I’m Pretty Hopeful, Actually

I am. I feel like therapeutic and educational practices have shifted towards an overall more kind direction towards autistic clients as compared to just a few years ago. Part of that is me being a less cynical person now, but a lot isn’t.

I know a lot of generally content autistic kids and adults. I have seen the protective effects of caregivers striving to do right by their autistic kids. I have seen how rest and leisure can act as a reset and restart for the linguistic, socioemotional, and/or executive functioning developmental progress of autistic people who seem to have “flatlined” in some respect. I have seen autistic kids within these systems and structures working against them who have experienced the worst of it come out the other side, albeit not unscathed—but with time and space to process, they can eventually end up stronger for it.

I look around at now in the state of MA, where the autism industrial complex is still alive and kicking, and things are different than they were when I first moved here 4.5 years ago. Not radically different, but the needle is moving forward a little. I think parents of autistic kids are the ones to thank for advocating for their children, and every now and then a school team member is open-minded. A path to systemic change has at least started.

I don’t go on autism and therapist social media much, but when I do, it makes me sad. It throws back at me a warped version of reality. People are mean and alarmist in a way that they wouldn’t dare be in real life. Even the kind posts are telling you another something to worry about.

None of this is easy. It’s quite hard, in fact. Being autistic is harder than not being autistic. It just is—for a whole host of reasons. Some of that will change over time. Some things we work with or work around. It’s possible. I’ve seen it. We aren’t inherently doomed from the start.

Autistic people and those that support autistic people have limitless potential. So that’s why I am pretty hopeful.