As a child, I was never a wanderer ( as many autistic children are), which put me at a low risk for drowning and other related deaths. Not because I’m “higher-functioning” or because my autism is mild, but because I happened to be born into a certain body and a certain set of circumstances.įor example, the study that CNN cites, “Injury Mortality in Individuals With Autism,” primarily focuses on - as you can guess from the title - death from injury. Before that happens here, let me say that, yes, I am probably at a lower risk of death than many autistic people. Second, whenever I write about autism, there’s always someone who shows up to point out that I’m not really autistic enough to count or that I’m not the kind of autistic person that people are thinking about when they think of the tragedies and pressures that face people on the spectrum.īecause I can speak, work, and maintain a semblance of a social life - and because I am able to hide my most severe symptoms from other people - they assume that I am too “high-functioning” to be considered autistic. By “positive,” though, I mean “studies that determined autistic people live longer, on average, than 36, but still found that we die significantly earlier than our non-autistic counterparts.” One says 39 is the average life span another says 54. If you think I’m being overly dramatic by picking one that appears to cite the youngest age, here are some other recent studies with more positive results. First: Not all studies on autism and mortality agree on the average age of our deaths. Here’s why that number is so low - and all the ways I’m lucky to have made it to 36 I want the fact that autistic people die so much earlier than the average American to scare the shit out of you too. The bad news is that living while autistic doesn’t always leave one with much energy to write all of the meaningful things that you want to write to improve your life and the lives of other people like you. The good news is that I have officially, as of 8:35 am Eastern on February 7, made it. Once I did, I needed to do something to mark this morbid accomplishment - perhaps writing something to help the next generation of autists approach their own birthdays just a little easier. Still, the figure from the research journal haunted me.Īt some point between that moment and now, I made a pair of promises to myself:Ģ. The average age of death for autistic people who live to adulthood might be older than 36 (and as of now, there is still no age-specific data). It’s been a lot like a midlife crisis - except that (I kept thinking) my own midlife might have happened as long as half my life ago. I’ve had more existential episodes than usual, brooding about the meaning of life. Since I learned this news, I’ve been anticipating the milestone of turning 36 with a mix of confusion, dread, and a host of other feelings I can’t quite articulate. I know how dire things can be for so many of us on the spectrum, but that number struck me for a very specific reason. On March 21, 2017, CNN published an article on a new study from the American Journal of Public Health that found the average life span of an autistic person is 36 years.
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