Hello Goth

Please find below thoughts on the coronavirus and a thought (partly) in response to Lauren (you can read Lauren's letter in the previous issue here).

It doesn’t seem to me that the coronavirus crisis is over: the number of infections and hospitalisations will likely continue to fluctuate, creating a state of uncertainty that the whole world is now feeling. In a sense everyone else is experiencing what it is like to be autistic in a “normal” world. Unfortunately the uncertainty (and sometimes confusing rules and regulations) affect us even more — well, me anyway.

Where would we want to be in a post-coronavirus future? I think the lockdowns revealed that being cooped up in a small, noisy apartment is very different from being cooped up in a roomy house with a garden. Living in such an apartment is rarely a choice if you’re low income. Some people manage nicely, but many don’t, so one change I would very much welcome would be to make it possible for people of all incomes to seek out people of similar dispositions and have them create a living environment that suits them. Not necessarily bigger houses, but a grouping of people of similar dispositions: quiet people with quiet people, loud people with loud people, people who like to do DIY when everyone else is forced to be at home with similarly antisocial people.

For another thing, let’s hope that, after being collectively and indiscriminately cooped up like this, there will be more attention paid to the variety of humanity: diversity in inclination, skin colour, gender, neurotype, sexual preferences, and so on. Humanity comes in so many forms, let’s hope that the fact that the virus doesn’t discriminate between people (unlike protective measures and access to testing) contributes to a world where these diverse forms can be celebrated instead of suppressed.

(Partly) in response to Lauren

It’s one of the most insidious aspects of being autistic in an un-autistic world: people don’t see you trying and assume you’re lazy (keep in mind that uninformed assumptions say everything about the person making the assumptions and little, if anything about the person the assumptions are about). This is repeated so often and from such an early age that we internalise it and start seeing ourselves as lazy. We are not. You are not, Lauren. We do try, and sometimes, just sometimes, you meet someone who understands that. I think you’ve “met” quite a few of those people here, people who read the Spectrum with your article and thought, “Yep, I know how that feels.”

Tom