What Is Autism? The Myths, And What Actually Explains Us

What is autism? Not a list of deficits. In this video I explain what autism actually is, why the best-known theories about Autistic people are wrong, and which ideas genuinely explain Autistic life.

Most explanations of autism still rest on research from the 1980s and 1990s that has since been challenged or abandoned; theory of mind, weak central coherence, and the extreme male brain theory. I take all three apart, then walk through the frameworks that do the job properly: monotropism, the double empathy problem, energy accounting, Autistic burnout, and the ecosystemic model of distress. Most of these came from Autistic researchers and Autistic communities rather than from outside observers.

This is written for anyone; newly identified Autistic adults, parents, partners, teachers, clinicians, and people who simply want a better answer than the one they were given. I am David Gray-Hammond, an Autistic author and founder of NeuroHub Community.

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MORE FROM NEUROHUB COMMUNITY
Website and Learning Hub: https://neurohubcommunity.org
Substack: https://news.neurohubcommunity.org
Events and training: https://neurohubcommunity.org/events-meets/ Books by David Gray-Hammond, including A Guide to Autism and Psychosis, The New Normal, and Re-Storying Autism (with Helen Edgar): https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/David-Gray-Hammond/author/B0BL784LTZ

If this video gave you language you did not have before, subscribe; there is a lot more where this came from. And tell me in the comments which idea you wish you had been handed twenty years earlier.

#WhatIsAutism #ActuallyAutistic #Monotropism