I wrote an article back in February about a Huffington Post article I read on the mental health of Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein. An overwhelming amount of readers loved the article, but there were some who didn’t understand why autism was referred to as a mental illness. Some people even took it far enough to say rather harsh things online. That is what compelled me to write an article dissecting the autism debate: Is it a mental illness or not?
The simple answer is: there is no right or wrong answer. It is an ongoing debate in the health community. There is no clean and cut answer to if autism is a mental illness or not. It is fact that autism is a developmental disorder that does affect one’s mental health to some measures, considering children with autism are 28 times more likely to attempt suicide. Also, there is notable “self injurious” behavior that is very common among autistic people; between 20-30% of autistic people will self-harm in some way. Bullying is also a very common part of living with autism and there is undeniably a link between bullying and mental health struggles. A study found that 63% of 1,167 children with autism had been bullied at least at some point in their lives. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI, a very respected and credible organization in the health community) claims autism as a mental illness, even including an autism information page under their “mental health conditions” tab on their website. This is the relationship between autism and mental health, and it is a strong one.
For the sake of clarity, I would also like to discuss some of the feedback from my previous article. My article was not written with the intentions to diagnose a dead person, I even made that very clear:
“You may be wondering about what the point is in studying and uncovering a dead person’s mental health. It’s too late to be of some sort of help for them, but it could be a great help to all those currently living. Realizing that some of our most famous and beloved people in our history had suffered from mental illnesses can help to combat stigma and humanize mental illnesses. It makes the illnesses seem just a bit less scary; if Einstein could achieve such historic greatness than so can another Asperger’s sufferer. Studies like these also introduce new questions and understandings. They offer new insight on diagnosing, afterall how easy can it be to access a deceased person’s mental health? They also lead us to discover new links between mental illnesses and creativity. The Asperger’s end of the autism spectrum is now known to be in relation to scientific genius.”
Also, it wasn’t even my own research findings I was reporting on; I was writing an article based on the research of scientific journalist Claudia Kalb. Claudia Kalb has even written a book, Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities, where she discusses several iconic figures and their suggested mental health problems. She didn’t make any of her implications up, she actively studied old journals and interviewed mental-health experts about symptoms to correctly “diagnose” subjects, ranging from Marilyn Monroe to Albert Einstein to Charles Darwin to Andy Warhol. The Albert Einstein bit was even called a “classic argument”. Retrospective studies like these are very common too. Autism has always struck medical detective’s curiosities. Psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald has composed countless books implicating that more than 30 influential people were on the autism spectrum to some extent, from Lewis Carroll to Hans Christian Andersen. A 1996 best seller, Touched With Fire, explored manic depression and creativity, just like Kalb did in her research with Marilyn. There are lots of speculation surrounding such findings, which can be expected in this type of work. Kalb addressed that, putting emphasize on the fact that all the diagnoses are “speculative” in nature. They are based off of the “theories and thoughts of medical experts”. Kalb, and many others in this field of work, hope that their breakthroughs can be seen as educational and empathetic experiences.
Kalb says:
“My goal, I hope, is that by reading about these people, there’ll be some less stigmatization of mental-health disorders,” “We all struggle with all sorts … of things in our mind[s]. I found this a way to maybe relieve people a little bit — that if they are struggling, they are not alone.”
I said:
“Kalb also looked into Albert Einstein, arguably the smartest man to ever impact the science realm. Kalb thinks that is more than likely that Einstein had Asperger’s Syndrome. Studying his childhood and adulthood life, it became nearly crystal clear that he was on the autism spectrum. Asperger’s is a developmental disorder characterized by social awkwardness coupled with an extreme passion for one particular interest.”
So, no – I was never diagnosing Albert Einstein on my own research. I wasn’t trash talking the autism community or intentionally speaking over them. I respect what they said, and I don’t want to police how they identify themselves. I just simply wrote about what I read from reliable organizations. I wasn’t being ignorant. I’m a journalist, when I read an interesting study, it inspires me to write about it. Reading Kalb’s findings made me want to write an article about such influential work. I wrote the article with the main goal of using Einstein and Monroe as examples of favorable cultural icons who struggled with their mental health. As a mentally ill person, I know how comforting it is to see people, who many others look up to and admire, be mentally ill themselves.
“To see that these people weren’t held back by their illnesses (well at least not entirely) could provide hope and inspiration to others. You can still be smart and important if you have a mental illness, we learned that from Einstein. These developments directly work against stigma and for the mental health community. You can be mentally ill and still achieve wonderful things. Also, realize that your illness can make other contributions, artistic or scientific, and don’t hold those sides of yourself back.”
Overall, regardless whether you think autism is a mental illness or not, you do have to acknowledge that lots of autistic people have mental health problems. Therefore, autism does belong in the mental health community, that way organizations like NAMI can advocate for and support autistic people. There is lots of debate on whether autism is a mental illness or not, it is not a known fact that autism is not a mental illness. There is an ongoing debate and it is perfectly okay to participate in it, respectfully. Don’t put hardworking journalists through hell just for reporting their findings on a highly controversial subject, neither Kalb nor I deserve that.
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