Mental Health and Autism: Why Acceptance is important

It is well known that individuals on the autism spectrum are likely to have comorbid mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.  However, it is a less discussed topic surrounding autism compared to behavior and social challenges etc.  As an autistic young adult with anxiety,  I can give some insight on the high prevalence.  A big part of it has to do with how we were slowly socialized either implicitly or explicitly that an autistic lifestyle is something that is defective and therefore it needs fixing.  In fact this article sums up the strong link of autism acceptance and the development of mental health disorders.  In other words, lack of acceptance externally from others and internally from the self significantly predicts depression and anxiety in young adults with autism.  However, mental health and having a positive relationship with an autistic identity are not a priority when helping autistic people.  If mental health issues are mentioned in regards to autism, they are are addressed in a pathological way.  In this post I am going to write about my experience as someone on the spectrum that lives with mental health issues.

I have written about my struggle with anxiety in an earlier post.   However, in that post I talked about some of the symptoms of how my anxiety  manifests.   I never written that extensively about  the root cause of  my mental turmoil  being related as lack of acceptance of being autistic.   Although I come across as a "confident self advocate"  when I speak about my life experiences, the truth is that I struggle with deep self confidence issues and actually doubt some of my own advice that I give out sometimes.  There is a monster voice in my head that constantly tells me that "I am wrong" or that "I am not deserving of support"  and other negative scripts.  I constantly say "I'm sorry" to my family or others whenever I feel that my autistic mind takes over.  My monster voice is always constantly bringing me down by saying that I am not "entitled to my feelings because I am autistic" and battles with my positive voice or the voice of confidence.  I am so hard on myself and I blame myself for all the challenges that life brings me.

Lately, I have been wondering of how did I become this way or how did I develop such negative thinking which resembles mental self injury.  I then realize that the negative scripts and inner anxiety that I developed in my head today were the result  of years  of growing up and slowly realizing that disability is something that needed to be fixed.  Unlike the children growing up today with the neurodiversity framework, I did not come of age in which autistic advocates were respectfully regarded as the "true experts."   As much as I hate to blast some of my lovely support people like my therapist or my family members on this blog post, they unintentionally through no fault of their own, contributed to my negative script that I have for myself.    Before I go ahead and critique some of the intervention that I received,   I want to make clear that I am thankful that I have gotten interventions that enabled me get to the point where I am today.  The social skills, emotional and self advocacy skills that I learned during my adolescence enabled me to be the strong advocate I am today.  But for autism intervention, there is always room for improvement. 

Throughout my school years, I was taught to camouflage my symptoms in order to blend in and function in the mainstream environment.  It was reinforced through behavioral therapy and the school system.    A few examples that I can remember was that I was pressured to join clubs and sit with a group of kids because that is how typical high schoolers socialized.  I was discouraged from socializing with adults such as the other aides at school or the computer teacher in middle school because it wasn't considered appropriate. I was socialized to learn about  the fashion and other interests that teens through social groups that my behaviorist made (e.g. the "cool" or "not cool" chart) in an attempt were to make me "fit in" better.  All these experiences and others have taught me that I should camouflage and suppress my natural self because I should appear normal.   Friends were chosen for me because people wanted me to be more social. I went along with the recommendations of my support people and parents and pretended to live as a neurotypical because I thought they knew best.  I tried all I can to suppress my natural way of being at the expense of my self esteem and acceptance of my unique neurology.

What the people who helped me didn't realize at the time was the future implications of my mental health as an autistic person.  At the time, the focus  was making me as self sufficient  and socially adjusted as possible by the time I reached adulthood that nobody ever considered what they were doing could unintentionally  affect my self identity and self esteem.  All this energy camouflaging myself in order to appear " normal" became mentally exhausting.  I started second guessing myself and internally beating myself up  over minor social infractions.  This is a big part of my anxiety living as an autistic person.

My experience with special education and ABA shows the dichotomy of interventions that are designed to optimize the quality of life individuals on the spectrum can also adversely impact  the mental health and self acceptance of an autistic identity.    This is what a lot of self advocates are concerned about behavioral modification programs because of the long term affects it can have on mental health in regards to autism.  This is why we need to preach autism acceptance and center self advocates in developing appropriate supports for autistic people.  That means we need to take their insights, feelings and desires into account instead of dismissing them. Acceptance means training mental health service providers to look at autism and other disabilities as a part of a person's identity rather than a problem that needs to be fixed.    Acceptance means a world where autistic people don't have to camouflage to appear neurotypical.  Acceptance also  means giving supports and accommodations to autistic people of all abilities and support levels when it's asked.  If  the world becomes more embracing of the autistic lifestyle, I believe the severity of the mental health problems (though not all) that  autistic people have will be lessened.