A new picture of autism is emerging | Reacting to Neuroscientist Gina Rippon
Added 2025-08-01 13:00:23 +0000 UTC
Comments
I read this book a few months ago! I liked it. “Off the Spectrum” is the U.S. title, yes, and I don’t like the red and blue cover, either. I do see strongly contrasting colors or fluorescent colors like they’re sort of jumping around. I didn’t used to as a kid, but in college I had an art professor who taught us this as part of a project and after that I started noticing it.
Gina Delfina
2026-03-03 02:16:25 +0000 UTCI felt so seen when you described the difference between you and your son at school, I dont have many memories of the first 10 years of my life but I have some core ones of the first year I settled in the school I would be staying for another 6, and I remember it was a disaster from my perspective. I didn't know how to make friends, I knew I really wanted to but I looked at everyone and thought "how does this even work". I dont remember having a group of friends, ever, I remember trying to get close to one or two people, the only ones who wouldnt find me weird, and get on with it. But in my head it felt so lonely, and at the same time it's like there wasnt enough space to socialize cause I too sometimes would isolate myself as a need, cause there was so much stuff in mind I couldnt possibly convince everyone to play inside that world I had created. To know that there are children that simply make friends and are liked by everyone is insane to me 😭 and I know that's mostly the norm !! But my sibling being neurodivergent, and my mother having had the exact situation as me.. made me think the norm was my family, like seeing my sibling getting through even worse stuff because of adhd was painful and at the same time, oh yeah how did I expect for it to go It's sad that this was our reality
Giorgia Marcia
2026-02-09 10:52:01 +0000 UTCI don't have kids but I really relate to what Meg was saying, I never understood how some people just loved school? I felt thrown into a group of people and just expected to get on with it (it was the early 70s in a backwater) and I just felt like an alien, while everyone found their friends and related to eachother. I was eager to learn and had looked forward to it and I was so disappointed how immature and childish and cruel most of the others were, bullying started early, and everyone seemed to do their best to get out of learning. "A pleasure to have in class, never any trouble." Meltdowns didn't happen until I left home at 16, coz behaviour like that was unforgivable and not tolerated. Socialised as a girl; but really what we now call agender/non binary. I don't have an official diagnosis, but I suspect I could be, not only for the severe episodes of burnout from my early 20s.
Ellis
2025-12-23 23:39:08 +0000 UTCSomething I learnt about / discovered when I went for a recent eye check - the high contrast/repetitive patterns making your eyes "go funny" / making you feel a bit nauseous could be due to something called 'pattern glare'. People with ASD are apparently more likely to experience pattern glare compared to the general population. It's due to 'hyper-excitability within the visual cortex of the brain' - basically, a difference in visual/sensory processing.
Meg O
2025-12-13 10:57:43 +0000 UTCIm ok with the pattern of the book but I dont like the colors 😕
Lance Cee
2025-11-11 21:01:54 +0000 UTCMy sister is hyposensitive to her own presentation, but quick to critisise others, whereas i am hyersensitive - super self conscious. She is loud and extraverted- announcing her arrival to the room, i'll try and sneak in unnoticed! I've discussed us being autistic (self diagnosed, I couldn't bear to be externally judged on all my misgivings!) with her and she agrees , but when i try to explain my discomfort in social situations she still doesn't get it! She'll ask me why i feel so self conscious when she doesn't give a s**t what anyone thinks :D
Jo Lamb
2025-09-26 21:32:38 +0000 UTCWho signed off on that damn cover! Yes it’s very awful not disability friendly at all!
Kristel
2025-09-08 13:14:56 +0000 UTCThere can be debate weather the proclivity towards one or the other is nature or nurture, but I feel autistic people either being hyper vigilant over or giving zero F's about it are both at their core trauma responses to growing up in an allistic world.
SixOffCenter
2025-08-11 02:21:48 +0000 UTCAm I the only person who rolls their eyes when Simon Baron-Cohen is still called an autism expert instead of an autism expert who got it wrong and may have single-handedly been the reason why so many autistic girls were missed?
Shyāmalā Devī
2025-08-10 12:22:03 +0000 UTCGlad it's not just me, but sorry it does that to you too! 😭 And oh nooo - that's ridiculous! I'll look into that - thank you 💛
I'm Autistic, Now What
2025-08-07 21:41:00 +0000 UTCIt was very interesting and yes, the cover seems to melt my brain. I hope the patreon auto-generated subtitles will be improved, as they often switch to another language that is definitely not English... Fortunately for me, I can still watch it. It just requires a lot more concentration
Wolxies
2025-08-07 12:44:24 +0000 UTC
