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If you teach this to children while their brains are young and have high plasticity, they might "grow out" of many autistic symptoms entirely?

>>klipt+(OP)
You don't grow out of it as much as learn to manage it, this requires that you develop some form of executive function though. In my case I was forcefully required to be responsible for my younger brother (when I was 7) and so learned out of necessity -- but this led to a lifetime of resentment and so I don't recommend it as a solution.

>>klipt+(OP)
I don't know the neurological mechanisms behind autism, but I know that ADHD is, briefly, defined by a reduction of dopamine receptors across your brain.

The brain is neuroplastic, especially when young, but I doubt you can just influence the growth of significantly more dopamine receptors out of pure willpower and habit-forming; especially given that ADHD disrupts those two facilities.

This is in part why dopaminergic drugs such as Adderall work so well, and why dopamine/reward-center disruption due to childhood trauma can have such a negative impact on one's ADHD symptoms.

Again, I don't know how much this applies back to autism, but it has definitely been a bane of my existence constantly explaining to people why I can't just meditate, habit-form or diet or exercise away my symptoms.

These things help, as does directed research and experimentation with what does and doesn't work for me, and because of my ADHD these things are integral to my ability to function as an adult in this insanely complex and stressful world. And it's definitely made a difference in how I manage my symptoms, especially when I look at how my siblings don't manage theirs and lack basic coping mechanisms.

But I frequently run into people who arrogantly assume I've never even heard of meditation, or that I have a bad diet, etc. and offer them up as panaceas. These people often get defensive and more arrogant whenever I try to explain to them that ADHD is not just some "mental block" or collection of bad habits that can be "fixed".

So yea... I also think we need to do way more clinical studies about the effects of teaching coping mechanisms at a young age, but I don't think autism is something that you can grow out of, there are likely specific underlying genetic and neurological factors that affect how much a specific individual can control or cope with their symptoms.

>>empres+n1
I was homeless by 16 and had no safety net, had to graduate high school on my own while living out of someone's garage, and generally take care of myself most of my life due to absentee, drug-addict parents, and I can tell you that this trauma only worsened my executive function by the time I had the privilege of being able to sit back and reflect from a place of security and comfort.

I'm sorry you have resentment issues... definitely get that.

>>soulof+o2
I get it.

Society is moving in the right direction at least. At one point, the bell curve had 3 sections: normal, genius, retarded. Now we have more gradients and some of them trigger help or maybe longer exam times.

This causes over-diagnosis and resentment. Coping mechanisms grow over time. It’s definitely better if you can appear neurotypical.

>>klipt+(OP)
I think so. If I had had somebody in my youth who taught me how to interact with people I am pretty sure I would have done much better. The worst for me was to notice that I don’t fit in and had nobody to help. It was extremely lonely and depressing. But I am also a pretty mild case and performed well in school and work. I am not sure how it would have worked with severe autism cases, for example non verbal people. That’s a different ballgame.

>>vjvjvj+h5
A common issue is that autistic children tend to have autistic parents and many autistic parents are sadly bad att helping their kids understanding social interactions.