Thread by @Richard_Autism

@DrJessTaylor Should a person always be held accountable because they chose to do an act?

For example, some autistic persons are innocent of some charges because they did not mean to do it, like not meaning to harass someone, i.e. they lacked "criminal intent".

@DrJessTaylor From my understanding most/ all persons who are carrying resolved trauma/ still affected by trauma will have issues regulating their arousal levels.

A highly aroused person will process information more slowly, make more emotive decisions...

@DrJessTaylor Highly aroused persons are more likely to display distress behaviours, some of these are quite extreme. People, who are sometimes panicking maybe violent/ self-harm/ threaten voilence & self-harm etc.

image from here, p7
pdasociety.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

@DrJessTaylor For some people, in some situations, expressing extreme behaviours like voilence, threats of self-harm etc, is the individual expressing their self-agency, after all other attempts to express their self-agency failed.

@DrJessTaylor If a person is expressing such distress behaviours ts likely because they have been stressed out by something.

Blaming someone for expressing such behaviours, without considering the context & potential triggers, risks invalidating their own lived experience

@DrJessTaylor Point Im trying to make is that persons will often work through certain behaviours to express their self agency when they are stressed. More distressed a person is, the more "difficult"/ extreme the behaviours being displayed to exert their self-agency.

@DrJessTaylor An example of low-key behaviours some people express to assert their self-agency while being slightly uncomfortable can be seen these investors being uncomfortable with someone discussing bras & women's bodies
bbc.co.uk/news/av/busine…

@DrJessTaylor So the behaviours the male investors displayed were: rustling in seats, coughing, and avoiding the topic and asking other questions.

Some persons when expressing certain behaviours, when highly aroused, are not always going thinking logically, or rationally.

@DrJessTaylor I also have to ask, if you have come across the Controllability Beliefs Scale. It is useful, as people tend to be have less empathy for those who they think are control of their actions.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…

@DrJessTaylor I would also have to ask if you have come across the concept of double empathy problem. In which social communication issues are the result in a breakdown in social interactions between in any type of people.
kar.kent.ac.uk/62639/1/Double…

@DrJessTaylor There is a growing body of evidence indicating this is an issue for non-autistic people interacting with autistic persons. That non-autistic persons often struggle to appropriately interpret autistic persons. For instance
link.springer.com/article/10.100…

@DrJessTaylor While many autistic persons, disagree with autism being diagnosed as a mental disorder, sometimes it is actually important and arguably needed in some contexts. E.g. an autism diagnosis can be beneficial in the court proceedings.
doi.org/10.1080/106831…

@DrJessTaylor So for me as an autistic person, if I was in the CJS, the only way for me to gain adequate support and understanding is because of my autism diagnosis.

Blanketly discarding mental disorders, would actually be detrimental for some persons, in some situations

@DrJessTaylor I accept the many substantial issues with mental disorders (I detail some of them in a submitted book chapter). I have written about the problems pathologising autism can cause.

I accept it is potentially possible to move away from using mental disorders.