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Dan Jones dispels five of the most frequently shared myths about what causes autism.
There is a lot of controversy and many persistent myths around the causes of autism (and Asperger’s Syndrome which is now not a diagnostic term). I will discuss these and a few of the other persistent autism myths.
MYTH 1: Autism is caused by vaccinations
Back in the late 1990’s, a flawed research study was carried out involving 12 children who weren’t randomly selected, and it claimed to find a link between the MMR vaccination and autism. This was false. There have since been many large-scale, well-executed studies that disprove this research.
The reason this myth is thought to continue to persist is that the vaccination happens about the age of 2, and because autism is a social-developmental condition, it is often noticed around the age of 2-2.5 years old. This is when the child is beginning to become more mobile, mix with others more, and talk more, but if certain milestones that would be expected at this time aren’t happening, this can raise concerns. Sometimes, a child may seem to have been developing well and then regress in their development about this time if they are on the autism spectrum.
This myth assumes that the MMR vaccination, which came just before noticing the child’s struggles, is the cause of the problems rather than just happening to occur around the same time.
It is like someone assuming that Thanksgiving caused Christmas; the two things happen near each other, but one doesn’t cause the other.
MYTH 2: Autism is caused by “refrigerator parenting”
In the early days of autism research, it was believed that autism was caused by ‘cold’ parents who didn’t display love and affection to their children. It is true that when a child has a parent who shows very little love and affection, who doesn’t engage with their child, and who is neglectful, that child might show signs similar to autism. That doesn’t mean they have autism. They may have developmental delays or emotional or behavioral challenges.
This is why, when parents approach the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to seek an autism diagnosis, the first thing CAMHS wants to know is, how are the family relationships, what is family life like, and how does the child present in school and socially? They want to know whether the child behaves the same in all areas of their life, and if not, why?
This myth about autism isn’t a helpful one. It is a disempowering myth, and one that can make perfectly good parents believe the way they raised their child is somehow to blame for the child having autism. This can lead to parents experiencing guilt and a belief that perhaps they didn’t love their child enough, all of which is false.
MYTH 3: Autism is a childhood form of schizophrenia
Again, in the early years of autism research, it was called ‘infantile psychosis, and because those with autism can show signs like withdrawal, which are similar to schizophrenia. It was thought maybe the two were linked. It is now known that the two conditions aren’t connected; someone could be autistic and schizophrenic, but this connection would just be someone who happens to have both conditions.
I have met parents who believe their child is suffering from some mental disorder due to lacking feelings. Again, this is a myth. Firstly, autistic people don’t lack feelings. They may make different connections to others and not get emotional about the same things, but they still care.
As someone who is autistic, this is one of the most difficult things to explain to people. I want everyone to have the best life they can. I care. I love my wife, but I’m not very good at showing that love, or, in the past, realizing I needed to show the love. It is something I now know.
I can hear bad news and not be bothered by it. I can be in situations others find distressing or scary and not be bothered. However, I can be taken by surprise by intense emotions which overwhelm my senses, the same as other sensory input. For example, when giving my speech on my wedding day and talking about a video of my grandad, which I had recorded and was just about to show other relatives at his memorial following his death.
In these situations, it made no logical sense to me to be crying (with happiness/upset), yet that is what happened. I also never used to cry at romantic films when I was younger, but I now cry at them far more than my wife.
As a child and young adult, and still in many situations, I can appear cold, harsh, and uncaring. I struggle to remember that others seem to need me to behave a certain way so that they understand that I care. I will be blunt with people, but to me, I am being caring, honest, etc.
Me not hugging my wife doesn’t mean I don’t love her, yet from her perspective, me not hugging her makes her start to worry about whether I love her or find her attractive. To me, it is illogical to connect the two things. The fact that I am with her means I love her, because if I didn’t, I would leave.
These traits can lead to some people thinking a child may be a psychopath when they are older. Again, someone could grow up to be mentally disturbed and also be autistic, but the two aren’t connected
MYTH 4: Autism is a mental illness
A mental illness is something that develops during life for some reason. For example, someone could develop anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or depression from life events. People aren’t born with obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety, phobias, or post- traumatic stress disorder; all of these develop later in life for various reasons. Autism is a neurological condition. Someone with autism is born with their brain processing information differently to ‘neuro-typical’ people.
MYTH 5: Autism can be cured
Autism can’t be cured because it is a part of who the autistic person is, not something they developed. This isn’t to say autistic people can’t be helped. They can, but regardless of how much better they get at socializing or recognizing people’s emotions, they will still be autistic. It could be that at some point in the future, scientists develop a way to cure conditions like autism. The question is whether that is a good thing or not and whether we should ‘cure’ autism if it ever becomes possible.
I have worked with thousands of parents, and I have met my fair share of parents who wish they had a cure for their child’s autism. Often this cure is being sought because it would make things easier for the parent. The parent perceives greater suffering for their child if they grow up to be ‘different’ because the parent feels guilt and blames themselves for the child being autistic. So they want to get rid of the autism to get rid of their guilt, or they don’t want to have a ‘disabled’ child.
Many autistic people that I have met and spoken with wouldn’t want to be ‘cured’. They feel that if they didn’t have autism, then they wouldn’t be who they are. Autism is a part of who they are.
This doesn’t mean they don’t wish they didn’t have some of their issues and challenges, and it is in these areas that they need help and support. This would include things like learning how to interact in social situations, how to manage overwhelming sensory input, or how to keep calm when they can’t immediately exit from a situation, rather than getting angry or anxious.
People I have worked with – specifically when I used to work in residential care homes – who have significant cognitive impairments and other challenges, have often been as happy as any other population of people I have met. Not having autism doesn’t necessarily mean not being discriminated against, bullied, being better at socializing, or holding down a job because, in reality, many of these issues could still happen to them even if they weren’t autistic.
I know parents generally want to protect their children from harm and want their children to be happy, but ‘curing’ them of autism isn’t necessarily a route to making the child happy. Those who are autistic have different ways of thinking about things. So, if the child is loved for being who they are, then if they were ‘cured’ of their autism, they would also have a totally different way of thinking than they did with autism. It would change their personality, interests, creative perspectives, and many quirks (as everyone has), which make them who they are.
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