Autism can make you a better therapist, Starbucks can make you an overly generous money lender
Also, head injuries can make you an asshole
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Therapists say autism makes them better at their job
Someone very close to me is on the autism spectrum so it’s on my mind a lot. I’m beginning to reconsider my use of the term ASD, or autism spectrum disorder. Because there’s more evidence all the time that it’s not a disorder at all, just a different order than most people have. To call it a disorder seems ableist, especially after articles like this one in the Guardian about therapists with autism.
One therapist explains how, due to her autism, she can sense a lot of issues with a patient by first seeing them.
People with mirror-touch synaesthesia vicariously experience other people’s emotional and physical sensations in their own bodies. The condition, which is believed to affect 2% of the general population, varies from person to person: it can mean individuals feel the same sensation – like touch – in the same part of the body that another person feels the sensation. Others describe it as an “echo” of the touch.
Some clients, understandably, are disconcerted by Jones’s reading of their issues. “But once I explain what it is and it makes rational sense to them – rather than it seeming frightening or paranormal – they usually feel completely elated that someone gets them on that kind of deep level.”
…
Like Jones, Nadia feels her autism has meant she is better at her job. “Despite the common myth that autistic individuals don’t have empathy, I find the opposite, in that I can really connect with the people I work with, and can feel what they feel,” she says. “My brain is quite analytical and notices patterns, which can be helpful in various phases of therapy (assessment, formulation, treatment). I also find clinical conversations a lot easier to have compared with generic, informal small talk.”
But Nadia is also worried that divulging her neurodiversity to colleagues could wreck her career. “There can be a lot of misconceptions about autism, and I worry others will assume I am not competent or capable, that I cannot communicate with others,” she says.
EDIT: I removed some stock photography and descriptions of puzzle piece iconography in this item about people on the autism spectrum. I understand that these symbols are hurtful to some people and I don’t want to be a part of that.
Asshole
Next Monday’s episode of Depresh Mode will feature an interview with Drew Magary. He’s a writer for Defector and SF Gate, author of the memoir The Night The Lights Went Out, and not an asshole anymore.
But he was an asshole for a while. Drew suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2018, was in a coma for a while, and then recovered enough to go home to be with his wife and kids. The problem: he became an asshole. Just snapping at everyone, self-important, severely deficient in empathy. So in the interview and in the book, he tells the story of how he came to understand his condition, how he worked with a therapist, and how he stopped being such an asshole.
I’m really glad to be working in podcasting because I think “asshole” is exactly the right word to use to describe him. Maybe “real piece of shit” would work but then you’d be up against the same cuss word problem.
BUT PEOPLE CAN CHANGE:
On the subject of lights going out
MS. VICKI LAWRENCE AND WHY IN THE WORLD IS SHE ON A BEACH?
AND SINGING A SONG ABOUT HANGING?
I talked with someone who talked with me before
On THIS week’s show, we have Jen Kirkman, who is lovely in every way.
I should also note that I was on HER show, Anxiety Bites, recently and I was very happy with how that turned out.