Make me normal documentary

[acstar]

To an extent. Are yours so inconvenient that you need to conceal them?

Its quite the opposite. I feel ive learned to conceal them early on. And so I seem just like everybody else. I bottle up all my emotions

 

[ASD_Geek]

I think that the principal was trying however I agree that the term "awful" is pretty severe, but the term "difficulty" that she used is very accurate.

 

[bentHnau]

Current update with what happened to the cast:
Re: Only Human - Make Me Normal - YouTube
That's my response video.

I don't understand. It seems like you are only talking about yourself in this video.

 

[grommet]

Wow. I just watched the film. I was very moved. It makes me want to work with autistic kids but since I have autism I don't know how much I could do. I believe I would understand the kids better than the professional staff but the staff in this film seemed like the very best. Maybe I could translate between the kids and NT staff. I did work with autistic kids for a while once. Everybody was so different and some kids were too much for me. The film gave me a lot to think about. I wish life was easier for people with autism, it can be so very very hard.

bentHnau in regards to your avatar, I met Ally Sheedy once. It was years ago when we were both young. She was very beautiful in person. I did not expect her to be so striking. We did not properly meet, rather I recognized her when we were a few feet apart.

 

[Coupe]

I watched this video with great interest & re-watched several parts. What I didn't appreciate at all was the emphasis the head teacher kept placing on how every possible problem these students encountered was due to their Autism. YES they have to be aware that they have it, but this well meaning yet painfully ignorant head teacher made it seem as if these students were condemned to suffer in isolation, rage & frustration all their lives because they were so unfortunate as to have been born defective!

Several of the students expressed severe low self-esteem & there was an alarming degree of suicidal ideation. That head teacher is destroying the very people she is trying to help. So what id she'd feel awful if she had AS. How can she possibly know how she'd feel if she had it? SHE is making them feel awful about having it. They need to hire some teachers who have AS to come work there. They need to see examples of people with AS who are living successful lives. Successful real people with AS could come into the school on occasion & interact with the students about how they've overcome challenges & how they function.

That's exactly how I felt about the head teacher too, after re-watching the documentary a few times. Also I feel like when Minear (sp?) (the young man who loved Star Wars and who lost his mother) started acting out, the staff placed too much emphasis on sending him a message of "you are bad" rather than making an effort to have genuine empathy for him. I hate when people do that to me...they'd much rather berate me and make me feel guilty for over-eating, staying inside all the time, and having no friends rather than try to understand WHY I do things like that, and the ways in which they actually make it worse/make me do it.

Other than that, the documentary was quite informative, and I liked how it ended more or less on an optimistic note.