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by twoneurons 1541 days ago
Autism is not an emotional cycle, it's not a circumstantial state

it's a disorder determined by genetics.

Either you got the genes, or you don't. Pretty binary.

3 comments

Just had to call out a nuance here - Disorder is an extremely strong word. People living with ASD are not "weird" or "abnormal" in anyway whatsoever, they are just different. As a society, we accept people's genetically predetermined sexual orientation, regardless of whether it represents the majority. ASD is no different, lets avoid calling it a disorder.
ASD: Autism spectrum disorder

Though I agree, in certain aspects is a super-power. In certain aspects it's a hampering disability. Semantics.

Disorder is a medical term that means an illness that disrupts normal physical or mental functions. This describes autism but not homosexuality (which, I was not aware, has now been declared to be of entirely genetic basis?)

Even if they were to both fit the definition, I’m not sure what the objection to the word is.

To slap down my lived experience: gay and on the spectrum.

And the spectrum part is definitely a disorder. It’s a deep-down and profound inability to connect. We are a fundamentally social species, to a fundamental inability to get socialization at a visceral level is pretty disordered.

If this is true, where can I read about these specific genes, when and how they were discovered?
> It's a disorder determined by genetics.

This is wildly inaccurate.

> Either you got the genes, or you don't. Pretty binary.

Even more wildly inaccurate. It's not remotely binary. There is no autism gene or genes. Environmental factors (nurture) still factor heavily.

https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/autism-genetics-explained/

and a myriad of other articles and research papers one can find by googling "genetics autism."

> This is wildly inaccurate.

"Wildly" might be an overstatement. As your own link says, genetics are a significant (but not the only) factor.

I agree the whole binary thing is BS, but i think what the poster was originally trying to dispute is that its all in people's head as an emotional state, which is also clearly very wrong.

sure, and if there's half a dozen cases of autism in my family, it's because of what we eat (environment)