, it makes our own world richer and forces us to see things that have always been there but were previously invisible to us. By putting yourself in the shoes of someone who has autism you could start to imagine what the world could be like for them: fascinating, interesting, beautiful, but also confusing, overwhelming, and frustrating.

Prior to seeing this film, I had never heard about the Defeat Autism Now (DAN) movement. This movement follows the Medical Model, which is one way of viewing and treating disability. The Medical Model essentially says to someone who is ill or has a disability, "You need to be fixed or cured, and medicine is the way to do that." When treatment fails, the person might be seen as a lost cause or a failure. The DAN movement, while meaning well, wants to eliminate autism, which is something easier said than done since there is no cure. So-called cures or treatments that are promoted haven't had enough research done on them to prove their claims, and since each person with autism is different, there is no surefire way to say that something will work for everyone. Unless there is evidence to back up their claims, using these treatments seems a bit like swinging an expensive bat at a pinata while blindfolded.

I believe that someone who has a disability (such as autism) does not need to be "fixed", and they have the right to lead a happy, fulfilling life like anyone else, given the chance. Instead of focusing on "fixing" a person with autism, maybe a better approach would be to try to understand their world and use that understanding to find the appropriate treatment.

In the documentary, I believe it was one of the doctors, said something along the lines of, "Ask people on the street 'what is autism?' (or what causes autism), and you will get a different answer each time." The documentary demonstrated that autism is a complicated diagnosis, with many different manifestations, and every person who has it experiences it differently. After showing the efforts of the Defeat Autism Now movement, the narrator posited the question: what happens if we accept instead of defeat this diagnosis? Only time and more research will help us find the answer.