I wrote about life expectancy for autistics a few years, and I referred to a disturbing Swedish study. Tatja Hirvikoski at Karolinska Institute had compared deaths in the Swedish population over the last 20 years, and found that the average age for the general population was 70 years, while it was 54 years for autistics, and only 40 for people that had both autism and a learning difficulty. The two main factors were suicide and epilepsy, but the study also showed an increased risk of cancer and heart disease with autism.
This is of course highly preventable. I wrote the other post on my Norwegian blog and it’s still among my three or four most popular posts every year, which indicates that this concerns people, as it should. I don’t know about an equivalent study for NLD, but it’s probably not much different. It may even be worse. The symptoms known as NLD were described by Helmer Myklebust and Doris Johnson already in 1967. There is a lot of overlap with ADHD and Asberger syndrome, but NLD is still not an official diagnose, which means that getting help is hard.
Someone recently reminded me of the post A Sudden Death in Psychology Today. It was something several members of an NLD group on Facebook wrote together after one of its members had died unexpectedly. There are many reasons why I write about NLD. It can be very confusing growing up with NLD, but even worse when you’re not at ease with life. We are being told that being different is a good thing. Society appreciates different and otherness, right? That’s the official story, but the truth is that you need the right kind of otherness, you have to be different in the right way, in the places society has sanctioned. That’s how it frequently feels at least.
The Swedish study is alarming, but it also tells us that there is a lot to gain from educating people. People with a diagnose need to learn life skills and how to manage with these challenges, while the rest need to learn to include us. In some ways it’s about how many society wants to include, what kind of society we want. The main focus at the moment seems to be to add to the confusion, which I think is the result of a lot of the gender and sexual orientation issues.
It’s easy to say that we not only accept otherness, but that we need it too. We need people that have the drive and perspective many people with these symptoms can offer, but that doesn’t mean anything if no one is willing to employ us. Besides, how many geniuses are there really? Why is society not willing to assume more responsibility? That’s exactly what we are talking about, the general attitude is irresponsible.
I am more 