Tag: stigma

To understand autism, don’t look away

Carina Morillo shares her story as the mother of a son with autism through a TedTalk. The video is in Spanish with English subtitles; a transcript in English and Spanish is available as well. Morillo’s 15 year old son, Ivan, was diagnosed when he was two and a half and at that time, his parents did not have access to internet information or expert advice about autism. Morillo describes how she learned to connect with her son through activities he enjoyed and how she learned to appreciate and build upon his strengths, such as a strong visual memory, which became a basis for his communication through images. She describes support from a local grocer who gave her son a job that utilizes his passion for organizing items. Her message is that one does not need to be an expert to be curious and inclusive.

Eye contact is a part of the story and a metaphor for inclusion; some autistics might point out that insisting on eye contact can be distracting, even painful. However, the larger point of the story emphasizes valuing autistic abilities and working with their interests to create connection. This story can prompt a discussion that may challenge stereotypes about autism and expert systems of medicalization and treatment.

Speaking of Addiction

Dr. Meaghan Ruddy speaks on the importance of the language that health care providers choose to talk about drug addicts, specifically opioid addicts. She shares her story of when she critiqued the label “drug-seekers” in an emergency department that had many such cases. Dr. Ruddy then calls for a focus on destigmatization for drug addiction in future generations of medical professionals. Relevant to pre-med, medical students.

Tourette Syndrome: The biomedical and the literary.

The blog “According to the Arts” is written for the general public. The posts juxtapose a medical description of an illness or disability, in this case Tourette Syndrome, with a novel in which one of the main characters exhibits the condition. The novel captures the signs and symptoms, and describes how Tourette syndrome can affect lives of people living with Tourette and of living with someone who has it. The biomedical text from a neurology journal describes the characteristic tics and behaviors. Comparing the story to the medical account shows the science vs humanities perspectives on illness and could be useful for undergraduate classes in health humanities, especially ones focused on writing. Also useful for health professions students and professionals to emphasize the human factors often missed in clinical encounters.