Documentary's On Aspergers What Hasn't Been Discussed?

[Luca Fox]

Hey Everyone

My names Luca Fox and later this year I'm planning on making a documentary on Asperger's syndrome. I want to ask the community to hear what you feel hasn't been discussed in previous documentaries and what subjects you feel are important to bring to light. I would love to hear what you guys think.

 

[Doylem]

I'm new to this community but at the get go I've noticed that many of the general public recognize no difference between the mentally ill and the mentally challenged.And that many stereo type the mentally challenged as morons. The list of persons in the past who showed the symptoms of possible being Aspies includes the most creative..... the game changers of the past century.
To automatically label those with an affliction of shyness as stupid is an insult and a sign of ignorance on the one passing judgement.
Hell....we might tend to live in our own head,"BUT STILL WATER DOES RUN DEEP".

 

[Southern Discomfort]

Oh, interesting!

For me, I've found accepting myself as autistic to be quite hard. I've spent over a year obsessively reading up on it, trying to match parts of other people's characteristics to my own with some success. The internet is supposed to be filled with information when in fact a lot of it just gets repeated over and over with the same examples.

Some of the things I'd like to get looked at would be things like

• Showing autistic individuals with little motivation or enthusiasm for subjects outside of their interests.
• Difficulty with taking initiative. For me I've got to be constantly thinking of ways I can help a person otherwise I get labelled as lazy and that's infuriating because the thought of helping just doesn't come to be naturally to me.
• The employment gap. A lot of us have tremendous difficulty leaving education and finding work suitable for us. People view us as the people who are ghastly at interviews despite meeting all the criteria and therefore out of the question of employment. They don't know that major companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Ford and many others are actively looking for autistic people to employ because they know we have some great qualities like being very honest people, having a clear sense of right from wrong, attention to detail amongst other great aspects.
• There are a number of us albeit small that deal with related but atypical comorbid conditions. I myself have been treated for psychosis for the last two years which has just been a confusing time for me. I'm also part of the elite few who also have a tic disorder and Asperger's. It would be interesting to hear about how conditions like these interact with each other. I would like to see those of us who don't just have the common comorbid conditions to be represented for once.

Yeah, those are some of the things I can think of at the moment. I'll see if I can think of any more to add later. I'm glad you're looking for the things which don't get talked about very often. There's so many documentaries which cover the same things, I'd like to see some of the more unusual aspects of an unusual group of people to be represented for a change. I look forward to perhaps seeing your finished work.

 

[pax]

Discrimination in employment and education, particularly the ads that state applicants must have exceptional interpersonal skills, bubbly personality, team player, etc when the job does not require it. Interviews that are geared to exclude Aspies. As with all disabilities, if you disclose on your application, you are unlikely to get an interview, so its a catch 22.
I read an interview by a disability advocate a while back - I am not sure if he was working for a government department or what his role was but he was a wheelchair user. He mentioned this specifically as a form of disability discrimination. Unfortunately I have searched but can not find the article.

 

[toothless]

i think you should do a significant part on how HFA affects adults to and how there is a lack of services and positive therapies for them because all the funding and donations from charities goes to childrens services.
you could also talk about autistic burnout that happens to a lot of adult HFAs who are given to many high expectancies;they take to much on and end up with their autism and mental health worse than ever.

 

[Warmheart]

Yes! Midlife Autistic Burnout and lack of adult autism services beyond transition age. Very important!

 

[xudo]

There are a number of us albeit small that deal with related but atypical comorbid conditions. I myself have been treated for psychosis for the last two years which has just been a confusing time for me. I'm also part of the elite few who also have a tic disorder and Asperger's. It would be interesting to hear about how conditions like these interact with each other. I would like to see those of us who don't just have the common comorbid conditions to be represented for once.

I'm definitely with you there.