Oh, She Came For Our ‘Tism
Yet she doesn’t even know what Autism?is…
It’s called accountability
Many of you may have heard about the aptly named “Dr. Barbie” being chased off TikTok by the #ActuallyAutistic community. Thank you, fellow Autists, by the way!
A brief summary of events: a highly problematic psychologist named Dr. Colleen Long decided to show up on social media and call out everyone who is self-diagnosed Autistic or has an atypical presentation of autism.
She then blocked anyone who disagreed with her while claiming to want “open dialogue”, and eventually shut down her accounts.
Why am I being immediately pejorative, when I generally try to stick to the science, with just a side of snark and sarcasm?
Dr. Barbie got called out on the clock app, so she decided to head over to Medium to cry “woe is me”, claiming to have been cyber-bullied. Even more ridiculous, Dr. Barbie claims that calling her by such a moniker and saying she has white privilege (which, yes honey, we do) is racist.
Not only does Dr. Barbie not understand autism, she clearly doesn’t understand racism either.
I’m going to try to educate Dr. Colleen Long, and we’ll see how long until she either doubles down on playing the victim, or simply quits Medium to avoid accountability too.
Masking is not a personality disorder
Dr. Long is probably a proponent of ABA therapy and other forms of behaviourism, so she should know that psychologists like her push parents into forcing their children to behave as “normal” as possible.
Dr. Long mentioned in one of her videos (which have since been removed) that signs of autism are usually noticed around age 2 or 3. Taking her word for it, this means parents are being encouraged to “train” their Autistic toddlers to mask from an extremely young age.
Don’t flap. Don’t stim. Don’t spin. Don’t rock. Don’t echo. Use your words — but not those ones! Look me in the eyes when I’m speaking to you. Social skills training, rewards and punishment, behaviour therapies — all “for the good” of the child, so they can “fit in” better with their neurotypical (NT) peers.
So, Dr. Long, I have a question for you. When a person has had nearly every Autistic behaviour beaten out of them (either literally or proverbially in the form of various carrots and sticks), and learns to “pass” as a just kinda weird NT kid, what do you call that?
Because I (and many experts) call that trauma caused by a childhood filled with behaviour therapies, leading to masking as a form of fawning, a necessity to keep oneself safe.
But you’re a psychologist, right? You don’t want to take my word for it, and apparently you don’t want to listen to the Autistic community at all, so perhaps you’ll listen to the researchers who have published peer-reviewed articles demonstrating exactly what I — and many Autistics — have described.
Interestingly, a reference section is conspicuously absent from any of your social media posts, and there aren’t any citations in your recent Medium article.
Gaslighting won’t get you?far
In your blog post you said, “individuals with genuine Autism often struggle to advocate for themselves”. That’s a neat trick. We can’t be Autistic if we stand up for ourselves, so we’d better not hold you accountable for your harmful comments and misinformation, is that how that’s supposed to go?
To further illustrate your appallingly deficient knowledge of Autism, you clearly failed to grasp that Autistics often have very strong justice sensitivity — even when it was coming right at you!
That “cyberbullying” you claim to have experienced (most were politely and intelligently disagreeing with you, and those Autistics are who you chose to block) were symptomatic of that justice sensitivity having been ignited.
Not surprising when you are trying to invalidate and erase an entire subset of the autism community. (Not to mention, research has shown a strong correlation between accurate formal diagnosis and accurate self-diagnosis).
You further attempt to gaslight us by claiming we must have personality disorders because we have difficulty with relationships and identity diffusion.
We can’t possibly be Autistic, and we also shouldn’t be believed when we call you out on your harmful behaviour, because we all have personality disorders. I wonder if you’ve ever been assessed for a personality disorder yourself, Dr. Long?
Being ourselves was a shit time and a grand failure because people treated us like shit for it, as you’ve helped demonstrate. Many of us were punished and bullied to the point of developing an unstable sense of identity. Not only was being ourselves not good enough, it wasn’t even safe.
By the way, Dr. Barbie, most of the people you’re gaslighting are female, female-presenting, or from an otherwise marginalized group. You should know (you clearly don’t, but you should) it’s been clearly demonstrated that a gender bias exists when diagnosing personality disorders.
This has been demonstrated in the literature for over twenty years, and has since been confirmed and corroborated.
Co-occurring conditions
Lastly, Dr. Long, you oversimplify the deep understanding many of us have (which you clearly lack) of conditions which commonly co-occur with Autism (perhaps you prefer the pathologizing term, comorbidities).
You state, “There are tik tok videos stating that things such as disliking velvet, hating big spoons, or bumping into walls could be signs you have autism.”
Those are examples of sensory issues and challenges with proprioception. I mean, hypo- and hyper- reactivity to sensory input are even right there in the DSM-V-TR from which you so religiously quote.
There’s also plenty of research demonstrating that Autistic children struggle with visual-motor integration (VMI), interoception, and proprioception. Once again, you should know this.
You state in the closing of your blog post, “Let us foster an environment where professionals can share their expertise without fear, ensuring that those in need receive accurate diagnoses and appropriate care”.
You would be wise to remember that your clients and patients are the first experts in their own experiences. When you refuse to listen to the communities you are supposed to support, you are making it impossible for people to receive accurate diagnoses or appropriate care.
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No one can receive appropriate care from any professional who doesn’t believe their clients, who refuses to learn and grow when the research finally begins to catch up with people’s lived experiences.
Unless and until you humble yourself and accept that you are not an expert on autism — far from it — you will continue to pose a danger to the Autistic community and to your patients.
Do better. Do better, or find a new career.
Jillian Enright, CYW, BA Psych.?
? Neurodiversity MB
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