How Filipino Culture Treats People With ASD: Navigating Autism as an Adult without Many Resources Pt 1 of 2

Guest Blogger: Job Brisby Eloja

Imagine living in a world that you grew up in but feels like you don’t belong there. Everyone thinks you’re an alien. Everything you do seems to be wrong. You try to function as a ‘normal’ person, but you keep realizing that there is something off about your behavior. 

Yet everyone expects you to function normally, to see the world as they do. You struggle to adapt, but you keep failing. Over and over and over again. Every single day is a battle to change yourself into ‘normal’. 

That is my experience. That is a glimpse of what it’s like to live with ASD in the Philippines. Especially as a family man like myself.

Neurodivergence in Filipino culture

In a general sense, neurodivergence is not even a huge thing in the Philippines except for a few special interest groups. Most of these are advocacy and support groups for parents of children with autism. While the situation is not as bad as it was decades ago, support for neurodivergent individuals still leaves a lot to be desired.

In particular, there are no support or advocacy groups for neurodivergent adults. Most groups comprise neurotypical parents with neurodivergent children. Some of those parents may well be neurodivergent themselves – they just don’t know it yet. There are lots more adults with undiagnosed autism than one might expect.

Here’s the worse part. Filipino adults in the spectrum face this strong stigma. The very word autistic, in Filipino culture, is almost equivalent to abnormal. When the typical Filipino sees a person with autism, the first thought that comes to mind is, “That person is abnormal.” 

In this culture, people with autism are not expected to function as productive members of society. Even if they are, the wider society still views them as more bothersome than good. Some people would even suggest they should be institutionalized – as if autism and other neurodivergent traits are mental illnesses. They’re not; they are neurodevelopmental disorders. In other words, the brains and nervous systems of neurodivergent people function differently.   

Evidently, most Filipinos still have an inaccurate view of neurodivergent individuals. They think that our quirks are “just in your head” and we can change ourselves as easily as others can. Many people here still do not realize how our brains are wired differently from everyone else’s. As such, it’s not something that can be “fixed”. We have to manage it and live with it.

To ask us to act like “normal” people is like asking crippled people to just grow new legs and walk. Can we grow new brains and think “normally”? Based on what I know about neuroscience, the brain can rewire itself even in adulthood, but that doesn’t mean we can grow a completely new brain.

Cultural expectations

Typical men in the Philippines have this machismo culture embedded in them. A good man must be mentally tough, physically able, and emotionally resilient. Any man who has less than these qualities is labeled as weak at best, and not a real man at worst. 

Men in the autism spectrum will not fit the machismo mold. Outbursts and meltdowns certainly are not signs of emotional resilience. Shutdowns convey an impression of mental weakness, not toughness. The lack of social skills may even give an impression of physical disability. And many more. In short, autism is fundamentally incompatible with machismo culture.

In other words, it’s as good as saying if you’re a man and you have autism, you are weak and good for nothing.